Visualizing Friendships on Facebook
Working as an intern in Facebook, Paul Butler manages to squeeze some time to put together an image by combining the location data and friends connection. The white lights represent the cities while the blue lights represents the friendship web of social connections.
Paul Butler said, "After a few minutes of rendering, the new plot appeared, and I was a bit taken aback by what I saw. The blob had turned into a surprisingly detailed map of the world. Not only were continents visible, certain international borders were apparent as well. What really struck me, though, was knowing that the lines didn't represent coasts or rivers or political borders, but real human relationships. Each line might represent a friendship made while travelling, a family member abroad, or an old college friend pulled away by the various forces of life."
