Sociomapping

Sociomapping is a method developed for processing and visualization of large volumes and complex structures of data. It uses the data-landscape metaphor, creating a visually coded picture resembling a map that can be interpreted with similar rules as navigation in the landscape. This picture is called a Sociomap.

Due to its visual coding Sociomapping enables usage of learned skills for spatial orientation and movement detection, which he uses in everyday life. It allows simple monitoring of the change in the mapped system by visual comparison of two of its Sociomaps.

Sociomap types
There are two distinct types of Sociomaps - WIND and STORM.

WIND Sociomaps
WIND (stands for Weighted INverse Distance method) is a type of the Sociomap used most often for team analysis. Objects on the map are in most cases people from a team. Based on collected data, the distance between people can be intensity of communication (the closer they are, the more they communicate), or attitudes (liking, respect), or any other relational measure. The height can be an arbitrary variable (in most cases some performance indicator), such average quality of communication, volume of contracts, average importance to other members in the team, and so on.

Social network data can also be visualized with a Sociomap.

WIND Sociomaps can by produced from both direct and indirect data. In case of direct data subjects rate each other in chosen criteria while in case of indirect data the subjects are mapped based on the similarity of their profiles in chosen criteria.

STORM Sociomaps
These types of Sociomaps are used in political and marketing research (STORM stands for Subject To Object Relation Mapping). Data used for these types of maps are rectangular matrices, where each respondent rates preference of selected objects, such as political parties, brands, products, and so on. In order to create a Sociomap, for each object a position in the map is calculated, and all respondents (becoming a kind of granule) are placed on the map according to their preferences - the distances of the granule to objects is proportional to respondent's preferences of the objects. On the places in the map where more respondents gather, hills start to form, so the final Sociomap depicts typical configurations of preferences by hills formed under or between the objects (in this sense a STORM Sociomap is a data mining approach based on visual pattern recognition).

In the following step, undecided voters or customers (the hills between the objects) can be visualized and analyzed. This type of analysis therefore enables to visualize preferences and target specific groups of respondents with similar preferences or attitudes.

Areas of Application
Sociomaps has following Areas of Application both commercial and non-commercial.


 * Historical events analysis (eg. Titanic survival rate)
 * Internet community tools (eg. Last.fm profile similarity)
 * Literature analysis (eg. analysis of communication in [[Shakespeare plays)
 * Marketing effectiveness
 * Military units and human spaceflight crews analysis
 * Sport analysis and forecast (eg. cooperation of sport teams)
 * Politics analysis and forecast
 * Team building effectiveness
 * Team analysis (communication, cooperation, decision-making)

Sociomapping 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 tests and biographical data. It can be used for team analysis and development: team coaching, team building, recruitment etc.