Simplifying complex network data collection.

The software is designed with fundamental ontological flexibility. Simply put, this means that we do not presuppose anything about the nature of your interview.

Researchers are free to define the nodes and edges of their interviews, their attributes, the sequence of data collection tasks, as well as the way these tasks are explained to the participant.

We believe that the presence of a trained interviewer who can facilitate the data collection task enables the collection of higher quality data.

The Network Canvas tools are therefore designed on the assumption that interviews occur in the presence of an interviewer, on an interviewer-controlled machine, and with the interviewer having been specifically trained in guiding the interview process.

Our software has been designed from the ground up to be as visually engaging and low burden as possible for participants.

We take design extremely seriously, and have drawn on HCI literature, as well as papers from the network analysis community, to create an interview experience that is simple for participants to understand, with clear, consistent, and tactile interactions guiding the data collection.

Simplifying the process of collecting complex structural data requires not just an interview tool, but also a tool for designing these interviews. Together, these tools provide an end-to-end workflow which lowers the costs (both material and technical) of collecting network data.

Importantly, our tools do not require a high degree of technical knowledge to operate. Rather, they allow researchers to focus on using their subject expertise to design an effective interview experience.

Key to sustaining this effort is input and collaboration with the community, both inside and outside of academia. For this reason, the network canvas tools are free to use and completely open-source (licensed under the GPL version 3).

We have implemented a community driven development program, and are eager to encourage feature development or other contributions from any interested third parties.