Visualizing data with bubbles

[okdewit 0]

Dear Auto-it'ers,

My ambition is to create a database system which can store data in connected "bubbles", or at least represent them in such a way.

Example: I have a set of entries, say 400 employee names, and 3 companies. 300 employees have fulltime jobs evenly divided between the companies, and the other 100 work parttime at the 3 companies.

So I would want to represent that as 3 big floating circles, with 100 bubbles connected to each one, and 100 connected to all three at the same time.

If you zoom in on a small "employee" bubble, I want a different bubbles to pop up around the employee (phone/adress/function etc.)

Kind of the swarm system digg.com uses...

http://labs.digg.com/swarm/

Does anyone have some code examples regarding the graphics and/or math behind such a system? I am not afraid of doing my own research but every hint which could speed up my work is welcome...

Features I intend to implement:

-Bubbles connected by wires

-Different sizes for different hierarchy layers

-Zoomable interface

-Searchbox which filters bubbles (spotlight-style)

Best regards,

Okdewit

EDIT: Any links to already existing programs / API's / Plugins are of course also highly appreciated.

Edited March 5, 2008 by okdewit