System and method for large scale information processing using data visualization for multi-scale communities

A system for processing node-link data, the system comprising:

• a network interface for obtaining the node-link data as a relational dataset having a plurality of nodes with inherent relationships between the nodes;
• a tile generation engine for generating a first level of the node-link data by aggregating the plurality of nodes into a plurality of first level communities and determining a respective first level relationship strength between each of the plurality of first level communities, each respective first level relationship strength based on links between the nodes in a respective first level community and the nodes in a different first level community;
• the tile generation engine for generating a second level of the node-link data by aggregating the plurality of nodes into a plurality of second level communities and determining a respective second level relationship strength between each of the plurality of second level communities, each respective second level relationship strength based on links between the nodes in a respective second level community and the nodes in a different second level community, each of the nodes in a first level community being assigned to only one of the plurality of second level communities, said being assigned for each of the nodes representing child-parent relationships defining a community hierarchy;
• a layout engine for creating second level layout data by determining a relative visual size of each of the second level communities based on a quantity of the nodes contained therein and determining a relative visual separation between each of the second level communities based on the respective second relationship strengths;
• the layout engine for creating first level layout data by determining a relative visual size of each of the first level communities based on a quantity of the nodes contained therein and determining a relative visual separation between each of the first level communities based on the respective first relationship strengths;
• a tile generation engine for assigning the first level layout data to a first data tile of a hierarchy of data tiles;
• the tile generation engine for assigning the second level layout data to a second data tile of the hierarchy of data tiles, such that the second data tile contains the second level layout data of a lower resolution of the node-link data than first level layout data of the first data tile, the first data tile and the second data tile being in different levels of the hierarchy of data tiles;
• the network communication interface for sending request data including at least one of the second data tile or the first data tile for use as a view of the node-link data for presentation on a graphical user interface of a user, wherein the system renders a visualization of the view to the graphical user interface;
• the network communication interface for obtaining one or more user interactions from the user;
• and
• the network communication interface for updating the content of the request data based on the user interactions.