Posts Tagged ‘visualization’

I remember the first time I saw Hans Rosling present his Gapminder project. In a TED video he wowed the crowd by bringing boring tables of statistics to life through stunning animations. His innovative presentation of data dispelled myths and misconceptions. By making statistics something we could visualize, Rosling showed me the power of a good visualization.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVimVzgtD6w]

That is why a new project called GeoCommons is so exciting. GeoCommons is the consumer product that includes “Finder!” and “Maker!”. They allow, as you might expect, anyone to find or make stunning maps of geo-coded data. Data sets are easily exportable to mapping services like Google Earth or Microsoft Virtual Earth. When they unveil Maker! in the coming weeks, expect it to do for geo-visualization what the Google Maps API did for geo-mashups. Take, for example, the map below.

According to TechCrunch who covered GeoCommons today, the orange circles represent carbon emmissions while the darker shaded regions show heavier population densities. Because of this map the amorphous issue of air quality in China is reified. The possibilities are endless and hundreds are already available for examination.

I am incredibly excited to see what geographical data people are able to make concrete. Data is only as good as it is understandable and tools like GeoCommons and Gapminder make data understandable at a glance. They reveal the truth more than a spreadsheet ever could.