Visualization Gallery

Here are libraries for plotting data on maps, frameworks for creating charts, graphs and diagrams and tools to simplify the handling of data.

Even if you’re not into programming, you’ll find applications that can be used without writing one single line of code. Many of these tools are relatively simple to use, and others are more advanced. . .

There is something about visualizing data--in the way Hans Rosling first got us all excited about--that does make a pedagogical difference at two levels. The simplest is in consuming the visualized data, an act that alllows us to see better what the data tells us, or even se what we couldn't otherwise see. The more complex application is in creting the visualization, an act that calls on very high order thinking and, even if we are not sure just what the data may be telling us, an intuition that something important is hidden in there.

More: http://www.facebookstories.com/stories/2200/data-visualization-photo-sharing-explosions

Co.DesignInfographic: Visualizing Prime Numbers, For People Who Suck At MathCo.DesignJason Davies, a data visualization specialist and computer scientist, created a graphic for the rest of us to picture the unique relationships between prime numbers.

On September 27th, the world's best examples of visually stunning information was recognized at the inaugural Information is Beautiful awards.

The event, held at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts, awarded designers from all over the world in a variety of categories, including data visualisation, infographics and data journalism.

When David McCandless, author, data journalist and founder of the IIB data-visualisation studio, announced in early 2012 that IIB was looking for award applicants, he was inundated with over 1,000 entries.

"I've just been amazed by the sheer quality of the creative work submitted to the awards from around the world," McCandless told Wired.co.uk. "There are a number of criteria we look for when judging these awards. Not only do they have to have the right visual quality and be easily understood, they have to have that invisible element of story telling as well."

Read the complete article for a closer look at all the winners, selected by a panel of judges including musician and visual artist Brian Eno, senior curator of the Museum of Modern Art Paola Antonelli, BrainPickings.org editor Maria Popova and Guardian Datablog editor Simon Rogers.

OneZoom Tree of Life Explorer... An excellent way of visualizing data... Good usage of fractals.

"Big data" is a growing issue in science and industry, as modern computing has enabled large amounts of data to be captured and stored, revolutionizing many branches of science. These advances, however, also lead to challenges, such as how to explore and visualize large data sets.

The very first blue-skies idea that could have been identified with OneZoom was that of a mind map so vast that it could contain all human knowledge. The concept involved making the information easy to explore by laying it out in ever smaller bubbles using a fractal structure and a zooming interface so that the computer never runs out of space to put the information no matter how much there is.

OneZoom is committed to heightening awareness about the diversity of life on earth, its evolutionary history and the threats of extinction. This website allows you to explore the tree of life in a completely new way: it's like a map, everything is on one page, all you have to do is zoom in and out. OneZoom also provides free, open source, data visulation tools for science and education.

Silly season viz.

Jet Propulsion LaboratoryJPL Infographics Site Wants You and Your CreativityJet Propulsion LaboratoryJPL Infographics Site Wants You and Your Creativity.

Really.  Interesting -- I attended the first-ever Scientific Visualization conference in 1988 at JPL. The Cray-5 at Las Alamos used as a graphics front end to their other 4 Cray-5 supercomputers had less power than the Graphics Processing Unit on my son's gaming computer has now.  Ah, nostalgia.