you will analyze a music network. Start by going to http://labs.polsys.net/playg

you will analyze a music network.
Start by going to http://labs.polsys.net/playground/spotify/ (Links to an external site.)
Type
in any artist you like. Click their name from the list that appears and
it will show you a network. The network should have at least ~100 nodes
so you can analyze it properly. On the left is an option to download a
GDF file. Click that to download the data. You are required to use Gephi
for this assignment; you may not just analyze the network in the
Spotify Visualization Tool.
Next, open the file you downloaded in Gephi. You cannot just double click this file to open it. You must go to Gephi and then go to the File menu and select open.
Next,
analyze your network! Identify the groups of artists (tell me what each
main group is and what their defining characteristic is), how they are
connected, etc. Who are the most important nodes? Why? Describe the
network in detail. Use all you learned from the Gephi tutorial to help
you (e.g. using node labels, etc).
The
process I usually use is to apply the Yifan Hu Proportional layout
algorithm, and then run the modularity and network diameter statistics.
The nodes are sized by betweenness centrality and the color coding is by
modularity class (basically, by cluster). There are lots of other
options, but that will likely give you a good starting place.
Write
up a 400-600 word paper describing your insights. This should be about
the network only; any discussion of the artists should be directly
relevant to your network analysis (i.e. don’t give me a biography or
discography of your favorite band in this paper, just tell me about the
network). Turn in that paper along with an image of your visualization.