Miscellaneous – ShowTheData

Gephi – The Open Graph Viz Platform

Heiko Spallek — Mon, 16 Jun 2014 06:59:57 +0000

According to the Gephi Website, this free open-source graph software is an interactive visualization and exploration platform for all kinds of networks and complex systems,sbiancamento denti dynamic and hierarchical graphs that runs on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.

Features:

Exploratory Data Analysis: intuition-oriented analysis by networks manipulations in real time.
Link Analysis: revealing the underlying structures of associations between objects, in particular in scale-free networks.
Social Network Analysis: easy creation of social data connectors to map community organizations and small-world networks.
Biological Network analysis: representing patterns of biological data.
Poster creation: scientific work promotion with hi-quality printable maps.

While the Website shows several examples, I would be curious if someone has used it for more advanced visualization tasks.

Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science Competition

Heiko Spallek — Sun, 16 Feb 2014 07:02:09 +0000

This post is not about a cool visualization, but about a call for explaining science combined, potentially, with a visualization. A recent New York Times article by Claudia Dreifus reported about the actor and writer Alan Alda whose mission is to help scientists to communicate to a wider audience. His organization started a contest for scientists to trigger their thinking: “Tell us what a flame is in a way that an 11-year-old can understand. The point was to challenge scientists to explain something difficult in words that were both easy to understand and accurate.” When they started, they received already 6,000 entries, now they are up to 20,000. If you want to participate this year, you need to explain to an 11-year old “What is color?” The deadline is March 1, 2014. The rules for the contest state that “entries can be submitted in writing, as videos, or as graphics. This year, the contest has two categories– Written and Visual – and entries will be judged within their category.” So get your thinking started with that 11-year old in your mind!

Visualizing a Conference Submission Process

Heiko Spallek — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 07:02:48 +0000

Everyone in academia has received hundreds or thousands of calls for submissions in his or her career. While subject matters obviously vary, they mostly display one common characteristic: confusing. The combination of different types of submissions, like posters versus papers, combined with different deadlines applicable for these submission types as well as different lengths of abstracts or papers required for their submission makes for a complex message. This message is often transmitted using lengthy explanations that are hard to digest; or using short bullet point-like fragments that are easier to read, but often lack the necessary details. I was recently surprised to find the obvious solution to this dilemma: a visualization to help clarify the range of submission types. Dr. Jessica Tenenbaum, the Scientific Program Committee Chair for the American Medical Informatics Association 2013 Joint Summits on Translational Bioinformatics and Clinical Research Informatics (http://www.amia.org/jointsummits2013) came up with the idea. She put together the graphic in MS Visio using mostly existing “shapes” from the workflow category. She added the poster, and the podium from other sources. I hope that this visual representation of a call for submission inspires other conference organizers.

Figure 1: Call for Submission

Edward Tufte Helps the Government

Heiko Spallek — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 06:57:11 +0000

BusinessWeek reports that President Obama has Edward Tufte appointed to help visualizing where the economic stimulus money is going. The article celebrates this decision as a victory for data visualization and for a more transparent government. It can only be assumed that Tufte received the honor based on his book Envisioning Information which shows displays of high-dimensional complex data, such as maps, charts, scientific presentations, diagrams, computer interfaces, statistical graphics and tables, stereo photographs, guidebooks, courtroom exhibits, timetables, use of color, a pop-up, and many other wonderful displays of information.

Visualize Mid-Term Elections with Google Maps

Heiko Spallek — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 07:04:25 +0000

I have found on Mashable an interesting article about Visualize Mid-Term Elections with Google Maps: While the actual data compilation is very well done–especially the multiple sources using ratings from Cook, Rothenberg, CQ-Roll Call and RealClearPolitics–the navigation leaves much to be desired. It is hard to move between the regions and states given the small map; and I could not figure out how to display this map in full screen view on my 25 inch flat screen. Using a consistent user interface (UI) is fine, but providing the same UI gadget for race and source seems an odd choice. also, some pop-up information can be requested when you click on a particular state which allows you to drill down deeper into data about individual candidates, but the closing x in the right upper pop-up window is sometimes outside the screen. There is an obvious color coding (blue for Dem, red for GOP) provided, but I do not understand why these colors are double coded on the pop-up windows for individual states. Using red font for writing “Safe GOP” might be OK, although double coded, but writing “Toss up” in yellow on white background was not a good idea.

Interfaces for large-scale online discussion spaces

Heiko Spallek — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 07:05:34 +0000

It is not uncommon to find discussion spaces with hundreds to thousands of messages and participants. User-generated content (UGC) is the driving force behind all Web 2.0 applications. How do you visualize such an exchange of ideas? Today, I found tldr which is “is an application for navigating through large-scale online discussions. The application visualizes structures and patterns within ongoing conversations to let the user browse to content of most interest. In addition to visual overviews, it also incorporates features such as thread summarization, non-linear navigation, multi-dimensional filtering, and various other features that improve the experience of participating in large-discussions.” Publication about the project: Narayan, Srikanth and Cheshire, Coye – “Not too long to read: The tldr Interface for Exploring and Navigating Large-Scale Discussion Spaces”. The 43rd Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences – Persistent Conversations Track – Jan 2010.

DemoModule: VizBiz

Heiko Spallek — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 07:08:34 +0000

In order to access DemoModule: VizBiz you will need to login as guest. The instructors of this online course, Martin Eppler, Remo Burkhard, Ralph Lengler & Patricia Klarner will give you a brief overview on the fascinating world of visualization for Business and Communication. Some of the topics cover (1) how we perceive and process visual information in the brain; (2) how to improve your (passive) visualization skills is by assessing visualizations from others; (3) exploring the differences between Information Visualization and Knowledge Visualization; (4) knowledge-intensive issues that can be made clearer through visualization methods; and (5) benefits of visualization in the context of strategic management.

New Excel with Tufte’s Sparklines

Heiko Spallek — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 07:06:56 +0000

It is quite rare that data visualization topic makes it into the headlines, but a recent dispute between data visualization guru Edward Tufte and Microsoft made it into Slashdot. According to Wikipedia, “a Sparkline is a type of information graphic characterized by its small size and data density. Sparklines present trends and variations associated with some measurement, such as average temperature or stock market activity, in a simple and condensed way. Several sparklines are often used together as elements of a small multiple.” Read more about Sparklines in Edward Tufte’s book Beautiful Evidence (page 62). An entry in Tufte’s blog titled “Microsoft patent claim for ‘sparklines in the grid’” outlines the conflict about intellectual property rights resulting from a patent application which had been filed on May 7, 2008 by Microsoft employees, claiming various aspects of Sparklines’ implementation in Excel 2010.

How To See In Four Dimensions

Heiko Spallek — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 07:07:44 +0000

Recently, I picked up a story in Slashdot which discussed a complicated visualization problem. Mathematicians and physicists work all the time with more-dimensional objects or ideas, but how do you show this to the layman who cannot read the formulas? The videos on Dimensions-Math show some clever tricks to get a feeling for what four dimension are like. The techniques begin by imagining how two-dimensional creatures, like those in Edwin Abbot’s Flatland, could get a feeling for three-dimensional objects. ScienceNews‘ Julie Rehmeyer reports as well about these mathematicians who are freed in their imaginations from physical constraints.