Junk Charts

Data science We’ve all heard it: according to Hal Varian, statistics is the next sexy job. Five years ago, in What is Web 2.0, Tim O’Reilly said that “data is the next Intel Inside.” But what does that statement mean? In this post, I examine the many sides of data science — the technologies, the companies and the unique skill sets. The web is full of “data-driven apps.” One of the earlier data products on the Web was the CDDB database. Google is a master at creating data products. Google’s breakthrough was realizing that a search engine could use input other than the text on the page. Flu trends Google was able to spot trends in the Swine Flu epidemic roughly two weeks before the Center for Disease Control by analyzing searches that people were making in different regions of the country. Google isn’t the only company that knows how to use data. The thread that ties most of these applications together is that data collected from users provides added value. Where data comes from 1956 disk drive

FlowingData ImpactVisuel.net - Visualisation de l'information, présentations efficaces et tableaux de bord Data visualisation: in defence of bad graphics | News Are most online data visualisations, well, just not very good? It's an issue we grapple with a lot - and some of you may have noticed a recent backlash against many of the most common data visualisations online. Poor Wordle - it gets the brunt of it. It was designed as an academic exercise that has turned into a common way of showing word frequencies (and yes, we are guilty of using it) - an online sensation. There's nothing like ubiquitousness to turn people against you. In the last week alone, New York Times senior software architect Jacob Harris has called for an end to word clouds, describing them as the "mullets of the Internet". While on Poynter, the line is that "People are tired of bad infographics, so make good ones" Awesomely bad infographics from How to Interactive Design Photograph: How To Interactive Design Grace Dobush has written a great post explaining how to produce clear graphics, but can't resist a cry for reason. What's the big deal? A little extreme, no? More open data

TreeSheets A "hierarchical spreadsheet" that is a great replacement for spreadsheets, mind mappers, outliners, PIMs, text editors and small databases. Suitable for any kind of data organization, such as todo lists, calendars, project management, brainstorming, organizing ideas, planning, requirements gathering, presentation of information, etc. It's like a spreadsheet, immediately familiar, but much more suitable for complex data because it's hierarchical. Have a quick look at what the application looks like on the screenshots page, see how easy it is to use in the tutorial, then give it a download (above). TreeSheets is exceptionally small & fast, so can sit in your system tray at all times: with several documents loaded representing the equivalent of almost 100 pages of text, it uses only 5MB of memory on Windows 7 (!) TreeSheets is free & open source. Visit this google group for discussion, and news updates / releases.

Data Visualization and Infographics - Smashing Magazine Advertisement The main goal of data visualization is its ability to visualize data, communicating information clearly and effectivelty. It doesn’t mean that data visualization needs to look boring to be functional or extremely sophisticated to look beautiful. To convey ideas effectively, both aesthetic form and functionality need to go hand in hand, providing insights into a rather sparse and complex data set by communicating its key-aspects in a more intuitive way. Yet designers often tend to discard the balance between design and function, creating gorgeous data visualizations which fail to serve its main purpose — communicate information. In both print and web design infographics — visual representations of information, data or knowledge — are often used to support information, strengthen it and present it within a provoking and sensitive context, depending on designer’s creativity. Data Visualization and Infographics Virtual Water11Simple, clean, elegant and effective. George W.

Data Visualisation ou l’art de se faire comprendre De nos jours il faut comprendre et se faire comprendre vite et bien. Une bonne présentation, un bon article ou bien un bon poster se distingue non seulement par un contenu pertinent mais aussi par des illustrations efficaces. On peut avoir la meilleure idée du monde, si on ne sait pas la mettre en valeur elle peut tout simplement passer à la trappe. Ce n'est un secret pour personne, le monde scientifique a encore de gros progrès à faire dans ce domaine. La Data Visualisation ou DataViz est l'étude des représentations visuelles de données et de l'abstraction de l'information sous forme de schémas. Ce qu'il faut retenir de tout ça c'est que selon le message que l'on veut faire passer, les données ne seront pas présentées de la même manière. Obtenez vos données (étonnant...)Posez vous une question : "Qu'est-ce que vous voulez tirer de ces données ?" Internet a fait apparaître un nouveau mode de visualisation de données très proche des posters scientifiques : les infographies.

Data Visualization: Modern Approaches - Smashing Magazine