Interactive Information Visualization: UN's release of millions of data records

I want access to great interactive information and data visualization content, anywhere, anytime, on any type of display!

(I've re-posted this from my Technology-Supported Human-World Interaction blog.)

Asmore publicly-held data becomes released, ordinary people, not justscholars and university students, will want to get their hands on it,especially if it is done in a user-friendly manner.

Below is something I posted on Ryan Lanham's Leading as Enabling blog, after learning about it from the EagerEyes website.

AfterI uploaded this post, I started to think about how interactiveinformation visualization "for the people" could be played out in theday-to-day lives of people- as they shop, visit historical settings,attend cultural events, and so forth.

The optimization ofweb-based interactive information visualization applications for use oniPhones, PDA's, large multi-touch displays, interactive whiteboards,public kiosks, navigation systems, and the like, is something thatdeserves further work.

UN data

Robert Kosara, author of the Eager Eyes blog, recently posted information about the United Nation's release of data records for public download and use:

"Data is being set free: the United Nations have started a new website called UN Datato share the data collected by a number of UN agencies. 55 million datarecords are waiting to be explored and visualized. The search interfaceis very nice and usable, but still lacks power."

Why is the release of this data important?

Everyday, people in leadership positions must make decisions based on theaccurate interpretation of data. If the data is difficult to understandor presented in a way that might be confusing to some, the likelihoodof negative consequences is high.

Thosein leadership positions historically have had access to data, collectedwith public funds, but often inaccessible to the public. Publiclyavailable data is often in a format that is not easy to organize,manipulate, or understand. As a result, many people do not have a meansto fully scrutinize, or question, the decisions made by business,health, education, and government leaders.

The Gapminder website is one example of the movement to make data accessible and easier to understand. Hans Rosling, the director of Gapminder, provides an interesting overview about this in the video, located at the bottom of this post,  from his presentation at TED:

"Thissoftware unveils the beauty of statistical time series by convertingboring numbers into enjoyable, animated and interactive graphics. Thecurrent beta version of Trendalyzer is available since March 2006 as Gapminder World, a web-service displaying a few time series of development statistics for all countries."

"Gapminderis a non-profit venture for development and provision of free softwarethat visualize human development. This is done in collaboration withuniversities, UN organizations, public agencies and non-governmentalorganizations."

High resolution Gapcasts and video lectures can be and found on the Gapminder website. Gapcasts are also available on YouTube.

Information and Data Visualization for the People:

"Many Eyesis a bet on the power of human visual intelligence to find patterns.Our goal is to "democratize" visualization and to enable a new socialkind of data analysis."

"Swivel: Where Curious People Explore Data"

Related:
Breakthrough Analysis: Make Your Data Tell a Story (Seth Grimes)

-Lynn Marentette