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SMRFoundation / NodeXLBasic

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Experience with use in a class #257

Open SMRFoundation opened 6 years ago

SMRFoundation commented 6 years ago

Hello. Thanks for all your work on NodeXL. I thought I would share an issue regarding use in a class setting. I am teaching an undergraduate online class in social media and networks this semester, and have had students do a couple of assignments with NodeXL so far. The biggest problem is lack of a version that works on Mac. About a third of my students are Mac users, and to do the assignments they have to get access to Windows machines. This is difficult for many of them. Some of them try to install it on public machines where they don't have admin privileges, which of course doesn't work.

I'm not complaining about free software, but I thought I would pass this on as the group seems interested in promoting its use for education. I don't know if there is any solution since the software seems to use a lot of Windows infrastructure (beyond just excel) under the hood. Maybe there is the possibility of a future online version for Mac-heads or something.

Steve

This work item was migrated from CodePlex

CodePlex work item ID: '25988' Vote count: '1'

SMRFoundation commented 6 years ago

[MarcSmith@2/17/2015] Hello!

Thank you for the interest in NodeXL!

We recognize the rising importance of Mac users, particularly in the educational world.

We have very limited resources here at Project NodeXL. As you can imagine, there would be significant expense in managing a parallel code base in an environment that is very different from the current C#, .Net, VSTO, Excel stack NodeXL is built on.

That said, here are some possible steps towards solutions for your issues related to using NodeXL in the university environment and among other Mac -only or -mostly populations.

Amazon EC2 VMs (Free for .micro versions for 1 year, often discounted for university users): create an Amazon image that contains Windows, Office, and NodeXL and allow students and other Mac users to access these virtual machines using the Remote Desktop application. See: 

 http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/11/16/how-to-run-nodexl-on-a-connected-mac-or-other-platform-using-amazon-ec2/

Local virtual machines can be effective but they really require machines with LOTS of RAM. 16GB Macbook Pros can handle Windows and MacOS side by side, but smaller MacBooks should avoid running Windows unless the machine is dual booted and runs in a Windows only configuration.

Request a sample map: for many classes using the map request feature offered by Connected Action is a good way to get a social media network map and report quickly. On the plus side, this requires no software installation at all. On the minus side, this does not address users who want to actually use NodeXL! See: 

 http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/06/13/request-a-nodexl-social-media-network-map/

Further, we are aware of the need for more cross-platform access and have some design plans to address this:

Improve the NodeXL Graph Gallery network visualization web interface, simplify requests of new maps and reports. We have been experimenting with improvements to the web UI, see:

 http://nodexlgraphgallery.org/Pages/InteractiveGraph.aspx?graphID=39915

Encourage Mac developers to use existing free and open NodeXL code and adapt it to native operation using Mac Office or Open Office. Hello Mac developers! Want to help move NodeXL to the Mac?

Look for sponsors for NodeXL Enterprise Edition - this version would be a self-contained file that can install with only local resources for all systems that are locked down behind firewalls. This version would also be optimized for systems administrators to deploy NodeXL across large collections of machines. This is a big enough work item that we have not been able to address it ourselves.

I hope this will help you support users who want to access NodeXL from non Windows+Office platforms.

Regards,

Marc (for team NodeXL)