Data plus Design
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nomadologist
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very interesting, thanks!
hundredmillionlifetimes
Banned
Public information, by definition, is already freely available. What's 'new' here is the animation software, as most graphical-statistical packages have traditionally been confined to 2D/3D static charts and graphs. Rosling, though, is one hell of a salesman: his motor-mouth presentation led to Google purchasing his Gapminder Trendalyzer software and website some months ago, so completely undermining Rosling's original intent (to make the software publicly available via a non-profit organisation), his software now retreated to the privately-owned corporate-Google domain.
It's now a Google toolbar.
It's now a Google toolbar.
namely: relax. everything is fine. the world is getting better all the time. believe in progress. believe in your governments to take care of you! (sounds like that neo-con delusian)
the giant flaws and gross simplification of conclusions gathered from statistical information can be seen in one statement that the professor makes: "... and here you see Mao bringing health to China"
i don't care what the raw data is, or how they are calculated, this is just a blanket false statement -- what he brought was famine, starvation, and millions of deaths, and of course, over population. but yes, it is interesting indeed. thanks for the link.
N
nomadologist
Guest
Remember when Netflix had the contest to see if any mathematicians could come up with a better algorithm for "Netflix Recommends"? I wonder if anyone got the million dollar prize...
N
nomadologist
Guest
namely: relax. everything is fine. the world is getting better all the time. believe in progress. believe in your governments to take care of you! (sounds like that neo-con delusian)
the giant flaws and gross simplification of conclusions gathered from statistical information can be seen in one statement that the professor makes: "... and here you see Mao bringing health to China"
but yes, it is interesting indeed. thanks for the link.
I thought the point he was making was that NGOs are unnecessary, but maybe I was not watching closely enough. I had a few text message arguments going down and fifteen tabs opened.
on the useful tip, has anyone tried Liquifile browser? i saw a demonstration and it was very cool... seems great for browsing large amounts of data and also looks pretty.
on the entertaining/informative tip, great data+design blog with a TON of archived dopeness ranging from the superfluous to the awesome.
and on the pretty tip:
much more here, including awesome animated versions of the above.
on the entertaining/informative tip, great data+design blog with a TON of archived dopeness ranging from the superfluous to the awesome.
and on the pretty tip:
much more here, including awesome animated versions of the above.
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Glad it was appreciated, and yeah the tone is definitely don't worry, be happy. Though, the fundamental project of making info available/accessible can't be a bad thing despite the inevitable co-option - sponsered by BMW/Google tool bar et al.
And out of thread, I know, but I wanna say thanks in turn for that Huppert link, Zhao. I've gotta do some reading!
And out of thread, I know, but I wanna say thanks in turn for that Huppert link, Zhao. I've gotta do some reading!
do you mean mike ruppert?
hundredmillionlifetimes
Banned
But that 'fundamental project' has been abandoned, if it was ever even the intention. It was about marketing a piece of flashy software. Period.
And public information is already available/accessible. I don't believe anyone could ever possibly use the excuse that historical data on countries' populations, GNP/per capita, life expectancy, child mortality, etc, is 'unavailable': such basic data is probably the most easily accessible and widely available of any information in all history.
But it'll sure beef up all those power-point presentations, no doubt ...
I'm really of two minds when it comes to this kind of stuff. While access to the data is one thing, the ability to find the right data is another, and I think is the true purpose of things like gapminder, and also one of their main problems. Having fiddled around with this (and a lot of other information visualization type tools) they're all generally involved in the same goal of processing large data sets into forms that can be visualized, and thus leveraging our innate, high-powered "visual intelligence" to find patterns and structure among the data. Though it's very "gee-wizz technology will make us superhumans!" I actually think it's a pretty cool, if rather utopian, idea. I definitely buy into the realization that by far the vast amount of our brainpower is spent processing sensory signals, almost all of which occur pre-consciously, and that's actually where our true intelligence lies. Witness the classic paradox of AI, that it's not too hard to make medical diagnosis system that, given a patient's symptoms, can give a diagnosis about as accurately as a well trained doctor, but it's nearly impossible to make an AI program that can drive a dump truck through the mud--despite what we would traditionally say about the "intelligence" required for those two tasks.
That said, though the talk is good, most of the tools that come out of this field (as HMLT rightly points out), tend to make pretty looking pictures that look good in a presentation but have highly questionable practical use. Like those hyperbolic graph navigation tools zhao posted (which are apparently 4D hyperbolic surfaces projected onto a 3D sphere?? I never really understood that but it sound really cool ). They look really interesting, but it's hard to find a lot of practical purposes for them. Many of these things get proposed, but very few of them actually get tested with users to see if they're any better than looking at the raw data. Which is the other problem with all these things, that for all that they want allow for the power of visual cognition, at some level they inevitably have to elide certain amounts of data in order to get a practical visualization. So in the end you just get someone's idea of what information is important, leading to funny-seeming conclusions like "mao bringing health to china"
Alright, that was my rambling take on things...
That said, though the talk is good, most of the tools that come out of this field (as HMLT rightly points out), tend to make pretty looking pictures that look good in a presentation but have highly questionable practical use. Like those hyperbolic graph navigation tools zhao posted (which are apparently 4D hyperbolic surfaces projected onto a 3D sphere?? I never really understood that but it sound really cool
). They look really interesting, but it's hard to find a lot of practical purposes for them. Many of these things get proposed, but very few of them actually get tested with users to see if they're any better than looking at the raw data. Which is the other problem with all these things, that for all that they want allow for the power of visual cognition, at some level they inevitably have to elide certain amounts of data in order to get a practical visualization. So in the end you just get someone's idea of what information is important, leading to funny-seeming conclusions like "mao bringing health to china"Alright, that was my rambling take on things...
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Shite, yeah, sorry. That'll be the one. Should've got my reading off to a good start with a bit of name-checking.
Yes, and no. I'm with Turtles on this one: access to information and the actual ability/nous to find the data is another. And I recall the presenting prof briefly discusses at the end of the clip the difficulties that were encountered in their search for data. Did you catch that part? And, of course, once accessed the skillful presentation of data is crucial.
One could elaborate on that point in a number of ways. What I find impressive about the the gapminder as graphic tool is that it presents information as a process which makes it seem considerably more actual, and, well, graphic. We can scorn the banging visuals all we like, but if they begin to engage the movement of reality itself, then its going to have that much more impact.
Or maybe not; even as I write this I think, wtf do I know. People are exposed to all sorts of sophisticated presentations of horrific data, get galvanized for a moment/ hour/day/week/month and then move on, easily shedding their concern.
What to do?
pretty amazing "disease map" just found.
zoom in on Diabetes in the center: branch to the top right: Leprachaunism ????????????
zoom in on Diabetes in the center: branch to the top right: Leprachaunism ????????????
noel emits
a wonderful wooden reason
Yeah thanks zhao. I would suggest NOT doing a google image search.