Get Started
Network Canvas
Network Canvas is a suite of free, open-source tools for surveying networks, designed around the needs of both researchers and their participants. We provide a complete end-to-end workflow for networks research, with apps for survey design and for interviewing. Using these tools, researchers can easily design, capture, and export network data.
The research workflow
Every Network Canvas study has the same shape: you design a protocol that describes your interview, you collect data by running that protocol with participants, and you analyze the data you collected. The documentation is organized around these three phases:
- Design Protocols — decide what your interview will ask, and how, and express those decisions as a protocol file. Architect is the tool for building, previewing, and refining protocols.
- Collect Data — run your protocol as interviews with participants. Interviewer runs interviews on a device you control, while Fresco deploys your protocol to the web for participants to complete remotely.
- Analyze Data — export the network data you collected in standard formats such as CSV and GraphML, ready for R, Python, or any other network-analysis package.
If you are still thinking your study through, start with Planning a Study, which walks through the decisions to make before you begin.
The applications
Each phase of the workflow is supported by one or more applications:
| Runs where | Access | Step in workflow | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Architect | Browser, PWA | Open in browser | Build protocol |
| Architect Classic | Windows, macOS, Linux | Download | Build protocol |
| Interviewer | Browser, PWA | Open in browser | Run interviews |
| Interviewer Classic | Desktop & tablet | Download | Run interviews |
| Fresco | Browser (self-hosted) | Deploy an instance | Run interviews |
PWA (Progressive Web App): Architect and Interviewer run in any modern web browser with nothing to install, and can optionally be installed to a device you control for quick access and offline use.
Good to know:
Not all apps are compatible. A protocol's schema version, determined by the tool it was built in, controls which apps can open it, so consider compatibility when choosing your tools. See Protocol Schema Information for a full explanation of schema versions, app compatibility, and automatic migration.
We encourage you to use the search function at the top of each page to find articles on any given topic. Our pages are heavily interlinked, and information is necessarily spread around.
In this section
This Get Started section holds the supporting reference material that applies across all of the tools. You'll find these headings in the sidebar to the left:
- Planning a Study — how to think through your study before you start, including a visual overview of the workflows, advice on piloting your study, and guidance on GDPR and IRB.
- Migrating from the Classic Apps — how to move an existing study from Architect Classic and Interviewer Classic to the current browser-based apps.
- Protocol Schema Information — how protocol schema versions work, which apps support which versions, and how migration happens.
- Glossary — plain-language definitions of the terms used throughout this documentation, each linking to fuller coverage.
- Project Information — details of the origins of the project in the project overview, as well as information about citing the software and collaborating with us.
Reference material for designing protocols — Key Concepts and Interface Documentation — lives in the Design Protocols section.