Data scientist Edward Tufte (dubbed the "Galileo of graphics" by BusinessWeek) pioneered the field of data visualization. Tufte discusses what he calls "forever knowledge," and his latest projects: sculpting Richard Feynman’s diagrams, and helping people "see without words."
http://www.npr.org/2013/01/18/169708761/edward-tufte-wants-you-to-see-better
Tagged with npr dataviz data visualisation book:author=edward tufte
Brian Suda is a Master Informatician based in Iceland working on Upplýsingamiðlun, or data visualisations. He’s the author of Designing with Data, which is an introduction to those who have to create charts and graphs for a living, but could be doing it better.
Brian talks with us about collecting data, the growth in the data and technology sector, the difference between data visualisations and infographics, and the importance of telling a good story. He also provides great tips on getting started in this exciting field and some resources for listeners.
A data visualization, when done well, can be an incredibly powerful way to communicate information. It ultimately boils down to the choices you make in how to design and present the data. If you make the wrong choice you can run the risk of not accurately displaying the data or struggling to effectively tell its story.
Brian Suda, author of A Practical Guide to Designing with Data, believes experimentation is a big part of arriving at the right choices. As ideas end up on the cutting room floor, not only do you arrive at a great visualization, but you’re building your toolbox along the way. This practice and experimentation leaves you with a template to apply to future projects.
Essentially, arriving at the right choices now allows you to make better choices later. If you learn the best ways to represent different types of data, you can then apply that knowledge to any data sets you may have to visualize.
Brian will be sharing his insights on data visualizations in his virtual seminar, The Design Choices You Make for Information: How to Create Great Data Visualizations, on Thursday, May 17. You won’t want to miss out on Brian’s pragmatic tips and techniques. Save your spot in Brian’s seminar.
As always, we love to hear what you’re thinking. Share your thoughts with us in our comments section.
Brian Suda joins the geeks to talk about information visualization. And the big question "Satan and Miles’s birthday: is there a connection?"
Fluent English Speakers Translate into Chinese Automatically
For the study, each person was shown pairs of words. The first word flashed on the computer screen so quickly that the person didn’t realize they’d seen it. The second word appeared for longer; the person was supposed to hit a key indicating whether it was a real word as quickly as possible. This was just a test to see how quickly they were processing the word.
The trick was this: Although everything in the test was in English, in some cases, the two words actually had a connection – but only if you know how they’re written in Chinese. So, for example, the first word might be “thing,” which is written 东西in Chinese, and the second might be “west,” which is written 西in Chinese. The character for “west” appears in the word “thing,” but these two words are totally unrelated in English.
Zhang found that, when two words shared characters in Chinese, participants processed the second word faster – even though they had no conscious knowledge of having seen the first word in the pair. Even though these students are fluent in English, their brains still automatically translate what they see into Chinese. This suggests that knowledge of a first language automatically influences the processing of a second language, even when they are very different, unrelated languages.
Web authentication authority suffers security breach
Yet another web authentication authority has been attacked by hackers intent on minting counterfeit certificates that would allow them to spoof the authenticated pages of high-profile sites. Israel-based StartCom, which operates StartSSL suffered a security breach that occurred last Wednesday, the company said in a tersely worded advisory. The certificate authority, which is trusted by the Microsoft Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox browsers to vouch for the authenticity of sensitive websites, has suspended issuance of digital certificates and related services until further notice.
Best Buy Flexes Legal Muscles Over "Geek" Word Read more: http:
US Electronics retailer Best Buy has been slow but steady in the fight to protect its Geek Squad trademark, but some are wondering whether the 800-lbs gorilla of tech retailing sector is not going too far in its war to right some wrongs. The word "Geek" is a century-old word that used to mean a fool or crazy person but has, since the beginning of the 1980’s, been associated with fans of technology in general and computers in particular.
Nevada Passes Law Authorizing Driverless Cars
The State of Nevada just passed Assembly Bill No. 511 which, among other things, authorizes the Department of Transportation to develop rules and regulations governing the use of driverless cars, such as Google’s concept car, on its roads.
Our Guest
Brian Suda is an informatician currently residing in Reykjavík, Iceland. He has spent a good portion of each day connected to Internet after discovering it back in the mid-01990s. Most recently, he has been focusing more on the mobile space and future predictions. How smaller devices will augment our every day life and what that means to the way we live, work and are entertained. People will have access to more information, so how do we present this in a way that they can begin to understand and make informed decisions about things they encounter in their daily life. This could include better visualizations of data, interactions, work-flows and ethnographic studies of how we relate to these digital objects.
His own little patch of Internet can be found at suda.co.uk where many of his past projects and crazy ideas can be found.
In an age of high-speed living and info overload, visualized information has incredible potential to help us quickly understand, navigate and find meaning in a complex world.
The use of infographics, data visualisations and information design is a rising trend across many disciplines: science, design, journalism and web. At the same time, daily exposure to the web is creating a incredibly design-literate population. Could this be a new language?
In his session, David will share his passion for this merging of design, information, text and story to unveil some of the interesting, unexpected and sometimes magical things that happen when you visualise data, knowledge and ideas. And, admitting that his book is as full of mistakes as it is successes, he’ll also explore some of the common pitfalls, traps and FAILS that dog this young design form.
Using examples from his book and blog, he’ll share thoughts on what makes a successful information visualisation and journalistic tips, especially for designers, on how to zero in on interesting data and subjects—and how designing information can expose your own biases and change your views about the world. Oh yeah!
http://2010.dconstruct.org/speakers/david-mccandless
David McCandless is a London-based author, data-journalist and information designer, working across print, advertising, TV and web. His design work has appeared in over forty publications internationally including The Guardian and Wired. He champions the use of data visualisations to explore new directions for journalism and to discover new stories in the seas of data surrounding us. His blog and book ‘Information Is Beautiful’ are dedicated to visualising ideas, issues, knowledge and data—all with the minimum of text.
Piece by piece, the world is moving onto the web. "Things informationalize," as Stamen advisor Ben Cerveny puts it. How can we make sense of this new torrent of information emerging wide-eyed and blinking into the internet? Stamen’s Michal Migurski will show how information visualization is making it possible to comprehend a live, vast, and deep connected web of data, with a special focus on interactive and geographic work.
http://2009.dconstruct.org/schedule/mikemigurski/
Stamen partner Michal Migurski leads the technical and research aspects of Stamen’s work, moving comfortably from active participation in Stamen’s design process, designing data, prototyping applications, to creating the dynamic projects that Stamen delivers to clients.
http://2009.dconstruct.org/schedule/bencerveny/
Ben Cerveny is a strategic and conceptual advisor to Stamen, helping to articulate an approach toward creative visualization and to evaluate and develop potential partners and engagements relative to that vision.