FlowingData Forums: Recent Posts

New Job Center at The IT-Finance Connection

CarlW — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 10:40:59 +0000

The IT-Finance Connection [ <a href="http://www.it-financeconnection.com" rel="nofollow">www.it-financeconnection.com</a> ] has launched an admittedly rudimentary job center for people seeking, and those offering, BI-related jobs. If you or your organization fits into either category, send me a posting at carlw@ it-financeconnection.com . Either include your email address in the body of the posting, or have responses sent to me and I’ll send them along. It’s free, of course.

Quantified Self Meetups in Locations Other than SF

nathany — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 22:01:29 +0000

The Quantified Self group is encouraging meetups in other cities outside of San Francisco. <a href="http://quantifiedself.wik.is/index.php?title=QS_SHOW%26TELL" rel="nofollow">http://quantifiedself.wik.is/index.php?title=QS_SHOW%26TELL</a> They've already got a few new proposed locations including New York, Boston, and DC.

Do you do data visualization freelance work?

nathany — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 18:26:08 +0000

Let's get a list started. I only really know of a few who do freelance data visualization. Leave your name, website, and attach a sample of your work.

Election map follow-up from Axis Maps

zpousman — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 19:01:50 +0000

Wow, these are quite nice. One thing that I immediately notice is the true "island of blue" nature of Atlanta, GA (a very liberal city in a very conservative state). It's there in each of the visualizations;(either by total population or population density. The use of transparency in non-geographic visualizations is also under-explored IMO.

Design Contest: Fix Our Energy Addiction - Win $10,000

nathany — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 11:32:26 +0000

Metropolis Magazine is holding a competition challenging new designers to challenge our way of living: <a href="http://www.metropolismag.com/nextgen/" rel="nofollow">http://www.metropolismag.com/nextgen/</a> From the page: <blockquote>Call for Entries Win $10,000 FIX OUR ENERGY ADDICTION Rising energy costs present new design problems. Redesign the broken models of the 20th century. Challenge our patterns of living and working in a fuel-hungry world…come up with solutions that connect us, make us more efficient, more humane. Ask yourself… How would I bring work closer to home? Can a product help eliminate long commutes? What can I do to revitalize old ideas such as living above the store? What kind of interiors or furnishings does a telecommuter really need? Or follow your own dreams…what calls out for a major redesign? Focus on one area that needs fixing—products, interiors, buildings and landscape, communication systems, or anything else you can imagine—and develop your idea fully. Open to all designers in practice 10 years or less. </blockquote>

Personal Informatics from the Wall Street Journal

nathany — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 22:30:00 +0000

<a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122852285532784401.html" rel="nofollow">http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122852285532784401.html</a> The usual suspects - Nick Felton, mycrocosm, bedposted

Interactivos '09 - Call for Collaborators

nathany — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 12:22:08 +0000

Call for collaborators: December 30, 2008 - January 25, 2009 <blockquote>Open call for the submission of projects to be collaboratively developed within the framework of the Interactivos?'09: Garage Science international workshop and seminar (January 28 through February 14, 2009). The aim is to design and build experimental and critical prototypes such as mechanical, digital, and biological devices, using open software and open hardware tools, as well as low cost materials. Selected papers will be presented during the Seminar (January 28 and 29, 2009). Keywords: Garage science, critical design, bioart, mechanical devices, automatons, robots, impossible machines, Rube Goldberg's machines, pataphysic, energy, physical computing, free hardware, fabbing, recycling, biocomputing, biology, biohacking, biopunk, “license to fail”. </blockquote>

How to Write an R Package - Tutorial

hadley — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 22:37:19 +0000

And if you're familiar with other programming languages with comment based documentation systems, be sure to check out roxygen: <a href="http://roxygen.org/" rel="nofollow">http://roxygen.org/</a>

How to Write an R Package - Tutorial

nathany — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 18:39:12 +0000

In case you're a R user (most likely not though), think about bundling up your code in a package so that others can use it: <a href="http://epub.ub.uni-muenchen.de/6175/1/tr036.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://epub.ub.uni-muenchen.de/6175/1/tr036.pdf</a>

Last.fm release best of 2008

nathany — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 18:37:32 +0000

What the title says... <a href="http://www.last.fm/charts/hypetrack" rel="nofollow">http://www.last.fm/charts/hypetrack</a>

Article Help

iamdanw — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 17:38:39 +0000

Hey johno, I might be able to help introduce you some people. Have you got any contact details?

Election map follow-up from Axis Maps

nathany — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 16:31:52 +0000

In a follow up to <a href="http://flowingdata.com/2008/11/13/alternative-to-cartograms-using-transparency/">using transparency in maps</a>, Axis Maps experiments with different colors and ways to split the data to tell a more complete story: <a href="http://www.axismaps.com/blog/2008/12/election-map-follow-up/" rel="nofollow">http://www.axismaps.com/blog/2008/12/election-map-follow-up/</a>

Software used

Daniel — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 13:06:00 +0000

frets: Google Charts isn't compelling from a visualization perspective. The output is limited in resolution and it's difficult to tweak the results (and because the output is a bitmap, it's not terribly convenient for importing into something like Illustrator to hand-tweak). The big draw of Google Charts is that it's easy to automate. So, I've used it for places where I needed to auto-generate and auto-update graphics (for example, website statistics); I would probably never use it in a place where I wanted to do a one-off by hand.

What kind of education do you recommend?

nathany — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 12:47:59 +0000

Hey abw, you'll probably get a lot out of taking some design classes to learn the necessary skills (e.g. Adobe Illustrator). Of course, you might be able to learn just as well on your own, depending on your learning style. Personally, I got my start with an internship, but I think that might have been a rare case. If it's of any encouragement, almost everyone I worked with during my internship did not have a degree in design.

What kind of education do you recommend?

abw — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 08:52:20 +0000

I am a new college grad, and have been interested in infographics/graphic design for a while now. I like to play around with it on my own, but I have very little actual experience (my degree is in History). I'm wondering what kind of education you might recommend to get some training in the programming, analysis, and design aspects of infographics. Masters programs? Design school? Just learning the software and trying to find internships?

Software used

ftr — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 06:45:31 +0000

I used the freeware ViSta for visual bivariate and multivariate analysis (with small data sets). Here you can get an idea of the plots you can produce: <a href="http://www.uv.es/prodat/ViSta/" rel="nofollow">http://www.uv.es/prodat/ViSta/</a> and <a href="http://www.uv.es/visualstats/Book/Figures.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.uv.es/visualstats/Book/Figures.htm</a> The authors wrote a manual the which is expensive but excellent: Forrest W. Young, Pedro M. Valero-Mora and Michael Friendly. Visual Statistics. Seeing Data with Dynamic Interactive Graphics. Wiley Series in Probability and Statistics (2006) They say Visual Statistics brings the most complex and advanced statistical methods within reach of those with little statistical training by using animated graphics of the data. Using ViSta: The Visual Statistics System-developed by Forrest Young and Pedro Valero-Mora and available free of charge on the Internet-students can easily create fully interactive visualizations from relevant mathematical statistics, promoting perceptual and cognitive understanding of the data's story. An emphasis is placed on a paradigm for understanding data that is visual, intuitive, geometric, and active, rather than one that relies on convoluted logic, heavy mathematics, systems of algebraic equations, or passive acceptance of results. You get the current version here: <a href="http://www.uv.es/visualstats/Book/DownloadBook.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.uv.es/visualstats/Book/DownloadBook.htm</a>

Tis the season for... infographics contests

nathany — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 17:56:28 +0000

GOOD Magazine is running a contest for current state of economy - DEADLINE: January 31, 2009 - Prize: $500 - <a href="http://www.good.is/?p=14140" rel="nofollow">http://www.good.is/?p=14140</a> Chance Magazine on antibiotic data - DEADLINE: January 15, 2009 - Prize: Free subscription to Chance Magazine - <a href="http://www.stat.columbia.edu/~cook/movabletype/archives/2008/12/chance-magazine.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.stat.columbia.edu/~cook/movabletype/archives/2008/12/chance-magazine.html</a>

Article Help

johno — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 11:42:08 +0000

Hi, I'm writing a feature on 'lifetracking' for the new UK Wired magazine to be launched in the Spring. I've only just come across this and it's fascinating. I need to talk to some UK based people out there either using or developing this self-tracking. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks! John

Why People Like Streamgraphs So Much

nathany — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 23:12:28 +0000

I've been trying to figure out why exactly the streamgraph was such a big hit to the mass audience. The <a href="http://www.leebyron.com/else/streamgraph/">Byron/Wattenberg paper</a> puts it pretty clearly (and was a pretty interesting read). It pretty much came down to a visualization that didn't look statistical. Streamgraphs have an organic feel to them, and it drew people in - like the data had life. That's what excites me most about data visualization - the blend of statistics and design. Statistics is really good at finding interesting things in data and design is really good at evoking emotion. Put the two together, and you've got some excellent viz. I just wish there was more blending going on.

Software used

hadley — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 18:36:58 +0000

I'll put in a shameless plug for my graphics package for R: ggplot2, <a href="http://had.co.nz/ggplot2/." rel="nofollow">http://had.co.nz/ggplot2/.</a> You'll also find a (currently free) copy of the ggplot2 book at <a href="http://had.co.nz/ggplot2/book." rel="nofollow">http://had.co.nz/ggplot2/book.</a> For general data manipulation, I'd recommend Phil Spector's book "Data manipulation with R", but I'm not sure of a good general introduction to stats with R for someone who is comfortable programming.

Software used

nathany — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 11:01:41 +0000

Maybe you're looking for "R Graphics" by Murrell. It's more focused on the graphic side of things and less on the analysis (which R is sorta primarily used for) that you probably found in Verzani's book.

Software used

pvg — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 10:55:15 +0000

Along these lines, do any of you have recommendations on the best way to learn R? Specifically, I'm comfortable with programming (especially the OO paradigm) but don't know statistics very well. I've written infovis apps in prefuse, but not much with data graphics. I started reading Verzani's "Using R for Introductory Statistics" and found it uninspiring. Anyone have a favorite book, website, or tutorial for someone in my shoes?

Associate in Research (AR) for Software Development at Duke University

nathany — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 00:48:40 +0000

Visual Studies and Visualization Associate in Research (AR) for Software Development Duke University The Visual Studies and Visualization initiatives are seeking an experienced software programmer with visualization and/or art experience to serve as an Associate in Research. The two main duties of this position are to a) manage projects and provide technical support for the MediaWall installation in the Duke LINK teaching and learning center and b) serve as a resource for projects spearheaded by Prof. Bill Seaman. The successful candidate will be comfortable with the linux operating system and some database tools as well as attention to details necessary for art installations. The successful candidate will work well with faculty and students, be intelligent, flexible, and highly personable. Media Wall Description: The Media Wall is a 48 monitor tiled display (12 x 4) controlled by a linux cluster with three cone speakers and four web cameras. The media wall, along with nearby wall space that�s augmented with speakers and web cameras, are designed for art installations, visualization projects, and engineering projects. The AR would be the primary point of contact for coordinating "calls for participation" for projects for the walls, interface with faculty who want to use the wall for classroom exercises or projects, as well as the technical support person to get those projects installed and working. Prof. Bill Seaman Projects Description: Create a new form of multi-modal database for art, research, and coursework working in conjunction with Seaman, including the development of links to chosen external distributed databases. Add additional functionality to a dynamic website. Responsibilities: Work with student organizations and faculty to get new artwork and multimedia projects developed and installed on the media wall; Manage media wall projects by setting policies, managing disk space, determining rotation schedules; Evaluate, install, and support multimedia software on a variety of platforms (Linux, Mac OSX) Develop software for the Media Wall and Prof. Seaman�s projects; Manage databases for Prof. Seaman�s projects; Work as part of a team of staff and faculty in Visual Studies to share knowledge and expertise Collaborate with visualization staff on distributed software solutions. Skills: Ability to manage multiple deadlines and projects. Ability to mentor and train students, staff and faculty. Strong interpersonal skills and a positive attitude are absolutely essential, as the position will require working closely with a wide variety of people. Knowledge of relational databases with the potential to author a new form of multi-modal database. Ability to include sensory information streams (i.e. video cams, pressure sensors, heat sensors, sonar) into databases, art and engineering installations. The ability to install peripherals into a computer system. This could include trouble shooting, hardware hacking, sensor knowledge. Candidate must be comfortable with Linux, have knowledge of: C, C++, and a working knowledge of python or java or perl. Additional preference will be given to candidates who have also worked with the Processing language. Education and Experience: Candidate should, at the minimum have an advanced degree in Computer Science, Engineering or Masters of Fine Art. Interested candidates should send cover letter and CV to Renee Brown (brownrr [at] duke [dot] edu) Questions should be directed to Rachael Brady (rbrady [at] duke [dot] edu) or Bill Seaman (bill [dot] seaman [at] duke [dot] edu)

Finding a Job in the Design Field

nathany — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 17:51:45 +0000

Finding a <a href="http://flowingdata.com/2008/12/10/what-jobs-are-there-in-data-visualization/">job in data visualization</a> is a lot like finding a job in the design field, I imagine. Viget has a post on such: <a href="http://www.viget.com/inspire/finding-a-job-in-the-design-field/" rel="nofollow">http://www.viget.com/inspire/finding-a-job-in-the-design-field/</a>

Software used

etiennebr — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 14:27:09 +0000

I use R and Inkscape. Same work flow than Nathan suggest (pdf). From Inkscape, you can save it as a pdf or svg (default format) or many other formats. For what I want to do, I've tried Illustrator, but it is too complex. It is like taking a bazooka to shoot a fly. You can do many things with Inkscape and it is fast to learn. R : <a href="http://www.r-project.org/" rel="nofollow">http://www.r-project.org/</a> Inkscape : <a href="http://www.inkscape.org/" rel="nofollow">http://www.inkscape.org/</a>

Workshop on Visualizing the Past

nathany — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 22:57:29 +0000

There's a workshop on visualizing the past at the University of Richmond, February 20-21, 2009. They're currently accepting proposals. Here's some info: <blockquote>The digital revolution has made massive amounts of historical and social science data available to scholars in electronic formats, and this phenomenon is opening new possibilities for exploring the human past. The ability to plot historical processes embedded in these datasets using mapping and visualization tools holds remarkable promise for providing scholars new insights into old questions. This project brings together leading scholars and practitioners from multiple disciplines (geography, history, geographic information science, computer science, graphic arts, among others) to explore the potential of visualization work for humanities research. We invite proposals for presentations at a workshop that will be held on February 20-21, 2009 at the University of Richmond. The project is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, and directed by the University of Richmond and James Madison University.</blockquote> For more information, go here: <a href="http://dsl.richmond.edu/workshop/" rel="nofollow">http://dsl.richmond.edu/workshop/</a>

How can i convert measured units of voice into visuals

nathany — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 21:59:15 +0000

on the subject of sound, this just went up on infosthetics: <a href="http://infosthetics.com/archives/2008/11/visible_sound_graph_sewing_machine.html" rel="nofollow">http://infosthetics.com/archives/2008/11/visible_sound_graph_sewing_machine.html</a>

How can i convert measured units of voice into visuals

nathany — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 02:40:51 +0000

Hi Charlotte, I guess the tool is going to depend on what you're looking for exactly, but one option is <a href="http://processing.org">Processing</a>. Take a look at the available libraries here: <a href="http://processing.org/reference/libraries/index.html" rel="nofollow">http://processing.org/reference/libraries/index.html</a> Scroll down a little bit, and you'll see the "Sound" section. I think that's what you're looking for. Don't really non-programming solutions though...

How can i convert measured units of voice into visuals

Charlotte — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 07:00:26 +0000

Hello everyone, welcome to my blog Excuse me for being so naive on the subject, this is all quite new to me. Can anyone inform me with what programme would be best to use take measurements of a voice, ie volume, tone, frequency etc to then create a visual? Also I understand these visuals are created in 2d using illustrator for example but how are these then animated? is ti all through a programming software like Max msp or processor? If so which is best? Thankyou for your time Charlotte

NewsCharts

nathany — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 10:16:33 +0000

The third dimension is mostly just unneeded flare, IMO, or in other words, the added flare doesn't make the charts anymore useful.

NewsCharts

chrislewis — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 09:00:48 +0000

Thanks for the feedback Nathan. Why do you think we should abandon the third dimension, I am curious. A lot of the positive comment we get on the site is about the cool 3D look of the charts, and the interactive ability to toggle between different looks. Are you saying there is a better way?

NewsCharts

nathany — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 20:12:38 +0000

I see you made use of FusionCharts. To be honest, I'm not much of a fan. Might I suggest abandoning the third dimension?

Software used

antiknijn — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 07:11:52 +0000

Actually, R has an SVG graphics device that does a great job, see <a href="http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/RSvgDevice/index.html." rel="nofollow">http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/RSvgDevice/index.html.</a>

NewsCharts

chrislewis — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 22:16:56 +0000

We've just launched in Beta at <a href="http://www.newscharts.com" rel="nofollow">www.newscharts.com</a> and would appreciate any comments or feedback on our approach from this community, which is to visualize daily news topics inside data containers, using data clustering techniques. Sign up for a free account at our site and create your own news charts to see how the service might work for you.

Highly variable data

mrflip — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 10:51:17 +0000

I'd show the PDF, not the CDF. You could cite other probabilities next to each bin -- from "getting two of a kind on your first deal in poker" to <a href="http://www.nsc.org/research/odds.aspx">Dying in a Streetcar Accident</a>