Mapping Your Professional Network with Google Earth

An interesting exercise in seeing k-means in action is to use it to visualize and cluster your professional LinkedIn network by putting it on a map—or the globe, if you’re a fan of Google Earth. In addition to the insight gained by visualizing how your contacts are spread out, you can analyze clusters by using your contacts, the distinct employers of your contacts, or the distinct metro areas in which your contacts reside as a basis. All three approaches might yield results that are useful for different purposes. Through the LinkedIn API, you can fetch location information that describes the major metropolitan area, such as “Greater Nashville Area,” in which each of your contacts resides, which with a bit of mungin....