Ecosystem Analyzer: An Overview
The Ecosystem Analyzer is where your relational data comes to life. With the ability to map networks and relationships, engage in social network analysis, create charts, tables, and GIS maps of your network, there are dozens of ways to explore your data and generate actionable insights.
This article will give an introduction to the four tabs within the ecosystem analyzer and share some initial tips for getting started with this powerful tool for network analysis. The articles that follow provide more specific instructions on various ways to map and analyze your network.
Once you open the analyzer, use the analyzer navigation menu at the top right of the page to switch between modules.
To explore data from one survey or only one network in greater detail, open the analyzer within that specific survey or form.
Overview of the Network Analyzer
There are four main areas within the ecosystem analyzer. Each provides a different set of tools for analyzing and interpreting your relational data. They are reached using the Analyzer navigation menu, which appears directly above the analyzer window on the left. Here is a brief overview of the four sections.
1. Network Maps
The first area allows you to map your networks and use social network analysis methods and measures to generate unique insights and uncover new opportunities. The ecosystem analyzer lets you layer your relational and non-relational data to identify patterns and engage in multiple different types of analysis. The image below shows the Network Mapping module within the Analyzer.
On the left are menus for relationship settings (handhake icon), Node settings (nodes icon), and styling settings (paintbrush icon). These allow you to select how nodes and relationships display different types of data, filter out certain relationships or nodes, and change how they appear by color, thickness, and size.
On the right is your map legend, which shows what your node and relationship colors represent. Clicking a color or data option filters out those nodes or relationships as well.
You can minimize each menu or re-open them by clicking the two small arrows at the top.
There are also controls at the top of the Analyzer. The small node positioning button on the top left lets you lock the position of nodes or reset them. The navigation buttons on the right allow you to zoom in and out on the map, and re-center your network map. The camera button saves an image of your map you can download. The save button will soon allow you to save your map as a visualization to add to reports, profiles, and dashboards.
2. GIS Maps
The second module allows you to view your relationships over a place-based map with the option of adding additional data baes layers. This is a powerful way to identify gaps in representation in your network in certain neighborhoods and communities or quickly identify a partner to address a geographically-specific concern. Click "GIS Map" within the Analyzer navigation menu to open this module.
From here, you can use the same node and relationship map settings to alter the map's data, and the styling settings to change how the nodes and lines appear. The legend map will show your color representations and let you filter out options. The ability to save images and visualizations is in progress and coming soon.
3. Network Scores
Your network scores are all accessible within the third module. You can sort the scores of individual ecosystem members to find those with high centrality, trust, value, etc. You can also view your network-wide scores for network comparisons and export your scores for further analysis in a spreadshe
To populate trust and value scores and sub-scores, you must used the "PARTNER Provided" Questions, available to all users. Visit the question library, click Add, and select the "PARTNER Provided" category. Choose the three trust questions and three value questions and send them all in your survey for the system to display the scores here and make them available in network maps, GIS maps, and charts and tables.
4. Charts & Tables
The Charts & Tables module is the fourth and final area of the analyzer. It allows you to create customized bar, column, and donut charts, crosstabs, and tables. These are best for analyzing non-relational data, identifying patterns, and sharing demographic data.
Charts: Select from one of three types of charts to display data based on question responses, member attributes, or network scores. Use the styling settings to change the labels and appearance of your charts. Click the save icon at the top right to save your chart as a visualization you can add to reports or member profiles.
Crosstabs: This powerful tool allows you to compare responses across your network according to two different attributes, question responses, or network scores, to identify patterns across your community partners. It is a quick and easy way to compare group responses by sector, focus area, type of engagement, or other attributes to see if there are significant differences or similarities across groups. The ability to add these graphs to your reports and profiles is in development and coming soon.
You can open the analyzer within an individual capture (network) to view and analyze data from that specific survey, with more in-depth options for exploring and filtering your data. Click "analyzer" in the top right corner of the screen within a capture (network) to access the network analyzer.
At the ecosystem analyzer level, your analysis options are more limited due to differences in survey data across members - but you can still map overall connections and layer attributes across all captures (networks) to map your overall ecosystem and see how it changes over time.
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