So what is this software called Trendalyzer? Well to quote Gapminder - "Trendalyzer software unveils the beauty of statistics by converting boring numbers into enjoyable interactive animations. "

This is certaintly true, as Dr Roslings excellent presentation demonstrates. And guess what company has recently acquired Trendalyzer? Stand up messrs. Brin and Page of Google. This should prove to be very interesting.

Trend-buckers Radiohead have released a video made without cameras or lights. You can download the data and play with it yourself here.

It's also well worth having a look at the Making Of to see how the technology works. The potential of this sort of scanning system in film and visuals to create some groundbreaking visual narratives is exciting, possibly even as adaptable as Michel Gondry's Bullet Time technique. As far as promoting a song goes, allowing fans to download the scanner data from Google Code for their own creative gains is pretty innovative and in keeping with the band's mission to rip up the pop marketing rule book and line our skulls with the shreds.

Several people have been implementing their versions of sparklines and bullet graphs with great success. I came across an article recently describing how to create bullet graphs using the Google Chart API in seven steps. This is quite a powerful tool, as you can now pass a series of parameters into a URL and get Google to display a bullet graph on your web page. An example of a bullet graph using the Google Chart API is shown below:

If you'd like to read more about Sparklines, Bullet Graphs and data visualisation, I'd highly recommend that you borrow, or even better, buy Stephen Few's Information Dashboard Design. Stephen highlights many of the failings of the current data visualisation tools available from all the BI vendors. He goes on to describe why they fail to get the message across and goes on to produce his version of how information can be displayed in a more meaningful and uncluttered way. Essential reading in my view, if you are responsible for, or invlving in developing graphical reports, dashboards and analytics.

I first wrote about the Dropping Knowledge two years ago (almost to date), before they had their big pow-wow in Berlin - the Table of Free Voices. I honestly thought interest in the grandiose idea peter out. However, I was surprised to note that the site still exists and is at the time of writing taking a crack at defining terrorism based on the responses to questions asked at the Table of Free Voices.  

My concerns with pre-fabricated "wisdom" as I noted in my first post on Dropping Knowledge remain. Two years on, the fact that the site and its information is still locked into a domain and associated formats that can't easily be accessed via mobiles is quite appalling (the assumption being that everyone accesses and can access the web through broadband and PC is already egregiously incorrect). Yet, there is a significant corpus of thought here that's worth perusing, though the huge variance in intelligence of the people who participated makes the entire initiative uneven (unlike Wikipedia, information generated by the initiative is not moderated / controlled / overseen by the commons). 

BTW, should mention that there was one Sri Lankan at the "Table of Free Voices" - Neela Marikkar. Her response to the question, "We are in the knowledge age. How can the increase in access to technology (Internet and computer) among low- income communities help to promote social and economic development?" is here. Pico Iyer also mentions Sri Lanka in response to this question, though it's for a very different reason! 

Three problems with the site. One, the fact that it is not accessible by mobiles really limits the appeal and usefulness of this site to those who don't have a PC and broadband access. Today it's easy enough to create a simple iPhone, mobile Flash, mobile Java or even just a plain text site with all the transcripts for access via mobiles. The possibilities here are quite exciting. 

Two, the sheer scope and depth of the content on the site is hard to access. There's no interlinkages between topics, no semantic navigation, just a search functionality. Contrary to the site's avowed aim to create and spread wisdom, all you have are basic tools that offer basic search functionality of information. the UI of the site overwhelms. It's not immediately evident how to get access to information - clutter and just bad information design with an over-reliance on Flash graphics (no low bandwidth version at all).

Three and importantly, where's the Living Library? No one's called Dropping Knowledge on this and the site now conveniently has no mention of it either.

See my original post for the Living Library's feature set as it was proposed two years ago. The "conceptual topography of 25,000 interconnected issues" and a library "offering 3D graphic navigation" is nowhere to be found. In taking a Google like approach to access information you lose a tremendous degree of value in semantic connections between the participants, the questions and the answers. 

I wonder if they ran out of funding, programmers, interest or all three. I wish this was more like the Encyclopedia of Life. 

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On peut ainsi jouer avec les données et faire correspondre des axes comme :

• le sentiment (heureux, triste, dépressif)
• l'âge
• le genre (homme ou femme)
• le temps
• l'heure

Aujourd'hui, c'est un projet d'inspiration essentiellement poétique. Mais imaginez que nous réussissions à coupler des données issues des ventes réelles à cette météo des sentiments sur le web ! Je suis certain que nous arriverions à corréler des informations clefs qui pourraient avoir des répercussions immédiates sur les stratégies marketing. Si je me rends compte que je vends plus quand la météo des sentiments est au rose, je pourrais imaginer un ad-server capable de publier une campagne dynamique en fonction des sentiments.

(via)

Le principe : réaliser le dashboard (rapport, charts...) le plus simple et plus efficient qui mette en valeur la bonne data.

Un exercice de style.

Le New York Times vient de publier une data visualisation vraiment bluffante de la consommation américaine. Plutôt que d'opter pour les "pie charts" ou les "tree maps", le NYT represente la consommation américaine sous une forme inédite : un vitrail.

C'est génial et c'est ici.

La première étape d'un projet expérimental de visualisation de données, basé sur twitter, inspiré par wefeelfine et reposant sur le moteur de recherche summize...

Imaginons le même outil de veille avec des mots clefs stratégiques ou une installation avec en défilé l'ensemble des tweets autour du Tibet.

It's very easy to use and adds another dimension to your standard spreadsheet pivot table.

For those that don't know, Panorama Software produces some great visual software in the area of Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) and Multidimensional Expressions (MDX). In the mid 90's Microsoft bought Panorama Software’s OLAP server technology, which was subsequently implemented in Microsoft's SQL Server Analysis/Reporting Services technology.

This is an interesting move. Having sold one of it's key technologies to Microsoft, and with ProClarity being bought by Microsoft, I was wondering where this left Panorama. It really does produce some great products so it is good to see it is still alive and kicking.

You can actually use this technology now on Google spreadsheets. Here is the link. It's still early days, but if more of the Panorama technology is implemented, Google spreadsheets could become a big player in the BI market.

1.

New York Subway Map (1972): Massimo Vignelli for MTA

2.

NYC Subway Redesign: Eddie Jabbour

Check out more visual maps at Visual Complexity!

The New York Times features an interactive info-graphic that is a sombre reminder of the human cost to the US Armed Forces in Iraq. From J.T. Aubin in 2003 to David Stelmat a few days ago, the first tab of the special section is devoted to all in the Army who have died in Iraq, that is now a shade under 4,000.

The second tab is an interactive timeline of the deaths. The two invasions of Falluja alone, we learn, cost over 400 deaths. Over half of those dead are between 18-24 and the majority from the US Army.

This powerful visualisation is a visceral reminder that wars today, fought and reported about like computer games most of the time, is still a costly, brutal affair - sometimes necessary perhaps, but always bloody. I wonder though how many people will change, or at the very least, register a slight shift in their opinion of the war in Iraq by looking at this. Compelling it may be, but I somehow feel that those in support of the war will look at it and use it to suggest that all these deaths should not be in vain, whereas those opposed to the war will look this as grim markers of of a war that has done little or nothing to help their government's soi-disant war on terror.

What the NY Times significantly does not show are the numbers of private security contractors and mercenaries killed in Iraq. As noted in this article written a little over a year ago:

The dangers faced by contractors working in Iraq were laid bare last night by new figures showing hundreds of civilians employed by the Pentagon alone have been killed in the country since 2003. In a graphic exposé of a hitherto invisible cost of the war in Iraq, it emerged nearly 800 civilians working under contract to US defence chiefs have been killed and more than 3,300 hurt doing jobs normally handled by the military.

The casualty figures, gathered by the Associated Press, make it clear the US Defence Department's count of more than 3,100 military dead does not tell the whole story. 

In Sri Lanka it's clearly a different story. As Iqbal Athas notes:

"If you add up all the figures given by the government from the beginning of the separatist war until now, it would have wiped out the population of the north twice over," says Iqbal Athas, consultant editor and defence correspondent of the Colombo Sunday Times and correspondent for Jane's Defence Weekly.

"Similarly if one were to adopt the figures put out by the Tamil Tiger rebels, that would have depleted the ranks of the military considerably."

Picture that.

I am amazed at how much meaningful information can be displayed in such a small footprint.

Bonavista Systems have also implemented their own version of Sparklines and have integrated Stephen Few's bullet graphs. They have called their product Micro Charts.

Sparklines are based on works by Edward Tufte. Edward has written a highly regarded book in the area around visual presentation of data called Beautiful Evidence.

One for the wish list.