This is My Career Tree. (...And Also My Network Web!)

This charming little time-waster is brought to you by Newsweek, with data piped in from my LinkedIn profile. I suppose it isn't super useful, but it lends the impression that I haven't spent the last few years just writing piles of blogs and spewing social media platitudes; I've been constructing something tangible. A tree.

Data visualisation is still a niche in its pulpy, experimental stages: we're just discovering what we can do with data and how we can play with it, make it tell a story - illustrate a manifesto, even - without forcing us to slouch forward and squint.

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Debtris: The Game of US/UK Debts (Among Other Things)

This data visualisation illustrates expenditures that have contributed to US debt, Tetris-style. It's a fun watch if you like stress.



Note there's a lot of other info in there that's not strictly tied to US debt: Wall St. bonuses in '09 ($115 billion), WalMart's revenue ($405 billion), what it would cost to save the Amazon ($21 billion), and annual donations to charity made by Americans ($308 billion).

Enough randomness to make the name of the video deceptive (if catchy).

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This is a Community Management Scenario Map.

See full size +/or courtesy-of.

Most of this should be common sense, but it helps to have a visual to cut through all the ambiguity. Best, perhaps, if used alongside the Air Force flow chart for blogging engagement...?

Rules of the Game, and Our Inconstant Frontiers

This is an article I did for a session at MIPTV this year. I've been thinking a lot about this conversation lately in the context of how data visualisation can change the way we see, and how game mechanics are (finally!) being exploited by marketers.

"Maps are very simple," began Orange labs researcher Christophe Aguiton. "They are practical things. But at the same time a map is a dream engine ... people dream on maps."

Once upon a time, ordinary maps were given depth with topographical tricks. Today you can layer maps with data - examples of which we see in plenty, like how criminal acts, bars or schools can be mapped for the BBC's The Truth About Crime project.

And as an example, Aguiton showed us a map of France, seen from above, layered with the frequency of real-time SMSes in a given area on new years. SMS concentrations were illustrated to look like flames, burning calmly over the country and culminating in a gleaming ball of fire in Paris. When midnight hit, the lights suddenly exploded upward and outward, indicating the immediate rise in text messages - a fireworks show composed by data.

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The World Cup Predicted

I love how data visualisation, coupled with easy access to information, is now fueled by a subculture of people interested in presenting information - telling new stories, really - in creative ways.

And one of my favourite things to watch is how some are trying to suss out the perfect formula for predicting outcomes, particularly in niche series of events with clear rules and variables, like the World Cup. (Barring any shenanigans, anyway.)

Image credit: Section Design.

Visualizing the BP Oil Spill

Over France:

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