Announcements

• Introducing FlowingData Membership

  January 5, 2012 to Announcements  •  Share on Twitter  •  Comments (33)

  It was about five years ago when I got into visualization. Before I actually made anything, I read books and guides that made suggestions and preached a handful of design principles, but when it was time to make a data graphic for publication, I didn't know what I was doing. Theory is great. Being able to apply it to your own data is better.

  Back then — which seems like forever but isn't actually that long ago — there weren't many practical tutorials or books on how to visualize data. Visualize This is the book I wish I had when I was starting out. A steady foundation and an introduction to what's out there, written to my old self.

  There's still so much more to visualization though. There are different points of view to explore, new software and methods to try, and growing data sources to play with.

  That's where FlowingData memberships come in. Having great sponsors lets me write tutorials and longer articles occasionally, but memberships will allow me to write more and perhaps bring in others' expertise from time to time.

  Here's what you get with FlowingData membership:

  • Monthly Tutorials: How to make and design publication-level data graphics.
  • Downloads: Source code and files to use with your own data.
  • Guides and Resources: Design principles and the best places to learn them.
  • Curated Links: Hand-picked links from around the Web that focus on the how of visualization.

  Those who have Visualize This will recognize the style of the guides and tutorials (first members-only tutorial coming soon after this post). You can also check out past tutorials for a taste. Long-time readers will notice a new layout that's easier to follow, and writing online lends itself better to more code-heavy projects.

  All this for the introductory price of $25 per year — less than a coffee a month. I'll also throw in a warm, fuzzy feeling from directly supporting an independent FlowingData. Your support helps ensure that the lights stay on, hopefully for years to come.

  Become a member.

  UPDATE: Paypal is acting up. Looking into it now.

  UPDATE 2: Seems to be going okay again. It might take a couple of tries due to your awesomeness.

  UPDATE 3: I think most of the kinks have been ironed out, but if you can't log in for some reason, please email me at nathan [at] flowingdata [dot] com. Thanks for the support, everyone.

• Merry Christmas to you, from FlowingData

  December 23, 2011 to Announcements  •  Share on Twitter  •  Comments (7)

  

  Thanks for making this a memorable year, everyone. Happy holidays!

• Visiting Census

  August 14, 2011 to Announcements  •  Share on Twitter  •  Comments (3)

  I'm visiting the US Census Bureau this week, so there's a good chance there will be a few days I don't post anything. Hopefully not though. I have a couple of things scheduled. But in case I go radio silent for a few days, you'll know why. It'll be back to normal next week.

• Send your pictures of Visualize This in the wild (and win a goodie)

  August 9, 2011 to Contests  •  Share on Twitter  •  Add Comment

  One of the best parts since the launch of Visualize This has been the pictures that people have sent me of the book in the wild. It makes it feel all the more real.

  To have some fun with it, let's have a little contest. Take a picture of the book in your hands, on your desk, or wherever you like really, and send it to fun@flowingdata.com by this Friday, August 12, 2011. If you have a digital version, feel free to take a picture of your iPad or Kindle with the book open. I'll put all the pics together in a mosaic or something.

  Then I'll choose five winners at random, and you can pick any print book you like from the Wiley Tech library (minus box sets). Good luck!

• Flowing Datathon updates

  August 2, 2011 to Announcements  •  Share on Twitter  •  Comments (5)

  Many of you now have Visualize This in your hands and have probably gone through a number of tutorials. Now it's time to put what you've learned into practice. I'm fleshing out the details of a Flowing Datathon. I don't know what it'll be like yet — other than it'll involve an interesting dataset over 24 hours and some prizes (and of course, fun) — but if you'd like to keep up-to-date either to get involved or watch, I've set up an email list.

  Sign up here.

  Oh, and if you have ideas for what would make the event special awesome, feel free to leave your suggestion in the comments.

• Challenge: Visualize the impact of Wikipedia

  July 14, 2011 to Contests  •  Share on Twitter  •  Add Comment

  If you're like me, you've probably used Wikipedia at least once in the past week (or day... or hour). It's had a huge impact on how we find information and keep history up-to-date. The online encyclopedia turned 10 this year, and to celebrate, WikiSym and the Wikimedia foundation recently launched a challenge: WikiViz 2011.

  WikiViz 2011 is about visualizing the impact of Wikipedia. We want to see the most effective, compelling and creative data-driven visualizations of how Wikipedia impacted the world with its content, culture and open collaboration model. Potential topics include: the imprint of Wikipedia on knowledge sharing and access to information; its impact on literacy and education, journalism and research; on the functioning of scientific and cultural organizations and businesses, as well as the daily life of individuals around the world.

  There are lots of small datasets within Wikipedia articles, but Wikipedia itself is also one giant (open) dataset. For example, we've seen the history of the world according to tagged events as well as back and forth discussions for deletion.

  Can you find something good? Judged by Moritz Stefaner, Andrew Vande Moere, and Kim Rees, among others, winners get to attend WikiSym on the house and of course get a mention or two.

• Visualization contests around the corner

  May 25, 2011 to Contests  •  Share on Twitter  •  Comments (4)

  The best way to learn how to visualize data is to grab a dataset and see what you can do with it. You can read as many tips and tricks as you want, but you're not going to get any better until you actually try. Contests are a fun way to do this.

  Participate

  So here are a handful of visualization contests to get your hands dirty. Hey you might even win a couple of thousand dollars. Not that money matters to you, because as well all know, learning is your reward.

  Hacking Education — A contest for developers and data crunchers. DonorsChoose.org has inspired $80 million in giving from 400,000 donors, helping 165,000 teachers at 43,000 schools, and the donation site has opened up this data. Can do you do something with it? Deadline: June 30, 2011.

  Data In Sight — A hands-on competition in San Francisco's SoMa district with surprise data sources. Some talks, lunch, dinner, and a 24-hour hackathon. Event date: June 24, 2011 (better to register your team early).

  Tableau Interactive Viz Contest — This one is coming up the quickest, but is the most straightforward. Plus, you get a t-shirt just for entering. Grab some business, finance, or real estate data and go to town with Tableau Public. Deadline: June 3, 2011.

  Know of any other data/visualization contests coming up? Let us know in the comments.

• Friday freebies: Comment to win a copy of R Cookbook – winners announced

  May 6, 2011 to Contests  •  Share on Twitter  •  Comments (657)

  Want a free copy of R Cookbook by Paul Teetor? You're in luck, because I have four copies to give away, generously provided by O'Reilly. In case you're unfamiliar, here's my review for some background. Bottom line: It's a fine addition to the O'Reilly series of cookbooks.

  How to Win

  You know the drill. Simply leave a comment on this post by Sunday, March 8 at 11pm PST. This time around, let's go with... your favorite number. Yeah, tell me what your favorite number is. Then I'll choose four winners at random on Monday.

  Obviously make sure you use a valid email address, and only one entry per person please. Good luck!

  Update: Winners announced! You should have received an email if you were picked. Thanks for participating, everyone.

• Comment to win a free HistoryShots print – winners announced

  March 24, 2011 to Contests  •  Share on Twitter  •  Comments (271)

  

  Happy Friday, everyone. Leading into the weekend, HistoryShots has kindly put three prints up for grabs to decorate that plain wall of yours with data and information. HistoryShots has been around for a while, but in case you're not familiar, they "create elegant graphics and diagrammatic art that visually tell stories about subjects, time periods and events." Some are vintage reprints from the 1800s and others are original designs.

  How do you win a free print? Go to the HistoryShots list of available prints, and then come back here and leave a comment saying which one you want by Sunday, March 27 at 10pm. I'll pick three winners at random. Good luck!

  Update: Winners picked. If you won, you've received an email from me. Thanks for entering!

• Friday freebies: Visual history posters from Timeplots – winners announced

  March 4, 2011 to Contests  •  Share on Twitter  •  Comments (199)

  

  It's Friday, and the weekend's staring you in the face. You look like you need some free stuff. Timeplots has kindly put up three visual history prints up for grabs. In case you're not familiar, Timeplots takes complex history stories, like the American presidency or the changing nature of the Senate, and puts them in visual form.
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• Comment to win free registration for Strata data conference – winner announced

  January 27, 2011 to Contests  •  Share on Twitter  •  Comments (45)

  Okay, I sort of dropped the ball on this one. I have a free pass up for grabs to the O'Reilly Strata Conference next week, February 1 to 3. Here's the short description:

  Unprecedented computing power and connectivity are bringing new layers of experience to our lives in how we manage and present data sets of all sizes.

  Throughout three days of training, breakout sessions, and plenary discussions, O'Reilly Strata connects the decision-makers, practitioners, and leading vendors from enterprise and the web who are at the leading edge of this space. Topics include data science, acquisition, organization, machine learning, visualization, and more.

  Want to win the free pass? Leave a comment below by Friday, January 28, 2011 at 7pm PST. Tell us what super power you'd want if you could only pick one. I'll pick a comment randomly and email you the discount code. Please only enter if you know you can attend February 1-3 in Santa Clara, California. I'd hate the pass to go to waste.

  If you don't want to leave it up to the randomized gods and just want to register now, it's not too late to do that either. You can register here and get a 25% discount. The program looks like it'll be a good one.

  Update: Congrats to Tyson! "I’d like to fly"

• Comment to win a copy of Data Analysis with Open Source Tools – winner announced

  January 7, 2011 to Contests  •  Share on Twitter  •  Comments (501)

  Looking to get more serious about your data analysis? Data Analysis with Open Source Tools by Philip K. Janert can help you with that.

  The back cover reads:

  Collecting data is relatively easy, but turning raw information into something useful requires that you know how to extract precisely what you need. With this insightful book, intermediate to experienced programmers interested in data analysis will learn techniques for working with data in a business environment. You'll learn how to look at data to discover what it contains, how to capture those ideas in conceptual models, and then feed your understanding back into the organization through business plans, metrics dashboards, and other applications.

  It's a little over 500 pages and thorough about describing how to analyze your data. However, it is light in the "with open source tools" part of the title. Most of the time is spent explaining concepts, and then each chapter ends with a workshop, which includes some code. There are examples throughout, but few provide an explanation of how a plot was made or the implementation of a method. So definitely not a book for beginners.
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• Merry Christmas from FlowingData

  December 24, 2010 to Announcements  •  Share on Twitter  •  Comments (7)

  

  Merry Christmas and happy new year! As usual, don't forget to eat lots. That's the only way to roll during the holidays.

• Join FlowingData fantasy basketball pool

  October 24, 2010 to Announcements  •  Share on Twitter

  The basketball season is going to start soon (finally). To make the season more interesting, I'm starting a FlowingData fantasy basketball pool, and you're invited. It's a combination of data and basketball. Pure awesomeness.

  It's a $20 chip-in, and winner takes all. Want to join in on the fun? Just email me with "I'm in" in the subject header, and I'll send over the info. We need at least 10 teams, and the maximum is 20, so the earlier you reply, the better. Let the games begin!

• Challenge: Advertised vs. actual waistline

  September 30, 2010 to Contests, Statistical Visualization  •  Share on Twitter  •  Comments (38)

  

  Ever notice how pants seem to fit differently from store-to-store even though they're labeled as the same size? Why does the 36-inch at Old Navy feel kind of loose but the same size at The Gap feels like you had too many fries at lunch? Here's your answer from the Esquire Style blog. The actual size (from this über-scientific study, I am sure) tends to be bigger than the size as advertised. A 36-inch waistline actually means 41 inches in Old Navy units.
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• your.flowingdata Users: Help Wanted. Five minutes of your time

  September 23, 2010 to Announcements  •  Share on Twitter

  As many of you know, your.flowingdata, an application to help you collect data about yourself via Twitter, has been running for a while now. Some of you have been using it regularly; while others have stopped by every now and then. Whether you are frequent or infrequent user, we would like your help in understanding which visualization tools work best and to analyze your usage to help us improve the system.

  Your participation in the study will only take about 5 minutes of your time. It will involve taking a brief survey to answer 8 questions.

  If you are interested in participating, please click on the link below to log in to your.flowingdata and then click on the study invite link at top of the page to get started. Thank you for your interest!

  If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at nyau@stat.ucla.edu.

  Log in to your.flowingdata

• Comment to win a graphic guide to coffee drinks (poster) – winner announced

  August 19, 2010 to Contests  •  Share on Twitter  •  Comments (285)

  

  We saw this handy dandy coffee guide by Plaid Creative a while back. Oh so clean. Oh so informative. The world of fancy pants coffee drinks can be confusing, but it doesn't have to be with this poster on your wall to guide you through the most difficult challenge in life: ordering coffee.

  With some updates and corrections to the original, The Perfect Pour is now in poster form.
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• Running on Thesis Fumes

  July 5, 2010 to Announcements  •  Share on Twitter  •  Comments (15)

  I’m in the fifth year of my statistics PhD, and the time has finally come where I need to lock myself in my office and write a thesis. It’s going to be amazing fun, I assure you. I’m hoping I’ll reach true nirvana somewhere along the way.

  Since I’ve all but finalized my thesis defense date for the end of this summer, it’s going to be a hectic three months. This month, I’ll be working hard to roll out a usable and useful application that some of you will be able to use. There will be more details, but it has to do with memories, calendars, and it’s in the same spirit of your.flowingdata.

  After that, I’ll write.

  I’m telling you this, because my brain is going to be in another place for the next few months. I fully intend to regularly update FlowingData. I’m too OCD not to, but if I happen to miss a day, you’ll know why.

  Email responses will also slow to a snail’s pace. But please do keep sending in suggestions to suggestions@flowingdata.com. Your post ideas will help the flow coming since I won’t be able to stay on top of things as well as I’d like to.

  Finally, if you have any visualization-related questions, you should definitely post it to the forums before emailing me. There are nice people who hang out there sometimes, so you’re more likely to get a response through there than through my neglected inbox.

  Alright. Here we go. Let the fun begin.

• Happy birthday, FlowingData. You’re three today

  June 25, 2010 to Announcements  •  Share on Twitter  •  Comments (19)

  Can you believe it? FlowingData is three years old today. I'm in the middle of a cross-country move, so I can't get into the number rundown like I usually do, but I just wanted to take this chance to thank all of you for reading. Thanks for sharing links with your friends and sending in suggestions. Every retweet, like, digg, and stumble helps FlowingData reach a wider audience.

  It seems so long ago when I was just rambling to myself around here. Now there are 40k of you. Next year, 100k?

  Thanks to all the sponsors too, past and present, who help keep the gears turning around here. I couldn't have done it without you.

  Happy birthday, FlowingData!

  Grab a sticker and show your undying love for FD for everyone to see :).

• Comment to win a copy of ‘Beautiful Visualization’ – winner announced!

  June 21, 2010 to Contests  •  Share on Twitter  •  Comments (500)

  

  Continuing with the 'Beautiful' series, O'Reilly has released their newest one, Beautiful Visualization.

  This book examines the methods of two dozen visualization experts who approach their projects from a variety of perspectives -- as artists, designers, commentators, scientists, analysts, statisticians, and more. Together they demonstrate how visualization can help us make sense of the world.

  Like others in the series (e.g. Beautiful Data, Beautiful Code), Beautiful Visualization is a compilation of essays from twelve people and groups who work in the field, and it's a very mixed bag. Regular FD readers will recognize many of the names: Fernanda Viegas, Martin Wattenberg, Aaron Koblin, Robert Kosara, Nick Bilton, and Jer Thorp, among others.
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