open data, open minds - web 2.0 data visualisation tools

Edinburgh Repository Fringe – Friday 1 August 2008

Open Data, Open Minds - Web 2.0 Data Visualisation Tools

Stuart Macdonald

DISC-UK Datashare EDINA National Data Centre & Edinburgh University Data Library


Context

• DISC-UK DataShare Project – funded by JISC (March 2007 – March 2009) - a collaborative project led by the University of Edinburgh, with the University of Oxford, the University of Southampton and the London School of Economics (Associate Partner).

• Investigate the legal, cultural and technical issues surrounding research data sharing within UK tertiary education community

• Explore new pathways to assist academics wishing to share their data over the Internet via Institutional Repositories (IRs)


Data Visualisation:

The set of techniques used to turn a set of data into visual insight. It aims to give the data a meaningful representation by exploiting the powerful discerning capabilities of the human eye*.

* Edinburgh Online Graphics Dictionary – http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/rbf/GRDICT/grdict.htm


• Programmableweb - http://www.programmableweb.com/tag/mapping - map or spatial mash-up ‘resource discovery tool’

• GeoCommons – http://geocommons.com/ - ‘brings intelligence to the GeoWeb, unleashing tools and data’ (downloadable as CSV, KML, Shape) – see also Platial, Mapbuilder, Mapufacture

• BODC• SRON & KMNI• U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center• USGS Earthquake Hazards Program

• UNHCR layer in Google Earth – mash together news, images, video, statistical databases relating to refugees across the globe via the “Google Earth Outreach programme” - http://www.unhcr.org/events/47f48dc92.html

Spatial Data Visualisation

http://www.programmableweb.com/tag/mapping



http://geocommons.com/


• UCL Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis – develop computing technologies in several disciplines which deal with geography, space, location and the built environment http://www.casa.ucl.ac.uk/

• GeoVUE – one of the 7 nodes of the National Centre for e-Social Science set up to develop ‘new kinds of virtual urban environments’ (VUEs) through which users can participate in furthering their understanding of cities

• London Profiler - link publicly available datasets such as Population Census to non-proprietary mapping e.g. visualising a neighbourhood's geodemographic profile using different area classifications through Google Maps - http://www.londonprofiler.org/

• MapTube – a free resource for viewing, sharing, mixing and mashing maps online created by GMapCreator.

• Engage in other forms of collaboration e.g. Virtual London (via Second Life)

http://www.casa.ucl.ac.uk/


• …and there’s more

• John Hopkins University’s Interactive Map Tool• Supports digital field assignments allowing users to create custom mashups using a

variety of digital media, text and data – http://www.cer.jhu/index.cfm?pageID=351

• Minnesota Interactive Internet Mapping Project• A mapping application that provides maps and imagery similar to Google Maps – claims

to be data rich, interactive, secure, easy to use, have analytical capabilities - http://maps.umn.edu/

• Research at Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona• Researchers mining spatial-temporal data provided by geotagged Flickr photos of urban

locations – http://www.giradin.org/fabien/tracing/

• Thematicmapping.orgThematic Mapping Engine (TME) enables you to visualise global statistics on Google

Earth. The primary data source is UNData - http://blog.thematicmapping.org/

http://www.cer.jhu/index.cfm?pageID=351



http://maps.umn.edu/



http://www.giradin.org/fabien/tracing/


Numeric Data Visualisation Tools:

• ‘Open’ ethos – anyone can upload/download or use data

• Commercial Services embracing Web 2.0 business models

• Collaborative and participatory – “harnessing collective intelligence”

• Easy to use


But …

• Ephemeral nature of web

• Not trusted repositories / archives

• If it’s computer generated and looks good it must be right!

Palimpsest Project - http://research.google.com


Numeric Data Visualisation Tools

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Comparison of 8 Web 2.0 numeric data visualisation tools

Upload data file


Horizontal Bar Chart

Pie Chart


Macro-data Visualisation• OECD Country Statistical Profiles – OECD statistics in SDMX

(Statistical Data Mark-up eXchange) - http://stats.oecd.org/nawwe/csp/default.html

• IMF Data Mapper - http://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/index.php

• Stat@tlas Europe - An online atlas of European statistical themes hosted by the Federal Statistical Office of Switzerland

• Eurostat Tables Graphs Maps (TGM) - an interactive user interface to Eurostat data

• UNData – http://data.un.org/ & UNEP Global Environment Outlook (GEO) Data Portal - http://geodata.grid.unep.ch/ - spatial and numeric data visualisation tools


• Are such utilities a flash in the pan or here to stay?

• Are they more appealing for researchers than IRs?

• Is such functionality desirable in IRs?

• Do they lack gravitas for academic purposes?

• Can/should institutions support the use of these tools?

• Do such ‘open data’ resources contribute to the ‘Global Database’?

Food for thought ….


Thank You

DISC-UK [email protected]

open data, open minds - web 2.0 data visualisation tools

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