Mapping Information Spaces: Data Visualization Tools and Sites and Exhibits
Sites supporting and encouraging data visualization are popping up. Some of the sites have software you can download while others offer online tools to manipulate and visualize your data.Here's a few that I've found interesting:
- GapMinder
"Trendalyzer software unveils the beauty of statistics by converting boring numbers into enjoyable interactive animations". Some of the animations look like a combination of a lava lamp and chart.
Hans Rosling, a Swedish professor, helped develop the data visualization software into order to make data from the publicly funded databases understandable by the media and the public so they could better understand what's happenning around the world.
In looking at this site again, I noticed that Trendalyzer’s developers have left Gapminder to join Google. It turns out that Google acquired Trendalyzer software and has added it to their tools and intends to provide it as a free tool that anyone can use."We hope to provide the resources necessary to bring such work to its deserved wider audience by improving and expanding Trendalyzer and making it freely available to any and all users capable of thinking outside the X and Y axes."
The best introduction to Gapminder is by Hans Rosling and his presentation at TED. It's entertaining and enlightening. - TextArc Reading Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
TextArc developed by W. Bradford Paley provides "a visual representation of a text—the entire text (twice!) on a single page. A funny combination of an index, concordance, and summary; it uses the viewer's eye to help uncover meaning."
Another visualization created by W. Bradford Paley and others recently appeared in Seed Magazine and explores Scientific Method: Relationships between Scientific Paradigms
- Sociology Coauthorship Flipbook - Jim Moody and others
See other network visualizations examples some of which are discussed in "Dynamic Network Visualization: Methods for Meaning with Longitudinal Network Movies" by Moody, McFarland and Bender-deMoll. I stumbled across Moody's work on Eszter's Blog.
- Many Eyes offers a powerful online toolkit to discuss and create a variety of visualizations and view and discuss data sets. Think of this site as data visualization meets social software.
You create a chart or map or a tag cloud like ephrance did with Monty Python And The Quest For The Holy Grail. Find out about creating tag clouds at Many Eyes.
Belareus created a chart to show Why is the Sun called a Dwarf Star? Like any good picture, it's worth a thousand words.
Visit the gallery to view other neat visualizations.
Wonderful Exhibit
If you interested in data visualization, visit the Places and Spaces: Mapping Science Exhibit site. "This exhibit was supported in part by the School of Library and Information Science and the Cyberinfrastructure for Network Science center at Indiana University.
Browse the exhibit.
Check out when a physical showing may be at place near to you.
Tags: data visualization | Many Eyes | mapping | maps | tag clouds
