Grassroots Mapping 40 Essential Tools and Resources to Visualize Data One of the most frequent questions I get is, "What software do you use to visualize data?" A lot of people are excited to play with their data, but don't know how to go about doing it or even start. Here are the tools I use or have used and resources that I own or found helpful for data visualization – starting with organizing the data, to graphs and charts, and lastly, animation and interaction. Organizing the Data by sleepy sparrow Data are hardly ever in the format that you need them to be in. PHP was the first scripting language I learned that was well-suited for the Web, so I'm pretty comfortable with it. Python Most computer science types - at least the ones I've worked with - scoff at PHP and opt for Python mostly because Python code is often better structured (as a requirement) and has cooler server-side functions. MySQL When I have a lot of data - like on the magnitude of the tends to hundreds of thousands - I use PHP or Python to stick it in a MySQL database. Ah, good old R.
The Best Tools for Visualization Visualization is a technique to graphically represent sets of data. When data is large or abstract, visualization can help make the data easier to read or understand. There are visualization tools for search, music, networks, online communities, and almost anything else you can think of. Whether you want a desktop application or a web-based tool, there are many specific tools are available on the web that let you visualize all kinds of data. Here are some of the best: Visualize Social Networks Last.Forward: Thanks to Last.fm's new widget gallery, you can now explore a wide selection of extras to extend your Last.fm experience. Last Forward Friends Sociomap: Friends Sociomap is another Last.fm tools that generates a map of the music compatibility between you and your Last.fm friends. Fidg't: Fidg't is a desktop application that gives you a way to view your networks tagging habits. Fidg't The Digg Tools: One more: Digg Radar. YouTube: Visualize Music Musicovery Last.fm music visual tools: Amazon
The Overview Project » About Overview is an open-source tool to help journalists find stories in large numbers of documents, by automatically sorting them according to topic and providing a fast visualization and reading interface. Whether from government transparency initiatives, leaks or Freedom of Information requests, journalists are drowning in more documents than they can ever hope to read. Overview does at least three things really well. Find what you don’t even know to look for.Find broad trends or patterns across many documents.Make exhaustive manual reading faster, when all else fails. Search is a wonderful tool when you know what you’re trying to find — and Overview includes advanced search features. In other cases you’re interested in broad patterns. But even when you really do have to read every document manually, Overview is a huge help. For more about the different ways to use Overview, see our post on the different types of document-driven stories. You can upload your documents directly as PDF files.
Visualisation Tools and Resources | Drawing by Numbers Drawing by numbers organises data visualisation tools under four categories - Charts and graphs; Mapping and mashups; Design, layout and presentation; and Data management tools. Browse through them below. However advanced their capabilities, most of the tools profiled here address fairly simple data and design tasks. They also have feature sets that anyone with a little technical knowledge (and some persistence) could use to make something. They all have acceptable support structures and materials and a degree of non-English language support. The Waiting room lists tools that we haven't yet profiled, but are still reviewing.
OECD – Your Better Life Index Average personal index for Germany, men, 15–24 How’s life? There is more to life than the cold numbers of GDP and economic statistics – This Index allows you to compare well-being across countries, based on 11 topics the OECD has identified as essential, in the areas of material living conditions and quality of life. Download executive summary Download the index data Learn more about the index Better Life BlogArchive Happiness pays For World Happiness Day our guest author suggests that money can't buy you happiness but happiness may get you more money. more ... Gender equality in the workplace Over the past twenty years, women have made huge gains in the workplace but full job equality is still far from reality. more ... Education for well-being: Online discussion We know education is an essential component of well-being, so what makes an education that promotes well-being? more ... Visit our blog Blog RSS feed Find Out MoreArchive Mar 19, 2014 Society at a Glance 2014: OECD Social Indicators
Ruby Programming Language Data Visualization and Infographics Examples and Resources Things wordy, geeky, and webby Since taking a class that discussed Edward Tufte‘s work, I’ve been fascinated by turning information into visual data. His site contains many examples that you could easily spend hours on the site. It’s not just about presenting data in a presentation or making things colorful. It’s a struggle for me as I haven’t practiced this process or created any charts in a long time. Updated: 9 February 2013 ShortURL to this post: Examples 5 Amazing Infographics for the Health Conscious10 Outstanding Social Media Graphics10 Revealing Infographics about the Web10×10 is “100 words and pictures that define time.”35 Great Social Media Infographics3D Animation of Linux Code Development7 Nights of Bright Eyes article and accompanying visual analysis of Conor Oberst.AInews.org: Note the .org! Blogs If a blog isn’t listed — it may be too new, hasn’t been updated in a long time, doesn’t have enough entries. Resources
Print or online? One masterpiece and one screw-up – VisualJournalism THE NEW YORK TIMES just ran an interesting article titled ‘It’s All Connected: A Spectator’s Guide to the Euro Crisis’ and the intro ending with ‘The graphic here helps you see the intertwined complexities.’ They also ran an interactive visualization online with the same title, but with the intro ending in ‘Here is a visual guide to the crisis’. Pretty much the same stuff – except that I challenge you to understand and gain insight from the online-version: See it here: Before reading the print-version. The printed version has a lot of text, which leads you through the story and educates you along the way on a highly complex system. The online version shows you the data and tells you some accompanying facts – but doesn’t tell you the story. Big differences in the looks too: The print-version is elegant with a good colour and easy focus on the worrisome countries. In an effort to make the interactive version more useful, it has been split into six smaller sub-stories.
Visual Gadgets vizualize.me: Visualize your resume in one click.