Social diffusion patterns in three-dimensional virtual worlds

Received: 6 August 2003 Revised: 3 September 2003 Accepted: 12 September 2003 Abstract This paper presents a visualization tool set that can be used to visualize the evolution of three-dimensional (3D) virtual environments, the distribution of their virtual inhabitants over time and space, the formation and diffusion of groups, the influence of group leaders, and the environmental and social influences on chat and diffusion patterns for small (1–100 participants) but also rather large user groups (more than 100 participants). The techniques are applied to analyze and visualize data recorded during events in virtual worlds, as well as simulated data, but are also applicable to real-world data. Resulting visualizations can and have been used to ease social navigation in 3D virtual worlds, help evaluate and optimize the design of virtual worlds, and provide a means to study the communities evolving in virtual worlds. The visualizations are particularly valuable for analyzing events that are spread out in time and/or space or events that involve a very large number of participants. The paper reviews and builds upon research in information visualization, scientific visualization, geography, architecture, and social science. It discusses intended user groups and their tasks and how the proposed techniques support those tasks. Three dimensional virtual world technologies are briefly described before the visualization tool set is explained in detail together with sample applications. The paper concludes with a discussion of results and an outlook for future work. Information Visualization (2003) 2, 182–198. doi:10.1057/palgrave.ivs.9500050