Discussion

• Road to Recovery – Is the Recovery Act working?

  The Obama administration just posted a graph showing monthly job loss from December 2007 (Bush in red) up to last...

• Afternoon Thread: Best Visualization of 2009?

  December 10, 2009 to Discussion  •  Nathan Yau  •  Share on Twitter

  The end of 2009 is looming, and it's about time to make this year's picks for best visualizations. I was sifting through the archives the other day. The selection is going to be tough. I need your help.

  What was the best visualization of 2009?

  It can be something I've posted or not; it can be serious or humorous; interactive or for print; art or analytical; map or chart. To jog your memory, here is some of the visualization stuff we've seen this year, and here are my picks for last year for reference.

  So what do you think?

• Open Thread: What the **** is Visualization Anyways?

  October 21, 2009 to Discussion, Visualization  •  Nathan Yau  •  Share on Twitter

  I think ever since visualization got started, people have been asking this question.

  Some... okay, many describe it as purely an analytical tool. Others (i.e. me) are a little more liberal with their use of the term while the rest are somewhere in between. Some insist that the stuff we see on information aesthetics belong in an entirely different category and that that stuff isn't visualization at all.

  As art, science, design, statistics, computer science, etc. start to melt together, the line between what is and isn't visualization grows more blurry.

  What do you think? Is visualization only analytical? Can visualization be art? Are the infographics that frequent the front page of Digg visualization or are they just pretty pictures? Can visualization be just a pretty picture? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

• What’s Wrong With this Graphic on the Future of Information?

  June 1, 2009 to Discussion, Mistaken Data  •  Nathan Yau  •  Share on Twitter

  

  This graphic on the history and future of information has been making the rounds. Several people sent it to me a while back, but it didn't seem quite right, so I didn't post it; however, this post from PZ Meyers compelled me to take another look. Meyers says:

  Some days, I think other people must be aliens. Or I must be. For instance, there's a lot of noise right now about this article analyzing the future of information and media that, if you read the comments, you will discover that people are praising to an astonishing degree. I looked at it and saw this graph [above graphic]. And my bullshit detector went insane. It's supposed to be saying something about where people are and will be getting their information, but there's no information about where this information came from, and it's meaningless!

  Yikes. Take out the boxing gloves. Looks like we've got another clash between the technical and the design-ish and mainstream crowds. The comments from both sides are also pretty interesting with one group saying how visually appealing and informative the graphic is with the other group criticizing the graphic for failing in every way.

  Good or Bad?

  Clearly the graphic is not based on any real data or metric. It goes off history and probably a lot of Wikipedia entries, and then shapes and sizes go off feeling. So as an analytical graph, it doesn't work. But what about as an opinion in graph form? Does it work then? What do you think? Is this graphic a crime against all that is good in visualization or does it work for what it was trying to do?

  [Thanks, Patrick]

• Open Thread: Is Google Latitude Dangerous?

  February 12, 2009 to Data Sharing, Discussion, Online Applications  •  Nathan Yau  •  Share on Twitter

  Google recently released Google Latitude, which is an online application that lets you share your location with online friends:

  Of course when any application shares where you are at any given time, people start to feel like Big Brother is looming in the background ready to sneak up on us from behind a giant bush. Some call it a real danger, but is it really? I put this question out to all of you:

  Is Google Latitude a danger to anyone who uses it?

  My take on things is that people are already doing it anyways, so why not make it easier for those who are interested? Sure, if some stalker got a hold of your location, that could be bad, but that's true for a lot of data... credit card statements, cell phone logs, Twitter... As long as the proper security are put in place, I don't see what all the fuss is about.

• Open Thread: I Don’t Care About the Data…

  November 14, 2008 to Discussion, Visualization  •  Nathan Yau  •  Share on Twitter

  Martin briefly discusses a presentation at a recent visualization workshop. The speaker blurts, "I don't care about the data, I am just interested in the method." This begs the question

  Can you design worthwhile visualization without worthwhile data?

  I can see why the speaker said what he did, but you know what, if you don't care about the data then I probably won't either, and most likely, I won't care about your visualization. What do you think? Can useful visualization techniques come out of using whatever datasets?

  I asked the same question on Twitter a couple of days ago. Here are a few of the responses:

  @EagerEyes: No.

  @skylark64: you can, but shouldn't... Then again, maybe it is worthwhile to someone.

  @couch: No.

  @vrypan: But that's the question in the first place! "what's my data worth?" If you know the answer, tools have little importance.

  I think I know where this conversation is headed.

• If You Could Track Anything, What Would You Track?

  September 29, 2008 to Discussion, Self-surveillance  •  Nathan Yau  •  Share on Twitter

  It's about time we had a FlowingData open thread. We've seen that there are plenty of tools to monitor different aspects of our lives, but I'm wondering if they are tools people actually want or if they are tools that are just easy to make. So my question to all of you is:

  If you could track/monitor anything in your life, what would you track?

  Disregard whether or not the technology is there or any of those gross technical details. Assume anything is possible.

  I'll get things started. I want to know how I spend every minute of my life. Not just on the computer. I want to know how much time I spend watching TV, going out, exercising, walking, sitting, driving, waiting, and eating. Everything.

• What Are Your Favorite Data Visualizations in Recent Memory?

  May 30, 2008 to Discussion, Visualization  •  Nathan Yau  •  Share on Twitter

  It's time for a reader discussion, open thread, etc. Today's question is:

  What are your favorite data visualizations in recent memory?

  It can be something I've posted or it can be something I missed. To get your memory going, you might want to go through the archives. Are there any visualizations that made you stop and go wow?