Saturday, August 29, 2009

Site of Interest: Many Eyes

Turning numbers into pictures is a gift. We are pleased to unveil (if you don't know about it already) a new social kind of data analysis, Many Eyes, that is brought to you generously by our WPO national sponsor IBM.
Many Eyes is a bet on the power of human visual intelligence to find patterns. Our goal is to "democratize" visualization and to enable a new social kind of data analysis. Jump right to our visualizations now, take a tour, or read on for a leisurely explanation of the project.

All of us in CUE's Visual Communication Lab are passionate about the potential of data visualization to spark insight. It is that magical moment we live for: an unwieldy, unyielding data set is transformed into an image on the screen, and suddenly the user can perceive an unexpected pattern. As visualization designers we have witnessed and experienced many of those wondrous sparks. But in recent years, we have become acutely aware that the visualizations and the sparks they generate, take on new value in a social setting.

Visualization is a catalyst for discussion and collective insight about data.

Sample its concept here: Unemployment by State, May, 2009, World Language Speakers by Family (pictured) and Obama Speech in Cairos - Focus on "WE."

Learn more here.

Think about how you might use this tool to unearth new insights and grow your business. Create your own visualization here.

2 comments:

Jonathan said...

It's nice to see data visualization gaining a wider audience. Large sums of information demand the viewer can focus their attention on what is important (trends, outliers, patterns, etc.).

A few related links to explore:

Similar to Many Eyes-
http://www.swivel.com/

Choice data visualization blogs/sites-
http://flowingdata.com/
http://infosthetics.com/
http://junkcharts.typepad.com/

Laurel Delaney, WPO Chicago Chapter Chair said...

Thanks for visiting Jonathan. Looks like you have some prospective WPO members in your life!

Warm regards,
Laurel