Etymologically speaking: a world interactive map

May 5, 2012By carlainteractives

This interactive world map, created by Spanish data journalist and developer Chiqui Esteban, is fun, beautiful and informative even if etymology is not your bent. I’m going to spend way, way too much time on this map. Roll your cursor over the map to see a customizable, magnified view of each country’s name, and it’s English translation, ranging from Equalizer, to Chief Smith, to Land of the Enjoyers of Beautiful Things. I’ll let you figure out which those are, and ponder the sad irony of good intentions gone wrong, in many instances.

The World in Plain English - Interactive Map

 

The popes and football, visualized in Portugal

May 3, 2012By carlainteractives

If I get hit by a bus, I’d like to come back reincarnated as a lab rat in the Universidad Porto’s Laboratorio de Infografía (Portugal). I’m pretty sure I know how the Catholic Church feels about reincarnation. But I wonder how they would feel about this interactive that covers 15 popes from 1900 to 2001. I suspect this is pretty old (it’s Flash) but it’s fun and not very complex. The interface is somewhat clunky–the transitions over the word clouds (of which I am not a fan, but for entertainment, they work) could be much smoother. Nonetheless, if you must use these lazy gems (and I have) this is an interesting use of word clouds and rollovers.

Universidad Porto Papas Flash Interactive

While you’re at it, check out this football transfers data visualization, also from Universidad Porto. It ranks the amounts spent on player transfers in European football clubs (as well as the biggest spenders and how Portuguese clubs fare). The first tab shows the European market (roll over the club names to find total spent (shown as millions of Euros) and where (inside the circle). Unfortunately the donut chart format that is meant to compliment the numeric totals is pretty useless. Totals run along the bottom. Second and third tabs show the four largest Portuguese clubs (incoming and outgoing transfers) and the most expensive players, respectively. Don’t forget to click on the second tab’s player origin/destination link (“ver origem e destine dos jug adores”).

Universidad Porto European transfers

 

Bolivia 2.0? The role of data, technology and information in Bolivia in 2012

April 29, 2012By carlainformation, interactives, news

It is by now a cliché to to point out how developing countries most in need of what data journalism provides–a credible, fact-based approach that cuts through the noise of bias to help average citizens become informed participants in the problem-solving processes of improving social-political challenges–is not (quite) manifesting itself where it is most needed. Yeah, that’s a long sentence. But Bolivia is a case in point.

A search for data visualization in Bolivia yields mostly European NGOs posting myriad Tableau and GoogleMap visualizations about the usual statistics on health and economy–laudable efforts in their own right, but not a good representation of the state of information and data visualization in Bolivia proper.

To find what Bolivians are doing, you need lots of time and a high level of tolerance for dead links. But it’s out there. As a recent example, Bolivian@s Globales produced a modern, candid video on the state of Bolivia. It’s a solid blend of information and optimism, and shows us what today’s Bolivians are capable of producing in the digital space.

And–in a country where where the government can be reliably counted upon to discourage openness and transparency–multimedia, even the simple use of video, is critical. Fortunately, there is evidence that digital journalism is growing. The major papers went online years ago, but more importantly, there are now digital journalism sites and signs that Bolivian bloggers are growing, both in quality and in numbers.

Crowdsourcing, mapping and social media in Bolivian elections

Sadly, one of the most encouraging examples of data visualization and social media in Bolivia went dark, but the screenshots and documentation that remain are encouraging. In 2009, Voces Bolivianas and other Bolivians began using data visualization to monitor Bolivian elections (Elecciones 2.0 Bolivia). See how monitoring was crowdsourced through GoogleMaps:

Elecciones 2-0 Bolivia

Coupled with Twitter, a Facebook page and other social media, Elecciones 2.0 Bolivia was groundbreaking for Bolivians. Re-visto, an online investigative journalism site run by Deutche Welle, interviewed Mario Duran (a noted Bolivian blogger) on the groundswell of acceptance and use of social media and digital journalism in the 2009 elections (English translation here). And there was a New York Times write-up of how Bolivians were covering the elections referendum on Twitter.

Other Bolivian data visualization projects of note:

Bolivians’ access to reliable Internet:

Bolivia (as well as other developing nations and rural communities in the U.S.) faces another challenge–reliable internet speeds. A recent Bolivian infographic (in Spanish) describes the problem and the social media citizen lobbying effort (Mas y major internet en Bolivia–Better and more Internet in Bolivia) to address it.

I’ll be honest. As I was researching information for this post, I found myself frustrated with the fact that, after days of searching, I couldn’t easily point to a few examples of cutting edge data visualization pieces. There was a part of me that wanted to say to the world, “see, we’re doing it too, you just haven’t found us.” But I’m walking away from this experience with a much more sober understanding of the challenges that Bolivians face. I’m not a journalist. I no longer live in Bolivia. I don’t have to deal with civil unrest, strikes, sketchy Internet access and the uneasy history that Bolivian governments have bequeathed to journalists and citizens concerned with civil liberties and human rights.

The willingness of Bolivians to put in the sweat equity to learn, exploit and disseminate these technologies is self-evident and encouraging.

The next steps, as I see them? Helping Bolivian journalists continue to embrace data journalism, raising awareness of open source data platforms such as Tableau and Ushahidi, and empowering today’s technology-minded Bolivians to learn how to turn information into power through openness and transparency. I’d be most interested in hearing from you on how this is happening and look forward to writing more about it.

Data visualization as multi-media narrative

April 28, 2012By carlainformation, interactives, news

I’ve been on a multimedia kick lately, digging for interesting examples of how journalists are telling their stories via this interesting catch-all for pictures, animations and all things that move with words. A multimedia interactive timeline produced back in September, 2010 persists, in my view, as a stellar example. Yes, that was over a year-and-a-half ago, but I challenge you to find anything this good that has come out since.

El Mundo, a Spanish newspaper with a very good data visualization design team, created an interactive data visualization/multi-media narrative recreating the attempts to rescue Chilean miners trapped in the copper-gold mine near Copiapó in August 5, 2010 “Rescate de los mineros chilenos atrapados bajo tierra” (“Rescue of Chilean Miners Trapped Underground”).

Created a month after the successful rescue this piece by David Almeda successfully deconstructs the messy reality of three rescue plans, changing information on the ground, technical obstacles and engineering solutions, as well as the human faces behind the crisis. If I counted correctly, there are about 30 animated frames in this, several of which contain infographics polished enough to be published in their own right. The only thing I’d add to this would be a scrubber with a timeline to allow users to move through this at their own pace and to get a sense of the timing.

This is a solid interactive and a beautifully understated display of process, timelines and information. In our ongoing fascination with data visualization, this reminds me of why I started this blog.

ElMundo_Chilean mining interactive

 

Conflict underground: What’s up with Argentina’s subways (infographic)

April 26, 2012By carlainformation, interactives

La Nación, a newspaper in Argentina, created an infographic about problems plaguing the “subte” (subway). Some problems are universal, aren’t they? I think it’s safe to say that anyone on the planet with access to trains and airplanes is bound to complain about both.

In “Los conflictos bajo tierra” (“Conflict underground”) the designer, Florencia Abd, was tasked with showing–on which hours, days and months during the year–subway service was disrupted by four types of labor strikes: a work stoppage across all lines (red), a stoppage for one line only (black), a suspension of card renewals (yellow), and the closure of entrance/exit turnstiles (blue).

Take a look at how nicely the designer solved the logistical nightmare (pun intended, sort of) in laying out various levels of time (hours, days, months and peak travel times) as well as frequency (how often problems occurred) and categorization (which types of problems). It’s a terrific infographic–simplifies complex data in a way that is immediately easy to understand.

I’d love to hear how others would redesign this very, very good infographic. It begs a few different approaches.

La Nacion Conflictos Bajo Tierra

 

Good old fashioned shoe-leather multimedia journalism

April 26, 2012By carlainteractives

There’s so much about multimedia that washes over me, almost on a daily basis. I tend to tune out fancier versions of video/audio/slideshow shenanigans for the most part, unless they are as they should be: a dialed down, behind the scenes approach that seamlessly and quietly facilitates the engagement of the user and the experience. And, just my luck, I stumble across a very good example of this, after the project has gone dark (January 2012). But not completely.

Founded in part by Alex Wood, an up-and-coming digital journalist, Not on the Wires remains a solid showcase of shoe-leather journalism augmented by technology. There’s nothing fancy about the approach, and that’s why it works.

It’s polished, but the technology doesn’t get in the way of the storytelling–related stories, videos and audio appear where they’re needed and allow the journalists quietly and powerfully proceed on his and her way. You could spend a few hours on this site. I hope you do.

Not on the Wires

Time travel in Argentina: a new take on interactive timelines

April 24, 2012By carlaart, interactives

Argentina. Alfajores, Maradona, steak and tango? Yes. A burgeoning data visualization community? Yep. In my occasionally quixotic quest to find out what data viz developers are up to in Latin America, I stumbled across Hacks | Hackers – Buenos Aires.

It seems that they’re drumming up some interesting projects, though nothing concrete to date, though I am looking forward to writing more about their progress. That said, Sandra Crucianelli, a recipient of the noted Knight Foundation fellowship, presented some terrific examples of data visualization projects in Latin America.

One worth mentioning is Proyecto Walsh, an interactive timeline/journalistic experiment which recreates Rodolfo Walsh’s 1956-57 expose on the illegal executions of Peron sympathizers, “Operación Masacre” (Operation Massacre) as an interactive timeline. Well, it’s much more than an interactive timeline but, to me, the timeline is a great hook.

The zoom feature on the interactive timeline, which most of us are more used to seeing in spatial relationships on maps (think: zoom to your house or zoom away to view a city) is used temporally (think: zooming in to a minute; zooming out to a month).

Conceived by journalists Alvaro Liuzzi and Vanina Berghella, this project uses this slick timeline feature as effective navigation through various layers of multimedia, ranging from interactive maps using, of course, Google Maps, to a photo gallery using the Google image search function. It’s fairly complex, and tells the story well. Even if you don’t understand Spanish, it’s worth exploring.

Proyecto Walsh

Proyecto Walsh

An interactive visualization for Chile’s Disappeared

April 23, 2012By carlainteractives

On September 11, 1973, General Augusto Pinochet began a 17-year dictatorship in Chile that resulted in thousands of politically-related deaths and hundreds of individuals who mysteriously disappeared with no explanation given by the government. These people are known as Chile’s “disappeared.” An interactive map created by ArchivosChile (loosely translated as ArchivesChile) and developer Gabriel Mérida shows how many of these and other politically-motivated, government-sponsored murders occurred between September and December, 1973, the start of Pinochet’s regime.

People are still searching

It is particularly poignant that this map, essentially a data visualization mash-up of GoogleMaps and data from Chile’s “Servicio Medico Legal” (Medical Legal Services office) has as one of its core navigation items a query box where one may search by a victim’s name. As in, people are still searching. One may also search by city.

It’s relatively intuitive (given it’s objective, it has to be). One of the most compelling features is the “play” option that allows you to simply sit back and watch the dramatic and unfortunate escalation of deaths within these four short months.

The interactive is surprisingly text-based, but does the job. The silhouette icons that point to each victim are a bit clunky and obscure the actual numbers when you arrive at the default zoom view–something that a smaller visual (an “x,” a dot, a square) could have avoided. But once you zoom in by city block, they become a powerful reminder of why you are, indeed, interacting with this map. Clicking on each victim displays a pop-up which helpfully displays the victim’s name, cause of death, source, medical examiner and other data.

Puzzlingly, the legend is displayed as a dropdown, which takes away from the intuitiveness of the map. But overall, it gets the grim job done.

ArchivosChile_screenshot

 

Doing Minard one better? Reinventing Tufte’s favorite information graphic

April 22, 2012By carlainformation, interactives

To many, Edward Tufte is best known for his dogged and unwavering promotion of Charles Joseph Minard’s Napoleon’s March to Moscow graphic as the perfect form of information visualization. That, and those swanky flyers that he sends out through the mail. Until I attended Tufte’s seminar a few years ago, I was ashamed to admit that I had never given that graphic more than a cursory glance. Once I did, however, it took me five or ten minutes to really understand it. And I was kind of turned off by that. So I’ll add my voice to the growing chorus of those that disagree with Tufte. But I’ll be less articulate. I just didn’t understand it, plain and simple. That’s actually one of reasons that I started this blog. Is there such a thing as the perfect visualization of information?

Of course there isn’t. And anyone who insists otherwise merely has a strong opinion.

So, if you accept that, then there’s the issue of, for each piece that we create, where is the sweet spot between accuracy and getting our message across? That’s a messy answer, in my opinion. I always want to be accurate, but if it’s at the expense of losing my audience, or making them work too hard to understand what I’m attempting to convey, it’s on me, the designer/developer, to take a step back and either try a different approach or rethink whether the project is worth doing.

So, imagine my delight when I found the site of Michael Friendly, a professor of statistics and noted author on data visualization at York University, who would like to do Minard one better. He issued a challenge to data visualization developers:

Can we re-draw it in some modern programming language? What does this tell us about comparative power and simplicity of various programming languages and environments?

The visualizations that are featured in Friendly’s site are fascinating attempts to recreate and re-imagine this graphic by today’s developers. Cool stuff. Granted, there’s myriad other examples online of others trying to do the same thing. But Friendly’s site had, to me, a great range of what’s out there. Too bad many of the examples cited are in printed books and hard to access. But digging through the examples is worth it. Imagine, for example, Napoleon’s march through a 3D cube which visualizes time and distance through various layers. Or as a trippy, post-apocalypic romp through physical space? My favorite is this Flash re-creation of the whole shebang, from the perspective of… everything. This is what people mean when they say “bells and whistles.” I chuckle to think what the very intense Edward Tufte’s assessment would be. Props to Menno-Jan Kraak for a terrific website cataloging all of these examples.

And, if you are really, really, really into the Minard graphic, go here for more, ranging from atlases to games.

Oh, and there’s even a piechart. But I’ll let you find that one yourself. Here’s the fancy original image from Wikipedia.

Minard

 

 

Clustering via tree mapping: fantastic data visualization

April 19, 2012By carlainformation, interactives

How do you empirically score the importance of a gazillion science journals, and show the results in 10 seconds?

Here is a fantastic example of clustering via tree mapping (using Flare), produced by Eigenfactor.org and Moritz Stefaner, a noted data visualization designer. The interactive  shows how different scientific journals are scored according to a value called an Eigenfactor score–the relative importance of a journal in its field. The score essentially counts the number of citations tracking back to a particular journal and–more importantly–the significance of those citations. The tree map is interactive and the interface intuitive–clicking on a particular cluster shows the path of incoming and outgoing citations (and their relative importance). Wow. I’m in love.

The tree mapping interactive is one of four very cool data visualizations (built using Flare)  that Eignenfactor.org has developed–all of which attempt to show information flow in science. Citation patterns, change over time and information mapping are the others. I’ll write about these in later posts, but suffice it to say that you can spend hours on these.

Eigenfactor clustering via treemapping