Open Visualization

Gregor Aischdriven-by-data.net

Dienstag, 21. Juni 2011

Open Visualization

Dienstag, 21. Juni 2011Welcome :)

Open Visualization is about Giving people the right tools to create knowledge out of data AS WELL AS the freedom to use those tools how and for whatever purpose they want to.Truth: simply just canʻt imagine all those things people might me using our tools for, so the obvious thing is to Open up them as much as possible.- Looking at visualization that way, answering the question „Is it useful“ is pretty easy.

To begin with, I want to make clear what I mean by open visualization.

Open Source


The first point is pretty obvious, for a visualization to be open, at least it‘s source code must be published under a open software license.

Open Source

Open to Data


Secondly, open visualizations shouldn‘t be closely tighted to a specific dataset. Instead, Everybody should be able to explore their own data with it.

Open Source

Open to Data

Open to Community


Lastly we believe that a successful Open Visualization must be open to the community. In terms of technologies used, terms of documentation, since we want to invite people to do awesome stuff with it..


Many Eyes is open to new datasets which users may upload in order to visualize it using one of the many tools. - But, the tools itself aren‘t open. - People are still using this- But Virtually no community around this project anymore.


Let‘s have a look at the Gapminder project. Is it ready to upload custom datasets? No, it isn‘t. Is it open source or reuseable in some other ways? Again no. Instead the Gapminder FAQ suggests using the BubbleChart Gadget that‘s part of the Google Spreadsheet application.


Same with wordle, you may upload and explore your own data, but source is closed property of IBM. No updates for a couple of years now.

Dienstag, 21. Juni 2011Letʻs now take a look at a recent example of our work at the OKF. You probably all know WhereDoesMyMoneyGo dot Org, which was one of the first open data portals, I think.

Dienstag, 21. Juni 2011- result of this process: OpenSpending- site aims to provide tools for analyzing all kinds of budgets around the world- clear API to separate data from representation- flexible enough to work with virtually any money-related dataset- built entirely in JavaScript (strong community)- completely open source- guess what happens?

Dienstag, 21. Juni 2011People actually start to re-use the code. This is a snapshot of an OpenSpending fork, maintained by individuals in Brazil.

Localization is a very big and under-estimated issue. People actually need to understand the language.Open Visualization means are by definition ready for customization and localization.

http://infografics.livejournal.com/Dienstag, 21. Juni 2011

Love this map.

http://infografics.livejournal.com

http://infografics.livejournal.com


- give you a quick demo of the current progress on the OpenSpending project.

Fair share of knowledgeCommunity support

Software Quality

Dienstag, 21. Juni 2011In the first place, opening data and visualization is a matter of fair share of knowledge. Developing countries or local communities often cannot afford to develop

feature-rich data portals like OpenSpending. But there are more good reasons..


Software Quality

Dienstag, 21. Juni 2011As in any other open source projects, the support by the community is a great benefit of open visualizations. Need last minute translations into 16 languages?


Sustainability

Dienstag, 21. Juni 2011As a result of the above two points, creating Open Visualizations simply makes more fun for the developers. Also not to forget: Knowing that the entire world will be able too take a look at my code always forces me to write very robust and software.

Thanks


Open Visualization

Documents

Transcript of Open Visualization