FlowingData Forums » Tag: visualization

FlowingData Forums » Tag: visualization - Recent Topics http://forums.flowingdata.com/ Strength in Numbers en Fri, 30 Jul 2010 00:56:09 +0000 Factual looking for 3 software engineers, 1 data engineer http://forums.flowingdata.com/topic/factual-looking-for-3-software-engineers-1-data-engineer#post-1784 Fri, 18 Jun 2010 14:42:07 +0000 gnestor 1784@http://forums.flowingdata.com/ Factual is a well-funded and expanding start-up with a mission to create a platform where anyone can share and mash open data on any subject. We are pioneers in the worldwide trend towards open information flow, and our goal is to provide the infrastructure to curate high-quality data and make it accessible everywhere. See our Jobs page for details: <a href="http://www.factual.com/jobs" rel="nofollow">http://www.factual.com/jobs</a> Position: Data Software Engineer Location: Los Angeles, CA Description: Factual is looking for an engineer with good attention to detail that has both experience with and passion for large data. The candidate would take ownership of our data pipeline and manage the process and schedule to ensure timely delivery of data. The ideal candidate would: Have a CS degree Have 2+ years of professional hands-on software experience Have some experience with cloud computing or cluster management Be enthusiastic about large data Be eager to learn new tools and skills related to data and scripting Be able to propose out-of-the-box strategies based on insights about data Desired Skills (at least three of the following): Proficient in a language such as C++, Java, Python, Ruby, Perl Linux/bash scripting SQL and/or Extract/Transform/Load (ETL) frameworks HTML DOM/XPath and/or Regular expressions Project management Responsibilities: Oversee entire data pipeline and schedule Evaluate and judge algorithmically generated data and assess data quality Coordinate and run web-scale jobs on large clusters and write automation scripts Aggregate, clean, and merge data Generate, maintain, and operate the generation software and scripts Author CSS and XPath selectors Position: Data Engineer Location: Los Angeles, CA Description: Factual is looking for a fast-working multi-tasker with good attention to detail that has both experience with and passion for large data. The ideal candidate would: Have a degree in engineering, science, or linguistics Be eager to learn new tools and skills related to data and scripting Be able to propose out-of-the-box strategies based on insights about data Desired Skills (at least three of the following): Proficient in a language such as C++, Java, Python, Ruby, Perl Linux/bash scripting SQL and/or Extract/Transform/Load (ETL) frameworks HTML DOM/XPath and/or Regular expressions Speaks multiple languages Experience with data curation Linguistics research Project management Responsibilities: Research and analyze data on the web Evaluate and judge algorithmically generated data and assess data quality Curate data schemas Aggregate, clean, and merge data Generate, maintain, and operate the generation software and scripts Find and follow URL patterns using regular expressions Author CSS and XPath selectors Write automation scripts Position: Software Engineer, Large Data Processing Location: Los Angeles, CA Description: Factual Inc. has an immediate need for an experienced full-time software engineer who is excited about algorithms and large-scale data processing. We need a strong new team member for our mission to develop groundbreaking systems to cleanse huge datasets on-the-fly. If you are a seasoned software engineer who loves data and knows how to beat the averages, we'd like to talk to you. The ideal candidate would: Generally love data Be familiar with MapReduce programming models such as Hadoop Have good knowledge of parsing, duplicate detection, statistical and clustering algorithms Thrive in a start-up environment and enjoy wearing many hats Desired Skills: Degree in Computer Science or other technical / scientific field Fluency in Java Strong algorithms and data structures knowledge Experience in writing fast production code and code optimization Familiarity with databases, especially NoSQL databases Comfort with Unix and the command line Responsibilities: Collaborate with both the data team and the back-end team to design and develop our core production real-time data classification and improvement algorithms Create metrics, reports, and management tools to measure the effectiveness of our data cleansing - then use this feedback to further refine our next-generation algorithms Shepherd your product from initial concept to hands-on development, testing, and then all the way to deployment and production monitoring Position: Software Engineer, NoSQL Specialist Location: Los Angeles, CA Description: Factual Inc. has a pressing need for an experienced full-time software engineer who has a great fascination and knowledge of the NoSQL space - systems like HBase and Cassandra. Our company is all about data and we need to store and retrieve huge datasets with a guarantee of high availability and performance. Our ideal new team member is excited about working for a start-up and not afraid of a fast development cycle. The ideal candidate would: Generally love data Have a strong interest in cluster computing Thrive in a start-up environment and like wearing many hats Desired Skills: Degree in Computer Science or other technical / scientific field Fluency in Java Deep knowledge of BigTable, Cassandra, HBase, or a similar NoSQL database in production (experience with multiple NoSQL databases a big plus!) Experience in writing fast production code and code optimization Comfort with Unix and the command line EC2 experience a plus Responsibilities: Work on our back-end server team to design and develop a data storage platform that can serve the world Tune and tweak performance, from algorithms to machine configuration Shepherd your product from initial concept to hands-on development, testing, and then all the way to deployment and production monitoring Data posted for last week's vector geo visualizations http://forums.flowingdata.com/topic/data-posted-for-last-weeks-vector-geo-visualizations#post-1758 Thu, 03 Jun 2010 21:21:45 +0000 bvmou 1758@http://forums.flowingdata.com/ Hi all, I was really impressed with the Geotaggers World Atlas (see <a href="http://flowingdata.com/2010/05/25/world-atlas-of-flickr-geotaggers/" rel="nofollow">http://flowingdata.com/2010/05/25/world-atlas-of-flickr-geotaggers/</a> ) last week. The creator, Eric Fischer, very graciously offered to upload the raw data and it is now available at <a href="http://sfgeo.dyndns.org" rel="nofollow">http://sfgeo.dyndns.org</a> -- the atlas project is under /data/atlas, and there is also a subsequent dataset related to San Francisco public transit. There are also now some db dumps and tools for use with postgis. Would love to see more work like this -- also curious what other datasets like this exist, let me know if you know of or have any, or could share if you had donated hosting. Thanks! Ways to represent probability visually? http://forums.flowingdata.com/topic/ways-to-represent-probability-visually#post-1756 Wed, 02 Jun 2010 14:01:15 +0000 dc321 1756@http://forums.flowingdata.com/ Hello - I am interested in different ways to help ordinary people have a better sense of different probabilities of events. Does anyone have links to how interactive visualizations or different types of graphic displays can help people perceive probability better? The obvious application of this would be that you could help people better understand probabilities, you could help them figure out how to choose financial plans for retirement and the like. I'd be interested in examples of tools and also any links to academic research. Thanks in advance! PJIM Calling for Papers & Projects for Publication http://forums.flowingdata.com/topic/pjim-calling-for-papers-projects-for-publication-2#post-1725 Tue, 11 May 2010 12:43:44 +0000 Katie4PJIM 1725@http://forums.flowingdata.com/ Abstracts due: May 17, 2010 Full submissions due: June 21, 2010 The Parsons Journal for Information Mapping (PJIM) is calling for papers and projects for publication in the April 2010 issue. PJIM is an academic journal and online forum designed to share knowledge about information mapping and its related disciplines (information design, data/knowledge visualization, taxonomies, data analytics, informatics, information systems, and graphic interface design). PJIM is published quarterly by the Parsons Institute for Information Mapping and focuses on both the theoretical and practical aspects of information visualization. With each issue, the Journal aims to present novel ideas and approaches that advance the field of Knowledge Visualization through visual, engineering, and cognitive methods. We are interested in publishing original essays, academic manuscripts, interactive and non-interactive projects, and project documentation that address representation, processing, and communication of information. PJIM encourages interdisciplinary thinking and approaches. We are open to submissions regarding, but not limited to, the following disciplines: Visual analysis and interpretation, Social, political, or economic discourse surrounding information, distribution and use, Cognition, thinking, and learning, Visual and perceptual literacy, Historical uses of information and imagery, and Semiotics PJIM accepts submissions in the following styles: Traditional academic manuscripts that share empirical, methodological, and/or applied findings; Research-based academic essays with proper citations; Research and/or interview based articles; and Interactive and non-interactive projects, accompanied by project documentations. PJIM does not accept advertorials or case studies of companies or commercial products. Abstract Submissions Must Include the Following Information Authors (all): name, highest degree, mailing address, phone, fax, e-mail, and institutional affiliation as appropriate Biography (all authors): a brief, 25-50 word biography Title: title of your submission Keywords: a list of 5-10 keywords Abstract: description of the proposed, full submission, maximum of 250 words Format: description of the format of the final submission and what PJIM should expect to receive from you Technologies: description of project tools if applicable (e.g. URL, images, graphics, illustrations, etc.) All manuscripts and essays must be submitted and formatted in Microsoft Word or Rich Text Format. For more information and submission guidelines, visit <a href="http://piim.newschool.edu/journal/submissions" rel="nofollow">http://piim.newschool.edu/journal/submissions</a> About The Parsons Institute for Information Mapping The Parsons Institute for Information Mapping (PIIM) is a Research, Development, and Professional Services facility within The New School, located in New York City. PIIM's mission is to advance the field of Knowledge Visualization through academic and commercial pursuits. PIIM researchers and staff disseminate their expertise in information categorization, knowledge representation, information taxonomy development, information logic and raking/scoring, knowledge visualization, and Graphic User Interface (GUI) and User Experience Design (UXD) by developing powerful tools and methods for decision makers and analysts. PIIM's work seeks to increase decision maker and analyst cognition of complex data sets via efficient experiences and visualizations. In both its own research and its engagements with government agencies, corporations and other organizations, PIIM pushes the boundaries of information, engineering and visual design to develop new ways of thinking about information and to build and deliver corresponding real world solutions. For more information, visit <a href="http://piim.newschool.edu" rel="nofollow">http://piim.newschool.edu</a> Creating visualizations http://forums.flowingdata.com/topic/creating-visualizations#post-1687 Thu, 15 Apr 2010 13:39:16 +0000 ajp 1687@http://forums.flowingdata.com/ I'm a relatively young researcher at a small university in California who is looking to get a much better grasp of visualizing data and creating useful visualizations. Being young, however, I don't have a lot of experience with this kind of thing so I'm trying to learn on my own. I have been following some of the tutorials on FlowingData to get a feel for some of the visualization, but I'm ready to move beyond that. I've downloaded R and started playing around with it a bit, but the documentation is pretty bad. I'm wondering if any one knows of a place (or places) that would be very helpful to new users to R. I have some programming experience, but it's been at least 4 years since the last time I wrote any code - with some refresher though, I think it would come back pretty quickly. Anyway, any tips (books, websites, etc.) would be greatly appreciated! Health information design with geographic skills http://forums.flowingdata.com/topic/health-information-design-with-geographic-skills#post-1649 Thu, 25 Mar 2010 22:22:59 +0000 dvansickle 1649@http://forums.flowingdata.com/ Asthmapolis is a creative health company, with a platform of devices and applications that captures valuable information about asthma from daily life. Imagine a research-driven, geographically-aware Fitbit for asthma, that also aggregates data for scientific research and public health. We're a recent University of Wisconsin spinout, currently focused on a small number of academic and government clients. Over the next several months, we plan to develop and offer services to new groups of consumers. In preparation for this, we're looking for a person with strong intuition and skills in information visualization and design, statistics (time series and geographic), and user experience to join us remotely in some form. Help us envision and build superior, engaging interfaces and practical dashboards that help people understand and make use of our rich data stream (and community data) and reshape how asthma is managed and researched around the world. Please get in touch if this sounds exciting to you and you have great work that you can share. David Van Sickle <a href="mailto:david@asthmapolis.com" rel="nofollow">david@asthmapolis.com</a> WinterOlympicsMedals.com http://forums.flowingdata.com/topic/winterolympicsmedalscom#post-1550 Mon, 22 Feb 2010 18:38:24 +0000 annie 1550@http://forums.flowingdata.com/ Pretty cool data set here - <a href="http://developer.yahoo.net/blog/archives/2010/02/winterolympicsmedals_yql_and_yui.html" rel="nofollow">http://developer.yahoo.net/blog/archives/2010/02/winterolympicsmedals_yql_and_yui.html</a> How would you layout the data? Senior Graphic Designer (Bloomington, IN) http://forums.flowingdata.com/topic/senior-graphic-designer-bloomington-in#post-1261 Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:16:52 +0000 Katy 1261@http://forums.flowingdata.com/ The Cyberinfrastructure for Network Science Center (<a href="http://cns.slis.indiana.edu" rel="nofollow">http://cns.slis.indiana.edu</a>) is seeking an energetic and creative Senior Graphic Designer. The successful applicant will work on graphic and web designs for the Center in close collaboration with the Centerâ€™s director, Professor Katy Borner, and research staff. The work comprises original designs for images used in technical publications or grant proposals, logos, advertisement material, posters, flyers, software image design like icons and splash screens, and web pages. The job requires close collaboration with a web developer/programmer team, interaction with the schoolâ€™s staff and outside vendors in a professional manner, keeping track of and meeting simultaneous deadlines, an efficient system for processing emails and managing project demands, and the organization and archival of major design products so that they can be (re)used in future editions. Must be able to work independently but coordinate all efforts and function effectively as part of a multidisciplinary team. Requirements - BA or BFA in Graphic Design, Visual Communications, Computer Graphics, Multimedia, or Illustration. - 4 years professional experience in web design and print design. - Proven developer experience with web presentation technologies: HTML, XHTML, CSS. - Java, Perl, ActionScript, and Ruby experience is a plus. - Knowledge of Adobe Creative Suite. - Ability to create seamless link between creative, thoughtful design and database driven information. - Need to be familiar working in a mac/windows environment. This is a full-time, 40-hour a week position. Payment is hourly initially but a full-time staff position will become available in Jan 2010. For consideration send your resume and link to online portfolio (that demonstrates excellence in graphic design skills and a high degree of innovation) along with requested hourly rate through this craigslist email. Use email subject header "CNS-Design". Software used http://forums.flowingdata.com/topic/software-used#post-97 Tue, 16 Sep 2008 19:35:52 +0000 Btibert3 97@http://forums.flowingdata.com/ What software do you use to create your graphics? I see the graphics on this blog and clearly they are not created in Excel. I am trying to create more professional graphics that can explain the story behind my analysis. Thanks in advance, Brock yfd overall visualizations http://forums.flowingdata.com/topic/yfd-overall-visualizations#post-852 Sun, 12 Jul 2009 14:11:45 +0000 copey 852@http://forums.flowingdata.com/ I am not sure if am missing this or what, I just recently started using the new yfd and was not part of the original beta, but is there an "overview" page that can be set up at all? to monitor progress on certain things? similar to your <a href="http://projects.flowingdata.com/weight" rel="nofollow">http://projects.flowingdata.com/weight</a> page? and if not, is this display functionality going to be added? i think this has great potential, and trying to weigh the options and features vs daytum to select one to really keep track of my daily life, but without some sort of overview/configuragle display panels all i have is a collection of data really. anyway, keep up the great work with the site and thank you for opening it up to more people. Visualization And Problem Solving http://forums.flowingdata.com/topic/visualization-and-problem-solving#post-844 Fri, 10 Jul 2009 20:37:23 +0000 xerond 844@http://forums.flowingdata.com/ Hey there I wanted to drop in and say how awesome it is to have all of these project examples referenced to and described here in one place. I've learned a lot and continue to follow everything here. All in all, thanks Nathan. =) On a second note I have a request for anyone who might be interested. I little while ago a concept for a web application appeared to me, and so I've been researching and trying to educate myself as much as I can about the subject. The project is barely in an infant stage as we're trying to get the design details together about how we might attempt this project, here is a small explanation of it: What? The Synergy Project aims to create a free, open-source web application used for collaborative problem solving. Features: For issues to be submitted within a local context, yet available globally. Specifically and generally relating user profiles to problems submitted to the system. To render these "issues" to users based on user concern. We would like to use various 3d models to display the population of these issues as they relate to each-other, and the concern factor they hold. To attach real world events and source material to these issues as they evolve. To show concern trending with each problem to give users an idea what kind of attention it is attracting. To create a proposal system for users to submit comprehensive suggestions for fixes. This proposal system would ask the user to address as much source material as possible. How? Currently we're in the process of nailing down which platforms to attack. We're considering modifying MediaWiki and using it as an initial platform with which to launch development. Since we hope to integrate some more advanced visualizations compared to a standard wiki page, we're looking to figure out the best way to achieve that. Why? In practicality there are already models in place that are proving the proficiency of collaborative organizations. The biggest example being Wikipedia. So why not step it up and test the bounds of this type of organization? Some positive possibilities would be fast and diverse reporting of world events as they happen. Just as we see how fast Wikipedia pages manifest and update, we could see that here. We could witness open discussions that encourages users from diverse geographic areas and different fields of experience. The kind of data that could be received from such diverse input would be publicly available to anyone. And possibly, to translate any positive conclusions found within the system into the real world. There are a ton of other little details we're contemplating, but at the moment we're just trying to figure out how it might work. I'm looking for advice on this as it is much bigger than me. I'm not a programmer(yet!) at the moment but am learning vigorously. My goals are centered around human-computer interaction, but in terms of time, I feel limited. (a little kid who wants to drive a race car) I'm humble in knowing this is bigger than me, but I want to figure it out regardless. Any advice is golden to me. Thanks for your time. =) <a href="http://www.OneSynergy.org" rel="nofollow">http://www.OneSynergy.org</a> Processing vs Flash? http://forums.flowingdata.com/topic/processing-vs-flash#post-716 Tue, 09 Jun 2009 11:58:53 +0000 yghitza 716@http://forums.flowingdata.com/ I'm new to advanced visualization tools (i.e. anything besides R and Excel) and trying to figure out what tools to learn. I'm hoping to make some custom interactive web-accessible visualizations -- think of Hans Rosling as a starting point -- and have some coding background. I get the sense that Processing and Flash/Actionscript are two of the main options. From what I can tell, people seem to describe Processing as a learning tool and a good place to start, but then you might want to move to something else. My question: what does Processing lack that Flash/Actionscript has? In other words, if I learn Processing (which is open source and has a ton of easily accessible learning materials), what are the drawbacks? Can Flash more easily handle large-scale data, advanced GUIs, something else? Is there something else I should consider? I looked around a little bit but haven't found satisfying answers to these questions. For what it's worth, I'm a student so cheap or free is always a bonus. At the same time, I'll be investing a lot of time so I'm not just looking for a temporary solution. Thanks for any help! VisualMOA: visual sequenced genome browser http://forums.flowingdata.com/topic/visualmoa-visual-sequenced-genome-browser#post-720 Tue, 09 Jun 2009 13:36:47 +0000 femion 720@http://forums.flowingdata.com/ VisualMOA is an applet which provides a visual frontend for the Microbial Online Analysis database, which contains over 600 sequenced genomes of bacteria, archaea, and small worms and plants. It's intended for an audience of bioinformatics/biology people, but I tried to make the controls and visualization intuitive enough for non-biologists. Organisms can be selected through either a radial or tree based view. Once an organism is selected, the known chromosomes or plasmids for that organism are displayed and can be selected to view the genes on that chromosome. Genes are coloured by their function. Further information can be displayed by hovering over the gene. If it exists, microbe properties, images and descriptions are displayed. It pauses for a few seconds when loading genome sequences (the applet must call a php script which searches a 3 million row MySQL table). <a href="http://ratite.cs.dal.ca/visualmoa" rel="nofollow">http://ratite.cs.dal.ca/visualmoa</a> For more information on what you're seeing, please check out: <a href="http://ratite.cs.dal.ca/visualmoa/applet/what.html" rel="nofollow">http://ratite.cs.dal.ca/visualmoa/applet/what.html</a> Unfortunately, we don't have mammals in our database, even through they've been sequenced. Storing this information would be a strain on our resources, and our lab group focuses on microbes. Interview with Martin Wattenberg from IBM VCL http://forums.flowingdata.com/topic/interview-with-martin-wattenberg-from-ibm-vcl#post-713 Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:27:02 +0000 nathany 713@http://forums.flowingdata.com/ "The key to success is finding data you think is tremendously important, and that you want to share with other people." <a href="http://wehrintheworld.blogspot.com/2009/06/q-with-martin-wattenberg.html" rel="nofollow">http://wehrintheworld.blogspot.com/2009/06/q-with-martin-wattenberg.html</a> Visualization Project About Viral Growth http://forums.flowingdata.com/topic/visualization-project-about-viral-growth#post-613 Thu, 09 Apr 2009 19:28:05 +0000 jfarmer 613@http://forums.flowingdata.com/ Hey everyone, I'm looking to find someone with data visualization expertise to work on a project about viral growth. I have a handful of statistical models that I use or am developing and want to captstone them with some awesome visualizations. I'd love to discuss all aspects of this project with anyone interested, from the data/model side to the rudimentary visualization ideas I have. I'm sure someone with domain expertise would have lots of great ideas, too. I'm also open to discussing compensation, although ideally we'd both be working gratis with the promise of co-authoring an article or series of articles. I personally won't be making any money directly from this project. Respond here or drop me a line at <a href="mailto:jesse@20bits.com" rel="nofollow">jesse@20bits.com</a> with FlowingData somewhere in the subject if you're interested. Best, Jesse Web-based Study on Visual Search http://forums.flowingdata.com/topic/web-based-study-on-visual-search#post-607 Tue, 31 Mar 2009 20:17:25 +0000 marian 607@http://forums.flowingdata.com/ We are researchers at the University of Calgary and are conducting a Web-based study on information visualization and Web search. Participants of this study are asked to use a visual search prototype for as long as they wish and fill out short questionnaires before and after using the system. The purpose of this research is to better understand performance and usability issues of information visualization supporting search on the Web. The data collected during the study will be anonymous and the questionnaires will not ask for any personal information. If you are interested in participating, please visit this Web page: <a href="http://pages.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/~mdoerk/view" rel="nofollow">http://pages.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/~mdoerk/view</a> If you have any questions, please contact me at mdoerk[at]ucalgary[dot]ca for more information. In addition, if you have friends or colleagues who you believe might also be interested in participating in this research, we would be grateful if you were to talk to them about this research opportunity and/or forward them this information about our study. Thanks so much for your help! [attachment=607,97] Getting into Visualisation work in the UK http://forums.flowingdata.com/topic/getting-into-visualisation-work-in-the-uk#post-452 Sun, 22 Feb 2009 13:02:56 +0000 SmeeZee 452@http://forums.flowingdata.com/ Hi there Ok, I am a recent "mature" graduate in Computer Science (Masters) and whilst doing my course I was told about Processing. Since graduating I have been working through the book Visualizing Data, and am about to publish a couple of example. Does anyone have advise on getting in this industry (specifically in the UK)? I am stuck in a horrible contracting position at the moment due to the state of the market and am struggling to keep my focus on this subject (as it was escape from the job). Sorry to go on... Anyone inspire me further? MachetEC2: Open Visualization / Big Data Toolkit on Amazon EC2 http://forums.flowingdata.com/topic/machetec2-open-visualization-big-data-toolkit-on-amazon-ec2#post-330 Wed, 28 Jan 2009 17:58:39 +0000 mrflip 330@http://forums.flowingdata.com/ Hi, We're assembling MachetEC2, a free Amazon AWS EC2 instance that comes out of the box with a full suite of data analysis and visualization tools. (Obviously the compute time is on your dime, but the base instance is there for you to grab, for free, and get to hackin') What tools do you want to have in there? We're going to push this up in the next few days -- look for an announcement on the <a href="blog.infochimps.org" rel="nofollow">infochimps blog</a>, and we'll reply here too. If you'd like to help, set up something you find essential and tweet/email us to 'pull' from your instance. (You'll have to use a credit card to get an instance, but it's so cheap it'll only cost a buck or two; and once it's set up we'll pull it onto our account where everyone can get it.) If there's already something like this floating around, please let us know and we'll work with them instead. We'll initially post up some subset of: * Ruby, Python, Erlang, R * MySQL, PostgreSQL * AllegroGraph, CouchDB * Hadoop, Hive, Pig * Cytoscape, Gruff * Processing, Prefuse/Flare, Modest Maps * NLTK, SciPy ... * YOUR SUGGESTION HERE This will fit in with the things we're helping to add to the AWS Public Data Sets. We want you to be able to use infochimps to find something or pull down the Public Data Set of your choice; to load that dataset next to your MachetEC2 instance clone, and be whailing on data from go. At some later point we can specialize (MachetEC2-viz, MachetEC2-ML for machine learning folks, MachetEC2-ling for linguistics, etc), so feel free to suggest things of (somewhat) narrow focus, and even more free as I said to set it up and ping us. Free/Open software only, of cours. Visualizing Music Metadata http://forums.flowingdata.com/topic/visualizing-music-metadata#post-318 Tue, 27 Jan 2009 12:42:03 +0000 cloister 318@http://forums.flowingdata.com/ My company has a database of tens of thousands of artists, their albums, and the song titles that go along with them, all tagged with genre. I'm not sure how many artists and albums are in the database, but I know that the song titles run into a couple of million, anyway. This data set is begging me to do something interesting with it. And I have high confidence that the right visualization(s) could yield some fresh insights into this particular landscape of entertainment. So if you all are willing, I'd like to tap the collective brilliance of the FlowingData audience for some ideas of creative ways to look at this. Thanks! Associate in Research (AR) for Software Development at Duke University http://forums.flowingdata.com/topic/associate-in-research-ar-for-software-development-at-duke-university#post-170 Mon, 15 Dec 2008 00:48:40 +0000 nathany 170@http://forums.flowingdata.com/ 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 thatâ€™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. Seamanâ€™s projects; Manage databases for Prof. Seamanâ€™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)