JP2002015095A - Method and apparatus for displaying connection relationship - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide information as much as possible with respect to the connection relationship while preventing an individual person and thing from being specified by the connection relationship of a network in the apparatus displaying the relationship between the person and the thing in the network. SOLUTION: Individual persons are grouped according to the attribute information. Group nodes A to D representing each group are displayed. The connection relationship between an individual person and a thing astride the groups is displayed as an arc between group nodes A to D. The connection relationship between the individual person and the thing in the group is expressed by the number of arcs between dummy nodes 300 in the group node.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a technique for displaying a relationship between members obtained by a questionnaire survey or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in the diagnosis and design of offices, the diagnosis and design of information systems in a company, and the diagnosis and design of organizations, the arrangement of physical resources and the superficial flow of information are conventionally considered. It has been captured and performed. However, the activities and information flows of the actual organization cannot be grasped only at the superficially visible part, and it is necessary to conduct a survey taking into account the activities and relationships of the people inside the organization. Diagnosis and design have begun to focus on the communication of those who are active there.

[0003] In order to investigate human communication, a registered questionnaire is often used. Network diagrams are often used to analyze and report communication survey results. In a network diagram, an individual is represented as a node, and a relationship between individuals is represented as an arc or an edge (hereinafter collectively referred to as an arc) as a connection relationship. Such a network diagram has an advantage that the relationship between individuals is easily understood visually. Analysis tools for creating and displaying such network diagrams are also known.

[0004]

In displaying such a network diagram, there is a problem that an individual can often be specified from the connection relation between the nodes. In order to avoid this problem, for example, when the nodes are collectively expressed as one node in a group unit or the like, there is a problem that information on internal connection relations such as communication within the organization is not displayed at all. Similarly,
Even when reporting or publishing the results of connection / relationship surveys / analyses between objects and information, it is only necessary to know the status of the overall connection, and individual objects and information can be identified. Can be bad.

In view of this problem, the present invention provides a connection relation display technology that can prevent the identification of individual persons and objects and provide a certain amount of information about the connection relation within a group in the results of a communication survey and the like. provide.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, when displaying a connection relationship between a plurality of members classified into a plurality of groups, each group is represented by a node, and each group is represented by a node. The connection relation between members belonging to a group is generated as an arc between nodes representing the group, and the connection relation between members belonging to the same group is determined based on the connection relation information between the members. Is generated, the generated nodes and arcs are displayed on a network, and the index values of the connection status in each group are displayed in association with the nodes corresponding to the group.

Here, the index value of the connection status in the group can be displayed by displaying the numerical value itself in or near the corresponding node, or the index value can be divided into several stages. Alternatively, a different symbol figure may be prepared for each stage, and the symbol figure may be displayed as a group node figure. Further, the members are not limited to people, and may be things, information, concepts, and the like.

According to this configuration, since the individual members and the direct connection relationship between the members are not displayed, it is possible to prevent a person who views the display from reading information about the individual members. Further, in this configuration, since the intra-group connection status is displayed in association with the nodes of the group, it is possible to provide some information on the intra-group connection status.

Further, according to the present invention, when displaying a connection relationship between a plurality of members classified into a plurality of groups, display areas which do not overlap each other are assigned to each group.
The nodes of the members belonging to each group are arranged in the display area, an arc is generated between the nodes of the members having the connection relationship, and the connection relationship between the members is displayed on the network, and then, according to an instruction from the user, For each group, an index value indicating the intra-group connection status is calculated from information on the connection relation between members in the group, and a group node representing each group is displayed over the display area of the corresponding group. The index value of the intra-group connection status is displayed in association with the node.

According to this configuration, the connection status can be analyzed in detail by the network display of the connection relationship between the members, and the group node is put on the network display on which the analysis is based to cover the individual nodes. By concealing the member information, it is possible to prevent the leakage of the information of the individual member at the time of reporting or disclosure. In this configuration, the presence / absence of a group node is basically different between the time of report / publication and the time of analysis, so that the analyst can easily understand the display for the report, and the analyst reports using the display for the report. The burden on the case can be reduced.

The present invention can be constructed by software using a computer system. In this case, the program describing the processing according to the present invention may be provided in a form recorded on, for example, a computer-readable recording medium. Computer-readable recording media include a computer-readable form such as a floppy (registered trademark) disk, a CD-ROM (compact disk-read only memory), a hard disk, and a ROM (read only memory). Includes all information recording media that records by the method. The program recorded on such a recording medium is loaded onto a main memory of a computer and executed by a CPU (Central Processing Unit) to achieve the above functions. In addition,
An embodiment of the present invention includes a form in which the above-described program is installed on a fixed disk device attached to a computer via a communication medium or loaded into a main memory and executed.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention (hereinafter referred to as embodiments) will be described below with reference to the drawings.

In the following, a description will be given of an example of an apparatus that totals questionnaires on the communication status between individuals in an organization and displays the results as a network diagram.
In this device, a network diagram showing the communication relationship of each person in the organization is created based on the questionnaire results. What is characteristic here is that, in the present embodiment, the connection relation between the nodes of the individual is concealed so that the individual cannot be identified in the network diagram, the connection relation between the groups to which the individual belongs, and the individual within the group. A network display consisting of a combination with the connection status is performed. FIG. 1 shows a display example of a network diagram according to the present embodiment. In this figure, each person is divided into four groups according to a predetermined grouping criterion, and the connection relation between the individuals is hidden by group nodes A to D representing those groups. For each of the group nodes A to D, a symbol figure indicating the degree of connection (communication) of each person in the corresponding group is used. The number of arcs (edges) between the nodes in the symbol figure represents the density of interconnection among individuals within the group. Further, an arc corresponding to each connection between a person included in one group and a person included in the other group is provided between the group nodes. Therefore, in this example, by looking at the number of arcs between the group nodes, it is possible to grasp the number of individual connections between the two groups.
Note that, in this display example, a directed (with arrow) arc is used, but this is because a meaningful relationship in the direction, such as “a partner who frequently consults”, is targeted.

According to such a display, since the connection relationship between the individuals is not directly represented, it is possible to prevent the individual from being specified from the display and exposing the privacy of the individual. In addition, this display can provide not only information collected in a group but also a certain amount of information on the connection status in the group.

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram showing a schematic configuration of the apparatus according to the present invention. In this device, information obtained through a questionnaire, an interview, or the like is stored as data in a storage unit 12 via an answer input processing unit 10. Specific implementation examples of the answer input processing unit 10 include a combination of a mark sheet paper and its reading machine (in the case of inputting a questionnaire of a paper questionnaire one by one) and a method for inputting the contents of the questionnaire. There is an interface program that operates on a computer terminal device or the like. When the questionnaire is conducted using an electronic medium such as an e-mail, the response input processing unit 10 can be realized by preparing a program for reading and analyzing the electronic information, for example. The electronic information analysis program may be, for example, a program that simply performs a process of extracting data according to a predetermined data arrangement or extraction rule from a sequence of character strings or the like, and is realized by a simple combination of known methods. be able to. Also,
Questionnaires may be conducted on a web screen, etc.
In this case, the answer input processing unit 10 has the answer input screen part on the computer side displaying the screen of the browser used by the input person, and the input information is stored in the server device connected via the network. Is sent to a predetermined processing program, and receives the same analysis processing as described above.
2 will be stored. In such a case, the answer input processing unit 10 functions by being arranged on separate physical devices via a network and connected via the network. It is clear that the processing units described below and the connection between the processing units also include a configuration that is connected via a network and operates in cooperation with each other. Hereinafter, the configuration via the network will be particularly described. Do not do.

The storage unit 12 functions to at least temporarily store and hold data. The basic role of the storage unit 12 is to store questionnaire response data captured via the response input processing unit 10, and to display various data of totaling and analysis results obtained from the data of these questionnaire response groups and the display image thereof. Or storing data. The storage unit 12 includes a semiconductor device such as a RAM, a storage medium such as a hard disk or a magneto-optical disk, and a mechanism for controlling storage and retrieval of data to and from the medium. Data can be stored and arranged in an array like a spreadsheet, stored as objects in various units, or stored as a set of information in a number of tables. realizable. There may be various modifications from a period in which the data is stored semi-permanently to a case in which the data is stored in the semiconductor memory only for the time required for the calculation / aggregation processing for display.

The tallying unit 14 performs necessary tallying processing on the answer data stored in the storage unit 12, from simple counting to statistical processing. Processing such as data counting can be realized by a simple program or the like, and statistical processing can be realized by incorporating at least various commercially available software. The aggregation processing unit 14 uses various existing data aggregation processing tools. Can be realized. This aggregation processing unit 14
Performs a totaling process for each group in response to a request from the visualization processing unit 20, which will be described later, in addition to the flow of general questionnaire response collection to data totaling.

The display unit 16 displays the information visualized by the visualization processing unit 20. Normally, the display unit 16 is a GUI displayed on a graphic display.
There may be a configuration for performing processing for printing on a medium such as paper. In the case of using a GUI, there may be a configuration in which an input is transmitted, the input is transmitted to the visualization processing unit 20, and the visualized information reflecting the input is obtained and displayed for interactive display. The GUI itself can be easily realized by using various commercially available GUI construction packages, and the processing for printing on a medium such as paper can be realized by at least converting a description from graphic information into a page description language. The conversion from graphic information directly to a raster image can be realized by using many known methods.

The operation section 18 is a means for the questionnaire analyst to input operation instructions and parameters for the tabulation processing and the visualization processing, and includes, for example, a keyboard and a pointing device.

The visualization processing unit 20 includes a grouping control unit 2
2, a network display generation unit 24 and a group node display generation unit 26 are provided.

The grouping control section 22 is a means for grouping each person of the organization to be analyzed. The grouping is performed based on attribute information of each person (for example, department, age group, job rank, etc.). Of course, the grouping is not limited to those focusing on the individual attribute items, but may be performed based on a combination of a plurality of items. Information read from a questionnaire response may be used as attribute information serving as a basis for grouping, or information of each person registered in a personal information database (not shown) provided separately. Setting information serving as a reference for grouping (attribute items of interest and threshold values thereof (values serving as delimiters for each group)) may be programmed in the grouping control unit 22 in advance. If the setting can be made interactively via, analysis and display can be performed while changing the viewpoint according to the intention of the user.

The network display generation section 24 is a means for generating a network representing the connection relationship between the individuals obtained by counting the questionnaire. In the present embodiment, first, the connection relationship between the individuals is displayed on a network, and then the connection relationship between the individual nodes is hidden by a group node, thereby preventing the individual from being specified. The network display generation unit 24 generates a display of the connection relation network between the persons in this procedure. In addition,
When arranging the nodes of the individuals, the network display generation unit 24 arranges the nodes of each person in the group densely so that the nodes of the individuals in the group and the arc between them can be covered by the group nodes later. For this reason, the network display generation unit 24 refers to the information on the grouping result of the grouping control unit 22 and determines the arrangement of the nodes of each person.

The group node display generator 26 is a means for generating a display of the group nodes of each group. For this reason, the group node display generation unit 26 requests the tally processing unit 14 to calculate the index value of the connection status of each individual in the group for each group, and according to the index value thus obtained. The symbol figure of the group node is determined. Then, the network display generation unit 24
By covering the area of each group with the group node in the network generated by the above, the nodes of the individual in the group and the connection relation between them are made invisible. When the arc between the individual nodes is a directed arc, the arrow of the arc indicating the connection between persons of different groups may be hidden by the group node. In such a case, the arrow mark may be redrawn at the intersection of the arc and the periphery of the group node.

The outline of the device configuration of the present embodiment has been described above. Next, the processing of the apparatus of the present embodiment will be described in detail using a simple case.

Here, an organization composed of a plurality of groups as shown in FIG. 3 will be described as an example. In the example of FIG.
The organization has four groups from A to D. Group A
Has four members Aa, Ab, Ac, and Ad. Group B has Ba,
Bb, Bc, 3 people, Group C has Ca, Cb, Cc, C
d, Ce, 5 people, Group D, 3 people, Da, Db, Dc,
Are respectively included.

In this organization, consider an example in which a questionnaire survey is conducted for each consultation partner at work. The questionnaire items and the like are given as a minimum example for explaining the mechanism of the present embodiment, but these questionnaire items and the like are changed, added, deleted, etc. as necessary and excluded. Not something. In addition, the method of obtaining information is not fixed to a questionnaire, nor is the method of interviewing or analyzing actual communication logs excluded.

FIG. 4 is an example of a questionnaire questionnaire used in this example. In Q1, up to three consulted individuals are asked, and the answer to this question will be used as processing in the following description as communication-related (connection-related) information. Q2 is a question prepared for the sake of explanation, and here, an example of a survey on awareness of obtaining information is used. Q3 is an inquiry about the information identifying the respondent (in this example, the name of the respondent, for example) and the group to which the respondent belongs. The information that identifies the respondent is not limited to the name, but may be any information that can identify the individual, such as an employee number or driver's license number.Individual attribute information such as the group to which the respondent belongs can be obtained by other methods If possible, it is easy to make changes that are omitted.

An answer is entered in such a survey form, and the answer is collected via, for example, mail or a network. The collected answers are stored in the answer input processing unit 1 shown in FIG.
0, is input into the apparatus, is shaped into a form suitable for processing, and is stored in the storage unit 12.

An example of the format of data stored in the storage unit 12 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 5 is a table showing the answers to the questionnaire Q1 and the answer to the questionnaire Q3. In this data structure, ID column 1
Reference numeral 00 denotes a column in which identification information (ID) of each person in the organization is registered. The ID is, for example, an integer value or the like assigned to each individual. Consultation partner column 104a-
Reference numeral 104c denotes a column in which the IDs of the first to third consultation partners who answered the questionnaire are registered. Conversion from an individual's name to an ID can be automatically performed using a separately prepared name-ID correspondence table. If the person appearing in the answer is not known in advance, an identification number is assigned manually or automatically to the name that appears in either the respondent name or the consultation partner name when counting the questionnaire responses To create a correspondence table, and the ID of each person appearing in the answer using this correspondence table
Can be sought. Further, a method in which a respondent or a consultant is answered by an ID instead of a name in a questionnaire may be used. The group column 102
The identification information of the group to which each person belongs is registered. Here, an example will be described in which character strings of group names “A”, “B”, “C”, and “D” are used as group identification information. Also,
The ratio columns 106a to 106c are obtained by answering as information accompanying the consultation partner in the survey form of FIG.
Here, it is a numerical value with a decimal point.

In this embodiment, the investigation of the consultation relationship between persons is taken as an example. However, the present invention is not necessarily limited to the consultation relationship, and it is not always necessary to ask only one kind of relationship. It is clear that there is none. It is also clear that the information attached to the information of the relation to be inquired is not limited to the “ratio”, nor does it need to be limited to each type. In addition, although the example of each data structure uses the example of a character string and a numerical value, the data type here is not fixed, and the example of the data structure in a table format is used to simplify the explanation of relational information. Although it is shown, it is also excluded from the scope of the present embodiment that a part is cut out as an object or the like and recorded as a network structure of the object, and a table form in which the relationship is cut out separately is also used. Not something.

FIG. 6 shows an example of the data structure of the result of counting the answers for Q2 in the survey form of FIG.
Here also, a simple table format is used, but it is possible to modify in various combinations as described above.
In addition, here, as the answer result of Q2,
In the column where "N)" is described, for example, a Boolean type corresponding to True or False according to whether the answer is Yes or No, or (1, 0)
Stores numerical values such as, and character information such as Y and N. Also in this part, various questions using various known question forms can be added or changed, and they are not excluded. In addition, for the added questions and the like, values are determined according to various known value allocation methods and stored in the storage unit 12.

The tallying unit 14 performs a predetermined tallying process on the data stored in the storage unit 12. Although various kinds of statistical processing may be used for this totaling processing, the processing method itself has little relation to the present embodiment, and therefore, only a case of a very simple totaling processing will be exemplified here.
Here, an example will be described in which the ratio of Y or N for each group to the answer of Q2 is calculated. In addition, the tally processing unit 14
Also performs processing on connection relationships inside and outside the group. As an example of the processing for the connection relationship, for example, there is a density calculation of the connection relationship between the people in the group. This number represents, for example, the relationship between Xx and Xy in group w as Z
Assuming that wxy is the number of persons in the group W and Nw, it can be calculated, for example, by the following formula (Zwxy takes 1 when there is a relationship from x to y, and takes 0 when there is no relationship).

[0033]

(Equation 1)

The density of the connection relation in the group thus obtained can be used as an index value of the connection state in the group.

In addition to this, there are various other methods for each group, such as calculating the direct connection between individuals in a group, calculating the centrality matrix, and counting the number of persons having a value equal to or higher than the threshold. A value can be obtained, and the processing result is stored in the storage unit 12.

The index value of the intra-group connection status obtained in this way is stored in a group information table for managing information of each group. The group information table is formed in the storage unit 12. FIG. 7 shows an example of the data structure of the group information table. Here, an example in which the information for each group is stored in a table format will be described, but it is obvious that the present invention is not limited to such a case.

First, the group information table has an ID column 200 for storing the ID for each group. If the table index or address information functions as a group ID, this area can be omitted. Further, a column 202 for storing the X and Y coordinates of the display position of the group node representing the group is provided. The display position of the group node is, for example, the grouping control unit 22
Thus, the lengths are determined so that they do not overlap each other, and have a sufficient length that is longer than the extent that the existence of the arc between the group nodes can be clearly recognized. The display position of the group node is
Since it can be determined by calculation each time of display based on the group ID or the like, the coordinate value column 202 is not necessarily required. Then, a column 204 for storing the number of persons belonging to the group is provided. Columns 206 and 208 contain Q
This is an area for storing the total value of the answer 2 (the total value of Y and N). The column 210 is an area for storing an index value of the connection status in the group. These areas are examples for explanation, and the number of storage areas and the type of data to be stored are not limited to those shown in FIG.

The visualization processing unit 20 generates a network diagram as illustrated in FIG. 1 based on such data and transmits it to the display unit 16.

In this process, first, the network display generation unit 24 draws a node representing each person and an arc representing a connection relationship (consultation relationship) therebetween, as in a normal network diagram. At this time, the node corresponding to each individual is
They are arranged so as not to be separated from the coordinate value of the group node set for the belonging group (see FIG. 7) by a predetermined distance (that is, corresponding to the radius of the group node).
FIG. 8 shows an example of the network display generated in this way.
Shown in In this display, the individual can be specified by the label (“Aa” or the like), and the connection relation between the individual can be easily understood. The display allows the analyst to analyze the situation and problems of the organization. Further, in the diagram as shown in FIG. 8, for example, when information such as the priority and the ratio of the communication, which is queried in Q1, is displayed in the arc portion at the same time, the amount of displayed information increases, which is useful for analysis. In the device of the present embodiment, the display by the network display generation unit 24 can be used for analysis.

However, since such a display can identify an individual as it is, it may be undesired at the time of reporting due to the premise of a survey not disclosing the contents of the questionnaire. To solve such a problem, a solution of erasing the display of the label of each individual is conceivable. However, even in the diagram showing only the connection relation between the nodes, the individual can often be specified.

Therefore, in this embodiment, the group node display generation unit 26 generates a display in which the information on the connection relation of the individual is hidden by overwriting the group node on the area of each group. A group node is a collective representation of the connection status within a group. By using this, the need to hide individual information and the need to express detailed status up to the internal status of the group are used. Meet at the same time.

For this group node display, the group node display generation unit 26 extracts data of the group information table (see FIG. 7) from the storage unit 12 and indicates an index value (in this case, connection density) relating to intra-group connection of each group.
Select a symbol figure to be used for the group node according to. Then, the symbol figure is overwritten on the position indicated by the X and Y coordinate values in the table.

Note that the above-described connection density calculation formula is a formula in a case where connection relations are used from each individual to a maximum of all members of the group. Therefore, in this example, each individual has a maximum of three consultation partners. In the case of, it cannot be used directly. For this reason, in this example, the value of the density is obtained by slightly modifying the expression as in the following expression.

[0044]

(Equation 2)

In the above equation, K is the maximum number of respondents to be enumerated when inquiring about the relationship, and is 3 in the example using the questionnaire of FIG. This formula has been modified to reflect that there is only a maximum of three connections from each individual. Note that the index value of the intra-group connection status and the calculation method thereof are not limited to those described here, and any known calculation method can be applied as needed.

When the density w ′ is calculated in the network diagram shown in FIG. 8 using this equation, the following is obtained.

[0047]

## EQU3 ## Group A: w '= 0.6 Group B: w' = 0.2 Group C: w '= 0.8 Group D: w' = 0.2

In the above description, such an index value is calculated for each group at the time of grouping and is described as being registered in the group information table. However, the index value is calculated at the time of displaying a group node. But of course it is good.

FIG. 9 shows an index w ′ of the intra-group connection status.
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a rule for obtaining a symbol figure of a group node from FIG. In this example, a symbol figure indicating the density of connection within a group by the degree of arc between dummy nodes is used. In this example, a figure having five dummy nodes 300 is used, and five types of figures are prepared by dividing the connection density into five stages. In the symbol figure, the degree of the arc reflects the magnitude of the connection density, and the connection density is intuitively understood. In particular, in the present embodiment, since arcs are formed between group nodes by the number of connections across groups, the connection density within the group is also represented by the number of arcs, so that the connection state inside and outside the group is consistently viewed. Can be easily grasped. In this example, the number of dummy nodes is common to all groups, regardless of the number of people in the group. According to the rule of FIG. 9, group A is the fourth figure from the top, group B
The group D is assigned the second figure from the top, and the group C is assigned the bottom figure.

The group node having the symbol figure obtained in this way is arranged at the display position corresponding to the group, thereby hiding the nodes of each person in the group and the arc between them. The display thus obtained is the network diagram display of FIG. 1 described first. In FIG. 1, individual information cannot be read. However, in addition to the number of connections between groups and the number of connections between groups, relative comparison of connections within a group is easily performed intuitively.

In the above example, the connection density in the group is represented by the number of arcs in the group node.
It is also possible to display the distinction by using group nodes having different colors and shapes depending on the connection density. However, the method of expressing the connection density by the number of arcs in the group node as in the above example is easy to grasp intuitively (for example, in the case of color, it is necessary to remember the correspondence between the color and the connection density) In addition to the great advantage of (1), there is also the advantage that information such as color can be used for other purposes. For example, five small dummy nodes 300 in the group node of FIG. 1 are added to the questionnaire Q2 (see FIG. 4) by Y.
The ratio of those who answered "blue" and the ratio of those who answered "N" corresponded to red, and blue and red could be painted separately. This makes it possible to provide an intuitive and easy-to-understand display when there is a correlation between the connection state and the answer to Q2 or the like.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of the overall processing flow of this embodiment. First, in step S10, each person's response to the questionnaire is input into the device using the response input processing unit 10. Next, in S12, the tallying processing unit 14 performs a predetermined tallying process on the input data prepared in advance as a process for the questionnaire. Then, in S14, the grouping control unit 22 performs grouping of each person, calculates an index value of the intra-group connection status such as the above-described connection density w ′ for each group, and totals in group units. The processing (such as counting the answers in Q2) is also performed. Then, in S16, the network display generation unit 24 generates a network diagram as shown in FIG. 8 based on the information on the connection relation between the individuals and the information on which group each person belongs to. In the next S18, the symbol figure used for each group node is determined based on the index value of the intra-group connection of each group, and the figure of each group node is drawn at the position of the corresponding group in the network diagram generated in S16. .

Here, the example has been described in which the nodes corresponding to the groups are overcoated from the top of the network diagram expressing the individual, and then the auxiliary information adding process is performed in S20. For example, since the group node is overcoated, the arc arrow representing the connection relationship may become invisible. In this step, the arrow is redrawn. The arrow is redrawn at the intersection of the outer edge of the group node and each arc. As a result, a network display showing information on the connection relation between individuals in the group can be obtained while hiding the information of the individuals.

The network display thus obtained is combined with other information of various analysis results as required, and is formatted in the final report in S22.

The flow shown here is only an example. For example, in FIG. 10, the generation of a network diagram expressing an individual (S16) is tabulated in groups (S14).
It is also possible to make a change such as performing before.

The above-described connection-related display device can be realized, for example, by causing a computer system such as a personal computer to execute a program describing the above-described functions or processing procedures. In this case, the program is supplied, for example, in the form of a recording medium such as a floppy disk or a CD-ROM or via a communication line, and can be executed by installing the program in a fixed disk device attached to a computer, for example.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to provide useful information on the status of the connection relationship between groups and between people in the group while preventing the identification of individuals. Also, in the present embodiment, the analysis is performed using a network representation that represents individual nodes in detail at the time of analysis, and the report is changed to an expression that cannot identify an individual while retaining the positional relationship of the network diagram used at the time of the report. There is also the advantage of being able to report.

The preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described above. The above embodiment is merely an example of the embodiment of the present invention, and various other modifications are possible within the scope of the present invention.

For example, in the above-described embodiment, a method has been described in which a network diagram expressing the connection relation of individuals is drawn, and then a group node is overlaid thereon. It is also possible to draw a group node group and an arc between them directly without performing this operation. Also in this case, of course, by using the symbol graphic reflecting the connection status in the corresponding group as the group node, information on the connection in the group can be displayed. In this method, various methods can be used to present information on the connection relation between groups.

One method is to arrange and draw arcs between group nodes as many as the number of individual connections existing between the two groups. Arcs between group nodes may be arranged so as to connect points by virtually setting points representing individuals in the group nodes, or the connection positions of arcs on each group node using random numbers etc. May be determined.

As another method, the number of arcs connecting the group nodes is one at most, and information indicating the connection strength (number of connections or connection density) between the groups is added to the display of the arcs in some form. There is a method to do. For example,
It is possible to arrange numerical values such as the number of connections and density of individuals in both groups near the arc connecting those groups, or change the thickness and color of the arc according to the number of connections and density. .

In the above embodiment, the connection status in the group is a normalized value such as density, whereas the connection status between groups reflects the number of connection relationships between individuals as it is. It is not normalized and represents a numerical value that is affected by the number of members of the group. On the other hand, the degree of the connection relationship between the groups may be a relative expression that is not affected by the number of members of each group.

For example, a person in group A
Can be set as the following equation as the connection density W _AB ″ to the persons within.

[0064]

(Equation 4)

Here, N _A and N _B are groups A,
This is the number of people belonging to B, and K is the maximum enumeration number of consultation partners in the questionnaire. The relative numerical information on the connection relationship between the groups obtained in this way is divided into several levels, for example, and the number of lines corresponding to the level is drawn between the groups, and the thickness and color of the lines between the groups. Can be assigned. Note that this formula is merely an example, and numerical information on the connection relationship between groups can be determined by various other calculations.

Further, in the above example, the case where the consultation partner was answered by the individual name in the questionnaire survey was taken as an example, but at the stage of the survey, the communication of the individual is actually asked in the form of an individual. It is often difficult. In such a case, the method of the present embodiment is a suitable reporting method even when a questionnaire format in which an individual is imagined and the group to which the individual belongs is used.

Further, in the above example, the display of the result of the survey of the connection (communication) relationship between persons by the questionnaire has been described as an example. However, the method of the present invention can be applied to other cases. For example, in addition to the connection relationship between people and people, the connection relationship between people and things other than people (things and information, etc.) And the like can be applied to the display. Even in such a case, there may be a problem if individual objects or information are specified from the connection relationship. Further, the method of the present invention can be applied to the display of information on connection relations obtained as a result of other surveys, calculations, and analysis processes other than the results of the questionnaire.

Further, the network display of the group nodes (FIG. 1 and the like) according to the present embodiment is combined with other person or object nodes unrelated to the group classification at that time to form a larger network. It can also be displayed.

[0069]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Be able to use a network diagram that shows the state of communication inside and outside the group in a form that can not identify individuals, at the time of reporting, to report the analysis results of communication etc. in an easy-to-understand manner and not to disclose personal information And more detailed and easy-to-understand reports.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a display example of a connection relationship according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a schematic device configuration of an embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration of an organization having a plurality of groups used as an example.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a questionnaire questionnaire used as an example.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a data structure for storing an answer of Q1.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a data structure for storing an answer of Q2.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of a data structure of a group information table.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example in which connection relationships of individuals are directly displayed on a network.

FIG. 9 is a diagram for explaining a rule for determining a symbol graphic of a group node from an index value of a connection status in a group.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a processing procedure in the apparatus of the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

A, B, C, D group nodes, 10 response input processing units, 12 storage units, 14 totalization processing units, 16 display units,
18 operation unit, 20 visualization processing unit, 22 grouping control unit, 24 network display generation unit, 26 group node display generation unit.

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Nobuhiro Yamazaki 430 Nakai-cho Sakai, Kamigawa-gun, Kanagawa Green Tech Nakai Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd. F term (reference) 5B049 CC00 EE00 FF03 GG09 5B075 ND20 ND36 PQ02 PQ32 UU40

Claims (17)

[Claims] 1. A method for displaying a connection relationship between a plurality of members classified into a plurality of groups, wherein a node representing each group is generated, and the connection relationship between members belonging to different groups is determined by connecting the groups. It is generated as an arc between the represented nodes, and the connection relationship between members belonging to the same group is
From the information on the connection relationship between the members, an index value indicating the connection status between the members in the group is generated, and the generated nodes and arcs are displayed on a network, and the index value of the connection status in each group is displayed. A connection relationship display method that is displayed in association with the node corresponding to the group. 2. A method for displaying a connection relationship between a plurality of members classified into a plurality of groups, wherein a display area that does not overlap each other is assigned to each group, and a node of a member belonging to each group is assigned to the display area. A network generating step of arranging in the display area and generating an arc between nodes of members having a connection relationship, and, in accordance with an instruction from a user, connection within a group from information on a connection relationship between members within the group for each group. Calculating an index value representing the situation, displaying a group node representing each group over the display area of the corresponding group,
A member node concealing step of displaying the index value of the intra-group connection status in association with the group node. 3. The index value of the connection status in the group is:
3. The connection relationship display method according to claim 1, wherein the number of arcs between the dummy nodes arranged in the node representing the group is represented by the number of arcs. 4. The connection display method according to claim 1, wherein the number of arcs between nodes representing the groups is displayed by a number corresponding to the number of connections between members between the groups. 5. The arc between the nodes representing the groups is displayed by the number obtained by normalizing the number of connections between members between the groups according to the number of members of each group. Connection display method described. 6. A storage means for storing connection relation information between a plurality of members classified into a plurality of groups, and for each group, indicating an intra-group connection state from information on a connection relation between members in the group. An internal connection index calculating means for calculating an index value; a group node displaying means for displaying a node representing each group; a connection between members belonging to different groups is obtained from information on a connection relationship between the members; Inter-group connection display means for displaying as an arc between nodes of the group to be connected, and intra-group connection display means for displaying the index value of each group calculated by the internal connection index calculation means in association with the node representing the group, A connection relation display device comprising: 7. A storage means for storing attribute information of each member and information of connection relation between the members, a grouping means for classifying each member into a plurality of groups based on the attribute information, An internal connection index calculating means for calculating an index value representing the intra-group connection status from the connection relation between members in the group, a group node displaying means for displaying a node representing each group, An inter-group connection display means for displaying the connection relationship as an arc between nodes of the group to which the members belong, and an index value of each group calculated by the internal connection index calculation means in association with a node representing the group A connection relation display device comprising: 8. A storage means for storing attribute information of each member and information on connection relation between the members, accepting designation of grouping reference information, and storing the attribute information of each member and the grouping reference information. Grouping means for classifying each of the members into a plurality of groups, and assigning display areas that do not overlap each other to each group, arranging the nodes of the members belonging to each group in the display area, and Analysis display means for displaying an arc between nodes of members having a connection relationship based on the connection relationship information; and a group based on information on a connection relationship between members in the group for each group in response to an instruction from a user. Calculate the index value indicating the internal connection status, and display the group node representing each group so as to cover the display area of the corresponding group. And a report display means for displaying the index value of the intra-group connection status in association with the group node. 9. The index value of the connection status in the group is:
9. The connection relation display device according to claim 6, wherein the number of arcs between the dummy nodes arranged in the node representing the group is represented by the number of arcs. 10. The connection relationship display device according to claim 6, wherein arcs between nodes representing the groups are displayed in a number corresponding to the number of connections between members between the groups. . 11. The arc between the nodes representing the groups is displayed by the number obtained by normalizing the number of connections between members between the groups according to the number of members in each group. Or the connection relation display device according to 7. 12. The display form of an arc between nodes of the group is determined according to an inter-group connection status index value obtained from a connection relation between members straddling the groups. 7. The connection display device according to 7. 13. The connection relation according to claim 12, wherein the inter-group connection status index value is a value obtained by normalizing the number of connection relations between groups by the upper limit number of connection partners for one member. Display device. 14. An analysis chart displaying a connection relationship between a plurality of members classified into a plurality of groups, wherein the node represents each group, and the amount of the connection relationship between the members inside the group is determined. A node represented in a reflected manner and an arc connecting the nodes, wherein the arc is represented in a manner reflecting the amount of connection between members existing between groups corresponding to the nodes. Connection relationship analysis chart. 15. A computer system, comprising: storage means for storing connection relationship information between a plurality of members classified into a plurality of groups; for each group, a connection within a group based on information on a connection relationship between members within the group. Internal connection index calculating means for calculating an index value representing a situation; group node displaying means for displaying a node representing each group; connecting information between members belonging to different groups is obtained from information on the connection relation between the members; Inter-group connection display means for displaying as an arc between nodes of a group to which the group belongs, intra-group connection display means for displaying the index value of each group calculated by the internal connection index calculation means in association with the node representing the group, A computer-readable recording medium on which a program for causing the computer to function is recorded. 16. A computer system, comprising: storage means for storing attribute information of each member and information of connection relation between the members; accepting designation of grouping reference information; Grouping means for classifying each member into a plurality of groups based on the information, allocating display areas that do not overlap each other to each group, arranging nodes of members belonging to each group in the display area, Analysis display means for displaying an arc between nodes of members having a connection relationship based on connection relationship information between the members, in accordance with an instruction from a user, for each group, from information on a connection relationship between members in the group. Calculates the index value indicating the connection status within the group, and displays the group node representing each group and the corresponding group It displayed so as to cover the range reported for the display means for displaying the index value of the group in the connection status in association with the group node, recording a computer-readable recording medium a program for functioning as. 17. A survey for associating members of an organization with each other, the responses of a questionnaire requesting each member to enumerate a predetermined number of related members are totaled, and an index of the connection status between the members is collected. An apparatus for calculating a value, comprising: means for correcting the number of connection relationships between members obtained by questionnaire aggregation using the predetermined enumeration number.