Hackday network

The guys at backnetwork did a great job by providing a full social network for the London Hackday 2007 event. You are encouraged to participate by creating your own profile and linking to friends and acquaintances that you might have.

They also opened their application to outside users by providing a very simple API where you can perform several tasks. You need, of course, to be registered to do that.

So I registered myself and started using the API immediately. I created a small PHP script that gets all the people that are signed up and then finds the relationships between them. The script simply outputs data in the DOT language that is consumed by graphviz.

Some people might say that there’s no practical use for this network graph but I really enjoy exploring visually all the connections between people and see how the network grows over time.

Anyway, can’t wait for the next weekend. The fun is just beginning…