5 Ways to find, mix and mash your data
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
One of the most popular trends in online journalism is taking publicly available data and translating it into visualizations or infographics that readers and viewers can quickly and easily understand. A large percentage of the visualizations you see on the web were built from scratch, which can take a considerable amount of time and effort. The following sites allow you to mash your data in record time.
Swivel features more than 15,000 data sets for users to play with in various categories ranging from Economics to Health to Technology. From the data, users have created hundreds of thousands of graphs, charts and infographics, including the one below that visualizes the amount of rainfall in California since 1870. You can get started by copying and pasting your data or uploading an Excel spreadsheet or CSV file to the site. Once you've create your visualization, you can embed it anywhere on the web.
Socrata is an online space for data lovers to browse datasets as well as create new visualizations to share with others. The data itself can be visualized in a number of ways including, charts, maps, graphs and tables. The site has hundreds of datasets to choose from which can be mashed and downloaded into a variety of file formats including CSV, PDF and XML.
Widgenie lets users upload data from a variety of sources such as Excel spreadsheets, CSV files or Google Spreadsheets and using a drag and drop interface to create custom charts and graphs. Once the data has been arranged and styled, it is presented as a widget that can be embedded in web sites and social networks. Widgenie also has a premium service that offers unlimited widgets and branding opportunities.
Like the previously mentioned sites, Verifiable allows users to upload, mash and visualize data. Verifiable just launched earlier this year and has fewer publicly available data sets, but it does offer greater flexibility on how the data is styled and presented. Graphic designers will appreciate the ability to change and tweak the presentation and add details like custom labels and shading. Verifiable is free to use if you keep your charts public, but also has a inexpensive pricing plan for those who want to keep their work private.
There are a lot of cool things about DataMasher: the available datasets, the community built around that data, the unique visualization tools, and the easy-to-use interface of the site. What is truly intriguing about the site is the way users take two different datasets and create visual hypotheses. For example, to visualize the Most Reproductive States (US), one user combined the number of US births witH population figures from the 2008 US Census. You can check out the results below:
At the very least, DataMasher and the other sites listed here are great resources for generating ideas on how to mix and remix various datasets.
Also on 10,000 Words:
• Data centers, APIs and what they mean to journalism
• 12 ways to find the best in data visualization
• Where to find the best online interactive maps
• News databases: Turning numbers into knowledge
• 5 Ways to take your map mashups to the next level
Swivel
Swivel features more than 15,000 data sets for users to play with in various categories ranging from Economics to Health to Technology. From the data, users have created hundreds of thousands of graphs, charts and infographics, including the one below that visualizes the amount of rainfall in California since 1870. You can get started by copying and pasting your data or uploading an Excel spreadsheet or CSV file to the site. Once you've create your visualization, you can embed it anywhere on the web.
Socrata
Socrata is an online space for data lovers to browse datasets as well as create new visualizations to share with others. The data itself can be visualized in a number of ways including, charts, maps, graphs and tables. The site has hundreds of datasets to choose from which can be mashed and downloaded into a variety of file formats including CSV, PDF and XML.
Widgenie
Widgenie lets users upload data from a variety of sources such as Excel spreadsheets, CSV files or Google Spreadsheets and using a drag and drop interface to create custom charts and graphs. Once the data has been arranged and styled, it is presented as a widget that can be embedded in web sites and social networks. Widgenie also has a premium service that offers unlimited widgets and branding opportunities.
Verifiable
Like the previously mentioned sites, Verifiable allows users to upload, mash and visualize data. Verifiable just launched earlier this year and has fewer publicly available data sets, but it does offer greater flexibility on how the data is styled and presented. Graphic designers will appreciate the ability to change and tweak the presentation and add details like custom labels and shading. Verifiable is free to use if you keep your charts public, but also has a inexpensive pricing plan for those who want to keep their work private.
DataMasher
There are a lot of cool things about DataMasher: the available datasets, the community built around that data, the unique visualization tools, and the easy-to-use interface of the site. What is truly intriguing about the site is the way users take two different datasets and create visual hypotheses. For example, to visualize the Most Reproductive States (US), one user combined the number of US births witH population figures from the 2008 US Census. You can check out the results below:
At the very least, DataMasher and the other sites listed here are great resources for generating ideas on how to mix and remix various datasets.
Also on 10,000 Words:
• Data centers, APIs and what they mean to journalism
• 12 ways to find the best in data visualization
• Where to find the best online interactive maps
• News databases: Turning numbers into knowledge
• 5 Ways to take your map mashups to the next level
2 Comments
November 13, 2009 5:09 AM