a collection of data visualization methods that reveal the specific characteristics of communications between Usenet newsgroups members. the visual analysis focuses on distinguishing "signatures of role", such as identifying so-called "answer people", individuals whose dominant behavior is to respond to questions posed by other users.

for instance, the "authorlines" visualization represents the volume of contributions for a single author across a year. each vertical strip represents one week. each circle represents a thread in which the actor participated during this week. red circles represent threads initiated by the selected author, while blue circles indicate threads initiated by someone else that were replied to by the selected author. the diameter of a circle represents the number of messages posted by author to that thread during that week.

[link: cmu.edu|via smartmobs.com]