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Navox Network

Map your professional network. Find your side door.

"The people you barely know are more likely to get you a job than your best friends." — Granovetter, 1973. Confirmed causally on 20 million LinkedIn users in 2022.

navox-network-v2.mov
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🔗 Live Demo →


The problem

You've been told to "network." Nobody told you that you already have one.

Even someone with 50 LinkedIn connections is sitting on thousands of shared-context paths they've never mapped. New graduates, immigrants, refugees, and career changers are told to build a network from scratch — but they're not starting from zero. They're nodes in a graph they've never been given a map to read.

Meanwhile, 30–50% of all hires happen through referrals. One referral is statistically equivalent to 40 cold applications. The referral economy is the real labor market. It's just invisible to the people who need it most.

Navox Network makes it visible.


What it does

Upload your LinkedIn data export. No login. No server. No data leaves your browser.

View What it answers
Network Graph What does my network actually look like?
Gap Analysis Where is my bridging capital weak?
Company Search Who do I already know at this company?
Outreach Queue Who should I contact this week, and what do I say?

🔗 Try it now → or run it locally below.


How to get your LinkedIn data

  1. Go to LinkedIn Settings → Data Privacy
  2. Click "Get a copy of your data"
  3. Select Basic export (ready in ~10 minutes)
  4. Download the zip when LinkedIn emails you
  5. Drop the zip, folder, or any individual CSV files into the tool — we handle the rest

The app accepts a .zip file, an unzipped folder, or individual CSVs. Connections.csv is the only required file — additional files (messages, endorsements, recommendations, invitations) are used automatically when present to enrich tie strength scoring.

Your data is parsed entirely in your browser using PapaParse and JSZip. Nothing is sent to any server.


Run locally

git clone https://github.com/navox-labs/network.git
cd network
npm install
npm run dev

Open http://localhost:3000/network and upload your LinkedIn data export.

Requirements: Node.js 18+

After uploading: Zoom into the graph and hover over nodes to see connection details. Check the Outreach Queue tab for who to message first and suggested opener messages by tie type.


The science

This tool is a direct implementation of three bodies of research:

Granovetter (1973, 1983) — The Strength of Weak Ties Weak ties — acquaintances, not close friends — provide non-redundant information about job opportunities because they inhabit different professional clusters. Your close circle recycles the same opportunities. Your peripheral contacts are the bridges.

Rajkumar et al. (2022, Science) — Causal validation at scale A randomized experiment on 20 million LinkedIn users over 5 years, generating 2 billion new connections and 600,000 job placements. Result: weak ties causally increase job mobility. The most valuable connections are moderate-strength weak ties — former colleagues, shared-institution acquaintances — not strangers and not close friends.

Putnam (2000) — Bridging vs. bonding capital Bonding capital (strong ties within a homogeneous group) provides support. Bridging capital (connections that cross group boundaries) provides access to new information, opportunities, and referrals. Job seekers typically have a bonding surplus and a bridging deficit. This tool measures both.


Tie strength model

The previous model (recency-only) scored connections by how recently you connected. This is backwards relative to weak-ties theory — a connection from yesterday is likely a stranger; a connection from 3 years ago is an established relationship.

Current model — three components:

Component Weight Logic
Relationship depth 40% Duration of connection, peaks at ~2 years
Bridging potential 35% Industry cluster analysis — connections in rare clusters score highest
Recency signal 25% Active connection within last 6 months

Bridging potential is computed using industry cluster analysis. Each connection is classified into one of 11 clusters: Tech, Finance, Healthcare, Education, Government, Legal, Media/Marketing, Manufacturing, Consulting, Nonprofit, or Other. Connections in clusters with frequency ≤3 in your network are classified as structural bridges per Granovetter — they span otherwise disconnected groups.

Network position classification:

Position Meaning
Bridge Occupies a rare cluster (frequency ≤3), spans structural holes
Anchor Strong tie in a well-represented cluster
Explorer Weak tie in a well-represented cluster
Dormant Needs re-activation before outreach

Tie categories:

Strength Range Meaning
Strong 0.7–1.0 Close colleagues, inner circle
Moderate 0.4–0.69 Meaningful professional relationship
Weak 0.1–0.39 Granovetter's zone — highest job mobility value
Dormant 0.0–0.09 Needs re-activation before outreach

Activation priority

Weak ties in bridge positions rank highest in the outreach queue — not strong ties. Strong ties are already activated. Weak bridge ties spanning rare industry clusters are where the undiscovered opportunity lives.


Stack

Framework Next.js 14 (App Router)
Graph react-force-graph-2d (canvas, handles 1000+ nodes)
CSV parsing PapaParse (runs in-browser)
Zip extraction JSZip (runs in-browser)
Language TypeScript throughout
Styling CSS variables + Tailwind utilities
Backend None
Database None
Auth None

The app ingests a full LinkedIn data export (zip or folder) and automatically detects enrichment files (messages, endorsements, recommendations, invitations) to improve tie strength accuracy beyond what Connections.csv alone provides.


Enrichment data

When you upload a full LinkedIn data export, the app uses these files to build a more accurate tie strength model:

File Purpose
Connections.csv Required. Core network map — names, companies, positions, connection dates
messages.csv Interaction intensity and bidirectional message detection
Endorsement_Received_Info.csv Relationship depth signal — skills endorsed by connections
Endorsement_Given_Info.csv Relationship depth signal — skills you endorsed
Recommendations_Received.csv Strongest tie confirmation
Invitations.csv Who initiated the relationship

Enrichment produces a 3-tier confidence score per connection:

Confidence Meaning
HIGH Bidirectional messages detected — confirmed active relationship
MEDIUM Partial enrichment (endorsements, recommendations, or invitations present)
LOW Connections.csv data only — tie strength is estimated from metadata

Multi-provider AI

The app supports optional AI features powered by OpenAI or Anthropic.

  • Draft Message — generates personalized outreach calibrated to tie strength, network position, and shared context
  • Ask Coach — provides contextual network coaching based on your graph analysis

Configuration:

  • Add your API key in Settings — the provider is auto-detected from the key prefix (sk- for OpenAI, sk-ant- for Anthropic)
  • Keys are stored in your browser only and auto-expire after 30 days
  • Connection data sent to the AI provider is disclosed in Settings — review before enabling

No API key is required to use the core network analysis features.


Project structure

network/
├── app/
│   ├── page.tsx          # Main state orchestration
│   ├── layout.tsx        # Root layout + fonts
│   └── globals.css       # Design system (CSS variables)
├── components/
│   ├── UploadScreen.tsx  # CSV upload, drag-and-drop, export instructions
│   ├── TopBar.tsx        # Navigation + live network stats
│   ├── GraphView.tsx     # Force graph, filtering, node tooltips
│   ├── GapPanel.tsx      # Bridging capital analysis + gap recommendations
│   ├── CompanySearch.tsx # Company/role search with activation guidance
│   └── OutreachQueue.tsx # Ranked targets + draft messages by tie type
└── lib/
    └── tieStrength.ts    # Core model: tie strength, gap analysis, search, ranking

Who this is built for

The populations most harmed by AI hiring systems are also the ones least equipped to access the referral economy that bypasses those systems:

  • New graduates — rich in peer connections, poor in bridge connections to hiring authority
  • New immigrants — existing professional network geographically mislocated; perceived as irrelevant, rarely is
  • Refugees — simultaneous credential recognition, employment gap, and name-bias challenges in ATS systems
  • Career changers — deep network from previous field treated as useless for new field; almost never true

This tool is built specifically around the insight that these populations are not starting from zero. They are starting from a node in a graph that is larger, more connected, and more navigable than they have been led to believe.


Research

This tool implements findings from:

  • Granovetter, M. (1973). The strength of weak ties. American Journal of Sociology, 78(6), 1360–1380.
  • Granovetter, M. (1983). The strength of weak ties: A network theory revisited. Sociological Theory, 1, 201–233.
  • Rajkumar, K., et al. (2022). A causal test of the strength of weak ties. Science, 377(6612), 1304–1310.
  • Putnam, R. D. (2000). Bowling Alone. Simon & Schuster.
  • Ryan, L. (2011). Migrants' social networks and weak ties. The Sociological Review, 59(4), 707–724.

Full citation list in the companion research paper: The Invisible Network (Yousif, 2026)


Related

  • Navox Coach — AI coaching agent that plugs into your network analysis
  • navox.tech — Create a customized AI voice-driven professional profile card to replace your resume — paste the link directly in your outreach messages

License

MIT — see LICENSE.

Built by Navox Labs · Research by Nahrin Yousif

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Map your professional network. Find your side door. Built on 50 years of weak-ties research — no login, no server, your data never leaves your browser.

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