Sociomapping is a method developed for

processing Processing is a free graphical library and integrated development environment (IDE) built for the electronic arts, new media art, and visual design communities with the purpose of teaching non-programmers the fundamentals of computer programming ...

and

visualization Visualization or visualisation may refer to: * Visualization (graphics), the physical or imagining creation of images, diagrams, or animations to communicate a message * Data visualization, the graphic representation of data * Information visuali ...

of relational data (e.g. social network data). It is most commonly used for mapping the social structure within small teams (10-25 people). Sociomapping uses the landscape metaphor to display complex multi-dimensional data in a 3D

map A map is a symbolic depiction emphasizing relationships between elements of some space, such as objects, regions, or themes. Many maps are static, fixed to paper or some other durable medium, while others are dynamic or interactive. Although ...

, where individual objects are localized in such way that their distance on the map corresponds to their distance in the underlying data. Thanks to its visual coding Sociomapping engages our evolved skills for

spatial orientation In geometry, the orientation, angular position, attitude, bearing, or direction of an object such as a line, plane or rigid body is part of the description of how it is placed in the space it occupies. More specifically, it refers to the imagin ...

and movement detection, thus making the interpretation of complex data easy and accessible for everyone.

History

The sociomapping method was developed in 1993-1994 by R. Bahbouh as a tool that would facilitate understanding of data about social relations and help preventing conflicts within teams of military professionals. The first major application of sociomapping took place in 1994-1995 during the HUBES experiment (Human Behavior in Extended Spaceflight) – a 135-day-long simulation of a spaceflight with three crew members organized by European Space Agency. Sociomapping was then regularly used in other spaceflight simulations (1995-1996: EKOPSY, 1999: Mars105, 2010-2012:

Mars500 The MARS-500 mission was a psychosocial isolation experiment conducted between 2007 and 2011 by Russia, the European Space Agency, and China, in preparation for an unspecified future crewed spaceflight to the planet Mars. The experiment's f ...

). Since 2005, sociomapping has been extensively used in business environment to analyze relationships within senior management teams. In 2012, C. Höschl jr. developed Real Time Sociomapping^® software that enables instant visualization of the team dynamics and monitoring of the teams and social groups over time.

Basic principle

The basic principle of Sociomapping is transforming original data concerning a set of objects in such a way that the distance of each pair of objects on the map corresponds to the distance between the two objects in the underlying data. Transformation of the data is a matter of 1) choosing some metric that could be reasonably interpreted as distance, and 2) translating the multi-dimensional distance matrix into 2D coordinate system so that the correlation between map-distances and data-distances is maximized. The algorithm for data-transformation, developed by C. Höschl jr., is a dimensionality-reduction technique, such as PCA, and its goodness of fit can be measured by Spearman correlation between the map-distances and data-distances. Sociomapping takes into account that, particularly in case of social relations, relational data may be asymmetrical (e.g. John like Mary more than she likes him) and preserves this information by mapping the objects in such a way that for each object the closest other object is the one closest to it according to the metric of choice in the underlying data, and so on for other objects ordered by distance.

Application

There are two main areas of application for Sociomapping – groups (small systems) and populations (large systems). For each area a different method of visualization and data transformation is used in order to facilitate people’s ability to understand and interpret the analyzed data.

Groups and small systems

Sociomapping for small systems produces Sociomaps of subjects. These subjects (in most cases people) are placed on the Sociomap reflecting their distance measured in various ways: *

social distance In sociology, social distance describes the distance between individuals or social groups in society, including dimensions such as social class, race/ethnicity, gender or sexuality. Members of different groups mix less than members of the same g ...

* psychological distance (psychological similarity) * communication distance * other relation measures Besides the distances between the group members, Sociomap shows additional variable coded in the height (or color) of the subject. Typical variables used for the height are: social status, performance indicators of the subjects, average communication frequency, etc. Understanding the relative distances between the people helps to understand the structure of the group, find subgroups formed by groups members and discover functions of the group members. In connection to the height Sociomap enables complex and comprehensive insight into the groups and small systems. This is particularly beneficial for workplace strategists. Sociomapping of small systems produces similar results to

social network analysis Social network analysis (SNA) is the process of investigating social structures through the use of networks and graph theory. It characterizes networked structures in terms of ''nodes'' (individual actors, people, or things within the network) ...

with additional visualization features.

Profile analysis

Besides the small systems analysis based on various relational data, Sociomapping can be used to visualize the profiles of unrelated subjects. This is done by transformation of subjects' profiles, computing the distances between the profiles and visualizing them in a Sociomap. There is a software to compute Profile analysis (see section Sociomapping software).

Populations and large systems

For large systems and populations, different type of Sociomaps is used. Data used for these type of maps are rectangular

matrices Matrix most commonly refers to: * ''The Matrix'' (franchise), an American media franchise ** ''The Matrix'', a 1999 science-fiction action film ** "The Matrix", a fictional setting, a virtual reality environment, within ''The Matrix'' (franchis ...

, where for each subject there is a preference vector of selected objects (such as political parties,

brands A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...

products Product may refer to: Business * Product (business), an item that serves as a solution to a specific consumer problem. * Product (project management), a deliverable or set of deliverables that contribute to a business solution Mathematics * Produ ...

, and so on). In order to create a Sociomap, for each subject a position in the map is determined, and a small piece of mass representing this subject is placed on the map according to its vector of preferences to an object. As a result, there are places on the Sociomap where more subject are placed (hills) and where there are no subject (valleys). Therefore, hills are formed on the places representing typical preference configurations and this allows for visual cluster analysis, or segmentation. In this sense, Large systems Sociomapping is a data mining approach based on visual

pattern recognition Pattern recognition is the automated recognition of patterns and regularities in data. It has applications in statistical data analysis, signal processing, image analysis, information retrieval, bioinformatics, data compression, computer graphics ...

). Typical uses for Large systems Sociomapping are: * political research (preferences and polls) *

marketing research Marketing research is the systematic gathering, recording, and analysis of qualitative and quantitative data about issues relating to marketing products and services. The goal is to identify and assess how changing elements of the marketing mix i ...

(attitudes and product preferences) *

customer segmentation In marketing, market segmentation is the process of dividing a broad consumer or business market, normally consisting of existing and potential customers, into sub-groups of consumers (known as ''segments'') based on some type of shared charact ...

(behavioral patterns) * and other research concerned with preferences and/or attitudes.

Broader scope of application

Sociomapping has broader scope of application, including the following fields: *Historical events analysis (e.g.

RMS Titanic RMS ''Titanic'' was a British passenger liner, operated by the White Star Line, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United ...

survival rate) * Internet community tools (e.g.

Last.fm Last.fm is a music website founded in the United Kingdom in 2002. Using a music recommender system called "Audioscrobbler", Last.fm builds a detailed profile of each user's musical taste by recording details of the tracks the user listens to, e ...

br>
profile similarity) *

Literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

analysis (e.g. analysis of communication in

Shakespeare plays Shakespeare's plays are a canon of approximately 39 dramatic works written by English poet, playwright, and actor William Shakespeare. The exact number of plays—as well as their classifications as tragedy, history, comedy, or otherwise—is a ...

) *

Military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

units and human spaceflight crews analysis *

Sport Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, ...

analysis and forecast (e.g. cooperation of sport teams) *

Politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...

analysis and forecast *

Team building Team building is a collective term for various types of activities used to enhance social relations and define roles within teams, often involving collaborative tasks. It is distinct from team training, which is designed by a combine of business ...

*Team analysis (communication, cooperation, decision-making) *Leadership development *Team collaboration - remote collaboration or hybrid teams *Prevention of socio-pathological behavior among children at schools

Software

So far only one software tool based on Sociomapping was released. Team profile analyzer''

is a tool for psychologists, consultants, managers and HR specialists. It enables integration of various sources of information about team from personality, performance or knowledge psychological testing, tests and biographical data. It can be used for team analysis and development: team coaching,

team building Team building is a collective term for various types of activities used to enhance social relations and define roles within teams, often involving collaborative tasks. It is distinct from team training, which is designed by a combine of business ...

, recruitment etc.

References

Sociomapping Portal with information and resources about Sociomapping

The Application of Sociomapping to Executive Team Development

Utilization of multilayer network data of team for Sociomapping analysis
{{Social networking Cartography Social science methodology Social networks Methods in sociology