Data Analyisis

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Review

22 free tools for data visualization and analysisGot data? These useful tools can turn it into informative, engaging graphics.

By Sharon Machlis April 20, 2011 06:00 AM ETinShare 328

Computerworld - You may not think you've got much in common with an investigative journalist or an academic medical researcher. But if you're trying to extract usefulinformation from an ever-increasing inflow of data, you'll likely find visualization useful --whether it's to show patterns or trends with graphics instead of mountains of text, or totry to explain complex issues to a nontechnical audience.

Want to see all the tools at once?

For quick reference, check out our chart listing all the tools profiled here.

There are many tools around to help turn data into graphics, but they can carry heftyprice tags. The cost can make sense for professionals whose primary job is to findmeaning in mountains of information, but you might not be able to justify such anexpense if you or your users only need a graphics application from time to time, or ifyour budget for new tools is somewhat limited. If one of the higher-priced options is outof your reach, there are a surprising number of highly robust tools for data visualizationand analysis that are available at no charge.

Related Blog

Sharon Machlis:8 more free tools for data visualization and analysis

Here's a rundown of some of the better-known options, many of which weredemonstrated at the Computer-Assisted Reporting (CAR) conference last month.Others are not as well known but show great promise. They range from easy enoughfor a beginner (i.e., anyone who can do rudimentary spreadsheet data entry) to expert(requiring hands-on coding). But they all share one important characteristic: They'refree. Your only investment: time.

Data cleaning
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Before you can analyze and visualize data, it often needs to be "cleaned." What doesthat mean? Perhaps some entries list "New York City" while others say "New York, NY"and you need to standardize them before you can see patterns. There might be somerecords with misspellings or numerical data-entry errors. The following two tools aredesigned to help get your data in tip-top shape to be analyzed.

22 data visualization tools

Data cleaning Statistical analysis Visualization applications and services Code help: Wizards, libraries, APIs GIS/mapping on the desktop Web-based GIS/mapping Temporal data analysis Text/word clouds Social and other network analysis

DataWrangler

What it does: This Web-based service from Stanford University's Visualization Groupis designed for cleaning and rearranging data so it's in a form that other tools such as aspreadsheet app can use.

Click on a row or column, and DataWrangler will suggest changes. For example, if youclick on a blank row, several suggestions pop up such as "delete row" or "delete emptyrows."

There's also a history list that allows for easy undo -- a feature that's also available inGoogle Refine (reviewed next).

What's cool: Text editing is especially easy. For example, when I selected "Alabama"in one row of sample data headlined "Reported crime in Alabama" and then selected"Alaska" in the next group of data, it led to a suggestion to extract every state name.Hover your mouse over a suggestion, and you can see affected rows highlighted in red.

DataWrangler helps format table data so it can be better used and analyzed by other applications.Click to view larger image.
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Drawbacks: I found that unexpected changes occurred as I attempted to exploreDataWrangler's options; I constantly had to click "clear" to reset. And not allsuggestions are useful ("promote row to header" seemed an odd suggestion when therow was blank) or easy to understand ("fold split 1 using 2 as key").

And while the fact that DataWrangler is a Web-based service makes it convenient touse, don't forget that it sends your data off to an external site -- which means it isn't anoption for sensitive internal information. However, there are plans for a future release ofa stand-alone desktop version. Another important thing to keep in mind is thatDataWrangler is currently alpha code, and its creators say it's "still a work in progress."

Skill level: Advanced beginner.

Runs on: Any Web browser.

Learn more: There's a screencast on the Data Wrangler home page . Also, see thispost on using DataWrangler to format data (from Tableau Public's blog).

22 free tools for data visualization and analysis

Google Refine

What it does: Google Refine can be described as a spreadsheet on steroids for takinga first look at both text and numerical data. Like Excel, it can import and export data ina number of formats including tab- and comma-separate text files and Excel, XML andJSON files. (Update 8/27/13: This project has been turned over to the open-sourcecommunity and is transitioning to OpenRefine .

Google Refine can make data 'cleaner' by helping to find errors or different versions of the same proper names. Click to viewlarger image.

Refine features several built-in algorithms that find text items that are spelled differentlybut actually should be grouped together. After importing your data, you simply select
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edit cells --> cluster and edit and select which algorithm you want to use. After Refineruns, you decide whether to accept or reject each suggestion. For example, you couldsay yes to combining Microsoft and Microsoft Corp., but no to combining Coach Inc.with CQG Inc. If it's offering too few or too many suggestions, you can change thestrength of the suggestion function.

There are also numerical options that offer quick and easy overviews of datadistributions. This functionality can reveal anomalies that might be the result of datainput errors -- such as $800,000 instead of $80,000 for a salary entry, or it couldexpose inconsistencies -- such as differences in the way compensation data is reportedfrom entry to entry, with some showing, say, hourly wages and others showing weeklypay or yearly salaries.

Beyond data housekeeping, Google Refine offers some useful analysis tools, such assorting and filtering.

What's cool: Once you get used to which commands do what, this is a powerful toolfor data manipulation and analysis that strikes a good balance between functionalityand ease of use. The undo/redo list of every action you've taken lets you roll back whenneeded. And text functions handle Java-syntax regular expressions, allowing you tolook for patterns (such as, say, three numbers followed by two digits) as well as specifictext strings and numbers.

Finally, while this is a browser-based application, it works with files on your desktop, soyour data remains local.

Drawbacks: Although Google Refine looks like a spreadsheet, you can't do typicalspreadsheet calculations with it; for that, you must export to a conventionalspreadsheet application. If you've got a large data set, carve out some time in your dayto go through all of Refine's suggested changes, since it can take a while. And,depending on the data set, be prepared when looking for text items to merge: You'relikely to get either a lot of false positives or missed problems -- or both.

Skill level: Advanced beginner. Knowledge of data analysis concepts is moreimportant than technical prowess; power Excel users who understand data-cleaning

needs should be comfortable with this.

Runs on: Windows, Mac OS X (if it appears to do nothing after loading on a Mac, pointa browser manually to http://127.0.0.1:3333/ ), Linux.

Learn more: These three screencasts give a good overview of why and how you'd useRefine; there's also fairly detailed documentation on the Google Code project area.
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Statistical analysis

Sometimes you need to combine graphical representation of your data with heftiernumerical analysis.

The R Project for Statistical Computing

What it does: R is a general statistical analysis platform (the authors call it an"environment") that runs on the command line. Need to find means, medians, standarddeviations, correlations? R can handle that and much more, including "linear andgeneralized linear models, nonlinear regression models, time series analysis, classicalparametric and nonparametric tests, clustering and smoothing," according to the projectwebsite .

The R Project for Statistical Computing provides a wide range of data analysis options.Click to view larger image.

R also graphs, charts and plots results. There are numerous add-ons to this open-source project that significantly extend functionality. For users who prefer a GUI, PeterAldhous, San Francisco bureau chief for New Scientist magazine, suggests RExcel , which offers access to the R engine through Excel.

What's cool: There is a great deal of functionality in R, including quite a number ofvisualization options as well as numerical and spatial analysis .

Drawbacks: The fact that R runs on the command line means that users will have totake the time to learn which commands do what, and not all users will be comfortablewith a text-only interface. In addition, Aldhous says those dealing with large data setsmay hit a memory barrier (if so, there's a commercial option from Revolution Analytics ).

Skill level: Intermediate to advanced. Comfort with command-line prompts and aknowledge of statistics are a musts for the core application.
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Runs on: Linux, Mac OS X, Unix, Windows XP or later.

Visualization applications and services

These tools offer a number of different visualization options. While some stick toconventional charts and graphs, many offer a range of other choices such as treemapsand word clouds. A few offer geographical mapping as well, although if you'reinterested in maps, our sections on GIS/mapping focus specifically on that.

Google Fusion Tables

What it does: This is one of the simplest ways I've seen to turn data into a chart ormap. You can upload a file in several different formats and then choose how to displayit: table, map, heatmap, line chart, bar graph, pie chart, scatter plot, timeline, storylineor motion (animation over time). It's somewhat customizable, allowing you to changemap icons and style info windows.

Google Fusion Tables is a user-friendly tool that makes it easy to map data.Click to view interactive map.

There are some data editing functions within Fusion Tables, although changing morethan a few individual cell entries can quickly become tedious. You can also join tables(which is important when the data you want to map is in multiple tables), and filter, sortand add columns and so on. There are also options to allow others to make commentson the data itself.
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Mapping goes beyond just placing points, as many of us are accustomed to withGoogle Maps. Fusion tables can also map multiple polygons with variations in colorbased on underlying data, such as this intensity map showing the percentage ofhouseholds with Internet access by state from 2007 U.S. Census bureau data.

The Knight Digital Media Center notes that a handy undocumented feature allows theuse of Fusion Table's "templating" export to generate a JSON file from data in otherformats. JSON is required by some APIs and JavaScript libraries.

Unlike IBM's Many Eyes, Google lets you designate your data as private or unlisted aswell as public, although your data still resides on Google's servers -- a benefit ordrawback, depending on whether server bandwidth costs or data privacy is moreimportant to you.

What's cool: Fusion Tables offers relatively quick charting and mapping, including

geographic information system (GIS) functions to analyze data by geography. Theservice also automatically geocodes addresses, which is useful when trying to placenumerous points on a map. This is an excellent tool for beginners and advancedbeginners to use to get comfortable with analyzing data; it's also a good fit for peoplewho don't program. For more advanced users, there's an API.

Drawbacks: Functionality, customization and data capacity are all limited comparedwith desktop applications or custom code, and interacting with large data sets on thesite can be sluggish. And it has its limitations -- the site choked on March 11, the day ofthe devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan. (It is still a Google Labs beta

project.)

Skill level: Beginner.


Learn more: A Google Fusion Tables tour and several tutorials are available. We'vealso got some examples of what it can do in our story "H-1B Visa Data: Visual andInteractive Tools." Also see the Fusion Tables Example Gallery .

Impure

Update: Sometime after publication of this article, Impure became Quadrigram and isno longer free.

What it does: Impure is sort of a Yahoo Pipes for data visualization, designed forcreating numerous types of highly polished graphical representations of data using adrag-and-drop workspace. The service includes a library of objects and various
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methods, and -- as with Yahoo Pipes -- it allows you to click and drag to connectmodules so that the output of one becomes the input of another. It was developed bySpanish analytics firm Bestiario .

What's cool: Impure offers a highly visual interface for the task of creatingvisualizations -- which is not as common as you might expect. It has a sleek userinterface and numerous modules, including quite a few APIs that are designed to pulldata from the Web. It features numerous visualization types that are searchable bykeywords like numeric , tables , nodes , geometry and map . And although it saves yourworkspaces to the Web, you can copy and save the code behind your workspaceslocally, so you can back up your work or maintain your own libraries of code snippets.

Drawbacks: Users of Impure face a surprisingly steep learning curve despite its drag-and-drop functionality. The documentation is detailed in some areas, but lacking inothers. For instance, while it was easy to find a list of APIs, it was more difficult to find

basic instructions on how to use the workspace -- or even figure out that there was aworkspace, let alone how to use the various objects and methods.

Once you save your workspace, it's on the public Web, although it's unlikely thatanyone else will be able to find it unless you share the URL. And I found some of thesamples not all that helpful in understanding the underlying data, even if they werevisually striking.

Skill level: Intermediate.


Learn more: To get started, I'd suggest the videos "Interface Basics " (7 minutes) and"Workspaces and Code ." You can find a sample called The Pay Gap Between Men andWomen Mapped at the website of British newspaper The Guardian .

Tableau Public

What it does: This tool can turn data into any number of visualizations, from simple tocomplex. You can drag and drop fields onto the work area and ask the software tosuggest a visualization type, then customize everything from labels and tool tips to size,interactive filters and legend display.
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Tableau Public can turn data into any number of visualizations, from simple to complex.Click to view interactive graphic.

What's cool: Tableau Public offers a variety of ways to display interactive data. Youcan combine multiple connected visualizations onto a single dashboard, where onesearch filter can act on numerous charts, graphs and maps; underlying data tables canalso be joined. And once you get the hang of how the software works, its drag-and-dropinterface is considerably quicker than manually coding in JavaScript or R for mostusers, making it more likely that you'll try additional scenarios with your data set. Inaddition, you can easily perform calculations on data within the software. In August2013, Tableau increased the data limit for Public to 1 million rows.

Drawbacks: In the free version of Tableau's business intelligence software, yourvisualization and data must reside on Tableau's site. Whenever you save your work, itgets sent up to the public website -- which means you can't save work in progresswithout running the risk that it will be seen before it's ready (while Tableau's site won'tdeliberately expose your work, it relies on security by obscurity -- so someone couldsee your work if they guess your URL). And once it's saved, viewers are invited todownload your entire workbook with data. Upgrading to a single-user desktop editioncosts $999.

Not surprisingly, all that functionality comes at a cost: Tableau's learning curve is fairlysteep compared to that of, say, Fusion Tables. Even with the drag-and-drop interface,it'll take more than an hour or two to learn how to use the software's true capabilities,although you can get up and running doing simple charts and maps before too long.

Skill level: Advanced beginner to intermediate.

Runs on: Windows 7 , Vista, XP, 2003, Server 2008, 2003.
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Learn more: There are several short training videos on the Tableau site, where youcan also find downloadable data files that you can use to follow along.

You can see a sample in our article "Tech Unemployment Climbs; Self-employmentSteady ."

Many Eyes

A pioneer in Web-based data visualization, IBM's Many Eyes project combinesgraphical analysis with community, encouraging users to upload, share and discussinformation. It's extremely easy to use and very well documented, includingsuggestions on when to use what kind of visual data representation. Many Eyesincludes more than a dozen output options -- from charts, graphics and word clouds totreemaps, plots, network diagrams and some limited geographic maps.

You'll need a free account to upload and post data, although anyone can browse.Formatting is basic: For most visualizations, the data must be in a tab-separated textfile with column headers in the first row.

It took me about three minutes to create a bar chart of top H-1B visa employers.

It takes just a few minutes to create online charts like this with Many Eyes.Click to view larger image.

It took perhaps another minute to create a treemap of the same data.
http://www.tableausoftware.com/public/traininghttp://www.tableausoftware.com/public/traininghttp://www.tableausoftware.com/public/traininghttp://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9210078/Tech_unemployment_higher_than_white_collar_average#interactive_graphhttp://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9210078/Tech_unemployment_higher_than_white_collar_average#interactive_graphhttp://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9210078/Tech_unemployment_higher_than_white_collar_average#interactive_graphhttp://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9210078/Tech_unemployment_higher_than_white_collar_average#interactive_graphhttp://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/http://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9214755?pageNumber=7http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9214755?pageNumber=7http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9214755?pageNumber=6http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9214755?pageNumber=7http://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9210078/Tech_unemployment_higher_than_white_collar_average#interactive_graphhttp://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9210078/Tech_unemployment_higher_than_white_collar_average#interactive_graphhttp://www.tableausoftware.com/public/training


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Many Eyes offers a number of ways to visualize data, such as treemaps.Click to view larger image.

What's cool: Visualization can't get much easier, and the results look considerablymore sophisticated than you'd expect based on the minimal amount of effort needed tocreate them. Plus, the list of possible visualization types includes explanations of thetypes of data each one is best suited for.

Drawbacks: Both your visualizations and your data sets are public on the Many Eyessite and can be easily downloaded, shared, reposted and commented upon by others.This can be great for certain types of users -- especially government agencies,nonprofits, schools and other organizations that want to share visualizations onsomeone else's server budget -- but an obvious problem for others. (IBM does offer acontact form for businesses interested in hosting their own version of the software.) Inaddition, customization is limited, as is data file size (5MB).


Runs on: Java and any modern Web browser that can display Flash.

Learn more: IBM's website features pages explaining data formatting for Many Eyes and visualization choices .

You can see some featured visualizations on the Many Eyes home page or browsethrough some of the tens of thousands of uploads . One interesting map shows popularsurnames in the U.S. from the 2000 Census by Martin Wattenberg, one of the creatorsof Many Eyes.

VIDI
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9214755?pageNumber=8http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9214755?pageNumber=8http://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/page/Visualization_Options.htmlhttp://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/page/Visualization_Options.htmlhttp://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/page/Visualization_Options.htmlhttp://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/page/Data_Format.htmlhttp://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/page/Data_Format.htmlhttp://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/page/Data_Format.htmlhttp://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/page/Visualization_Options.htmlhttp://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/page/Visualization_Options.htmlhttp://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/page/Visualization_Options.htmlhttp://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/http://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/http://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/http://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/visualizationshttp://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/visualizationshttp://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/visualizationshttp://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9214755?pageNumber=9http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9214755?pageNumber=9http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9214755?pageNumber=9http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9214755?pageNumber=9http://www.dataviz.org/http://www.dataviz.org/http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9214755?pageNumber=7http://www.dataviz.org/http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9214755?pageNumber=9http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9214755?pageNumber=9http://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/visualizationshttp://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/http://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/page/Visualization_Options.htmlhttp://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/page/Data_Format.htmlhttp://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/page/Visualization_Options.htmlhttp://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9214755?pageNumber=8


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What it does: Although VIDI's website bills this as a tool for the Drupal contentmanagement system, graphics created by the site's visualization wizard can be usedon any HTML page -- no Drupal required.

Upload your data, select a visualization type, do a bit of customization selection, andyour chart, timeline or map is ready to use via auto-generated embed code (using aniframe , not JavaScript or Flash).

Graphics created by VIDI's visualization wizard can be used on any HTML page -- no Drupal required.Click to view interactive graphic.

What's cool: This is about as easy as Many Eyes -- with more mapping options and noneed to make your visualization and data set public on its website. There are quickscreencasts explaining each visualization type and several different color customizationoptions. And the file-size limit of 30MB is six times larger than Many Eyes' 5MBmaximum.

Drawbacks: Oddly, the visualization wizard was a lot easier to use than the embedcode -- my embedded iframe didn't display while trying to preview it on the VIDIwebsite; I needed to save the visualization and go to the "My VIDI" page to get embedcode that actually worked. Also, as with any cloud service, if you're using this for Webpublishing, you'll want to feel confident that the host's servers can handle your trafficand will be available longer than your need to display the data.


http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/present/frames.htmlhttp://www.w3.org/TR/html4/present/frames.htmlhttp://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9214755?pageNumber=10http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9214755?pageNumber=10http://www.computerworld.com/s/topic/158/Cloud+Computinghttp://www.computerworld.com/s/topic/158/Cloud+Computinghttp://www.computerworld.com/s/topic/158/Cloud+Computinghttp://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9214755?pageNumber=10http://www.computerworld.com/s/topic/158/Cloud+Computinghttp://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9214755?pageNumber=10http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/present/frames.html


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Learn more: The VIDI home page features a link to an 11-minute video tutorial.

It took me less than five minutes to create a sample: a map of earthquakes of 7.0magnitude or more since Jan. 1, 2000.

Zoho Reports

What it does: One of the more traditional corporate-focused business analytics offerings in this group, Zoho Reports can take data from various file formats or directlyfrom a database and turn it into charts, tables and pivot tables -- formats familiar tomost spreadsheet users.

What's cool: You can schedule data imports from sources on the Web. Data can bequeried using SQL and can be turned into visualizations, and the service is set up forWeb publishing and sharing (although if it's accessed by more than two users, you will

need a paid account).

Zoho Reports provides traditional business charts and graphs.Click to view larger image.

Drawbacks: Visualization options are fairly basic and limited. Interacting live with theWeb-based data can be sluggish at times. Data files are limited to 10MB. I found thenavigation confusing at times -- for example, after I saved a copy of a sampledatabase, I was told it was in the folder "My reports," yet I had a hard time finding that.

Skill level : Advanced beginner.


Learn more: There are video demos and samples on Zoho's website.

Code help: Wizards, libraries, APIs
http://www.dataviz.org/http://www.dataviz.org/http://www.dataviz.org/http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9214755?pageNumber=10http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9214755?pageNumber=10http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9214755?pageNumber=10https://reports.zoho.com/https://reports.zoho.com/http://www.computerworld.com/s/topic/9/BI+and+Analyticshttp://www.computerworld.com/s/topic/9/BI+and+Analyticshttp://www.computerworld.com/s/topic/9/BI+and+Analyticshttp://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9214755?pageNumber=11http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9214755?pageNumber=11http://reports.wiki.zoho.com/Video-Demos.htmlhttp://reports.wiki.zoho.com/Video-Demos.htmlhttp://reports.wiki.zoho.com/Video-Demos.htmlhttp://reports.zoho.com/ZDBSampleDatabases.cchttp://reports.zoho.com/ZDBSampleDatabases.cchttp://reports.zoho.com/ZDBSampleDatabases.cchttp://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9214755?pageNumber=11http://reports.zoho.com/ZDBSampleDatabases.cchttp://reports.wiki.zoho.com/Video-Demos.htmlhttp://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9214755?pageNumber=11http://www.computerworld.com/s/topic/9/BI+and+Analyticshttps://reports.zoho.com/http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9214755?pageNumber=10http://www.dataviz.org/


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Sometimes nothing can substitute for coding your own visualization -- especially if thelook and feel you're after can't be achieved without an existing desktop or Web app. Butthat doesn't mean you need to start from scratch, thanks to a wide range of availablelibraries and APIs.

Choosel

Update: Choosel is no longer under active development (August 27, 2013).

What it does: This open-source Web-based framework is designed for charts, clouds,graphs, timelines and maps. Right now, it is geared more for developers who createapplications than it is for end users who need to save and/or embed their work; butthere's an interactive online demo that lets you quickly upload some data to visualize.

Still under development, Choosel has potential as an easy way to create online graphics.Click to view larger image.

What's cool: As with Tableau Public, you can have more than one visualization on apage and connect them so that, for example, mousing over items on a chart willhighlight corresponding items on a map.

Drawbacks: This is not yet an application that end users can use to store and sharetheir work. And I found the online demo to be finicky about uploading data -- even afterI corrected field formats for dates (dd/mm/yyyy) and location (latitude/longitude) asdocumented, my data wouldn't load until I had another text field added (rather than justhaving numerical fields). It was also unclear how to customize labels. This projectshows promise if it's further developed and documented.

Skill level: Expert
http://code.google.com/p/choosel/http://code.google.com/p/choosel/http://choosel-mashups.appspot.com/http://choosel-mashups.appspot.com/http://choosel-mashups.appspot.com/http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9214755?pageNumber=12http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9214755?pageNumber=12http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9214755?pageNumber=12http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9214755?pageNumber=12http://choosel-mashups.appspot.com/http://code.google.com/p/choosel/


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Runs on: Chrome, Safari and Firefox.

Learn more: There's a short video called Choosel -- Timeline and Basic Features anda sample titled Earthquakes With 1,000 or More Deaths Since 1900 .

Exhibit

What it does: This spin-off of the MIT Simile Project is designed to help users "easilycreate Web pages with advanced text search and filtering functionalities, withinteractive maps, timelines and other visualization." Billed as a publishing framework,the JavaScript library allows easy additions of filters, searches and more. The EasyData Visualization for Journalists page offers examples of the code in use at a numberof newspaper websites.

Of course, "easy" is in the eye of the beholder -- what's easy for the professionals at

MIT who created Exhibit might not be that simple for a user whose comfort level stopsat Excel. Like most JavaScript libraries, Exhibit requires more hand-coding thanservices such as Many Eyes and Google Fusion Tables. On the other hand, Exhibit hasclear documentation for beginners , even those with no JavaScript experience.

What's cool: For those who are comfortable coding, Exhibit offers a number of views --maps, charts, timeplots, calendars and more -- as well as customized lenses (ways toformat an individual record) and facets (properties that can be searched or sorted).You're much more likely to get the exact presentation you want with Exhibit than, say,Many Eyes. And your data stays local unless and until you decide to publish.

Drawbacks: For newcomers unused to coding visualizations, it takes time to getfamiliar with coding and library syntax.

Skill level: Expert.

Learn more: There are a number of examples you can look at, including Red Sox-Yankees Winning Percentages Through the Years , U.S. Cities by Population andothers .

Note: There are numerous other JavaScript libraries to help create visualizations, suchas the recently released Data-Driven Documents and the jQuery Visualize plug-in . SixRevisions' list of 20 Fresh JavaScript Data Visualization Libraries gives you an idea ofhow many there are to choose from.

Google Chart Tools
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oz4uV6a7__0http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oz4uV6a7__0http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oz4uV6a7__0http://earthquakevisualization.appspot.com/http://earthquakevisualization.appspot.com/http://earthquakevisualization.appspot.com/http://simile-widgets.org/exhibit/http://simile-widgets.org/exhibit/http://simile.mit.edu/wiki/SIMILE:Abouthttp://simile.mit.edu/wiki/SIMILE:Abouthttp://simile.mit.edu/wiki/SIMILE:Abouthttp://people.csail.mit.edu/karger/Exhibit/CAR/http://people.csail.mit.edu/karger/Exhibit/CAR/http://people.csail.mit.edu/karger/Exhibit/CAR/http://people.csail.mit.edu/karger/Exhibit/CAR/http://simile-widgets.org/wiki/Getting_Started_with_Exhibithttp://simile-widgets.org/wiki/Getting_Started_with_Exhibithttp://www.simile-widgets.org/exhibit/examples/redsox/rivalry.htmlhttp://www.simile-widgets.org/exhibit/examples/redsox/rivalry.htmlhttp://www.simile-widgets.org/exhibit/examples/redsox/rivalry.htmlhttp://www.simile-widgets.org/exhibit/examples/redsox/rivalry.htmlhttp://www.simile-widgets.org/exhibit/examples/cities/cities.htmlhttp://www.simile-widgets.org/exhibit/examples/cities/cities.htmlhttp://www.simile-widgets.org/exhibit/examples/cities/cities.htmlhttp://simile-widgets.org/wiki/Examples_of_Simile_Widgets#Exhibithttp://simile-widgets.org/wiki/Examples_of_Simile_Widgets#Exhibithttp://mbostock.github.com/d3/http://mbostock.github.com/d3/http://mbostock.github.com/d3/http://www.filamentgroup.com/lab/update_to_jquery_visualize_accessible_charts_with_html5_from_designing_with/http://www.filamentgroup.com/lab/update_to_jquery_visualize_accessible_charts_with_html5_from_designing_with/http://www.filamentgroup.com/lab/update_to_jquery_visualize_accessible_charts_with_html5_from_designing_with/http://sixrevisions.com/javascript/20-fresh-javascript-data-visualization-libraries/http://sixrevisions.com/javascript/20-fresh-javascript-data-visualization-libraries/http://sixrevisions.com/javascript/20-fresh-javascript-data-visualization-libraries/http://code.google.com/apis/charttools/index.htmlhttp://code.google.com/apis/charttools/index.htmlhttp://code.google.com/apis/charttools/index.htmlhttp://sixrevisions.com/javascript/20-fresh-javascript-data-visualization-libraries/http://www.filamentgroup.com/lab/update_to_jquery_visualize_accessible_charts_with_html5_from_designing_with/http://mbostock.github.com/d3/http://simile-widgets.org/wiki/Examples_of_Simile_Widgets#Exhibithttp://www.simile-widgets.org/exhibit/examples/cities/cities.htmlhttp://www.simile-widgets.org/exhibit/examples/redsox/rivalry.htmlhttp://www.simile-widgets.org/exhibit/examples/redsox/rivalry.htmlhttp://simile-widgets.org/wiki/Getting_Started_with_Exhibithttp://people.csail.mit.edu/karger/Exhibit/CAR/http://people.csail.mit.edu/karger/Exhibit/CAR/http://simile.mit.edu/wiki/SIMILE:Abouthttp://simile-widgets.org/exhibit/http://earthquakevisualization.appspot.com/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oz4uV6a7__0


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What it does: Unlike Google Fusion Tables , which is a full-fledged, self-containedapplication for uploading and storing data, and generating charts and maps, ChartTools is designed to visualize data residing elsewhere, such as your own website orwithin Google Docs.

Google Chart Tools offers both a wizard and an API for creating Web graphics from data.Click to view larger image.

Google offers both a Chart API using a "simple URL request to a Google chart server"for creating a static image and a Visualization API that accesses a JavaScript library forcreating interactive graphics (Note: Google announced in April 2012 that it will be

phasing out its Chart Tools for creating static image charts . Chart Tools API is notaffected.) . Google offers a comparison of data size, page load, skills needed and otherfactors to help you decide which option to use .

For the simpler static graphics, there's a wizard to help you create a chart from somesample formats; it goes as far as helping you input data row by row, although for anydecent-size data set -- say, more than half a dozen or so entries -- it makes moresense to format it in a text file .

The visualization API includes various types of charts, maps, tables and other options.

What's cool: The static image chart is reasonably easy to use and features a LiveChart Playground , which allows you to tweak code and see your results in real time.

The more robust API lets you pull data in from a Google spreadsheet . You can createicons that mix text and images for visualizations, such as this weather forecast note , and what it calls a "Google-o-meter" graphic . The Visualization API also has some ofthe best documentation I've seen for a JavaScript library .
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9215504?pageNumber=3http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9215504?pageNumber=3http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9215504?pageNumber=3http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9214755?pageNumber=13http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9214755?pageNumber=13http://blogs.computerworld.com/20079/farewell_google_chartshttp://blogs.computerworld.com/20079/farewell_google_chartshttp://code.google.com/apis/charttools/docs/choosing.htmlhttp://code.google.com/apis/charttools/docs/choosing.htmlhttp://code.google.com/apis/charttools/docs/choosing.htmlhttp://code.google.com/apis/chart/docs/chart_wizard.htmlhttp://code.google.com/apis/chart/docs/chart_wizard.htmlhttp://code.google.com/apis/chart/docs/chart_wizard.htmlhttp://code.google.com/apis/chart/docs/data_formats.htmlhttp://code.google.com/apis/chart/docs/data_formats.htmlhttp://code.google.com/apis/chart/docs/data_formats.htmlhttp://code.google.com/apis/chart/docs/chart_playground.htmlhttp://code.google.com/apis/chart/docs/chart_playground.htmlhttp://code.google.com/apis/chart/docs/chart_playground.htmlhttp://code.google.com/apis/chart/docs/chart_playground.htmlhttp://code.google.com/apis/visualization/documentation/queries.htmlhttp://code.google.com/apis/visualization/documentation/queries.htmlhttp://code.google.com/apis/visualization/documentation/queries.htmlhttp://code.google.com/apis/chart/docs/gallery/dynamic_icons.htmlhttp://code.google.com/apis/chart/docs/gallery/dynamic_icons.htmlhttp://code.google.com/apis/chart/docs/gallery/dynamic_icons.html#weather_forecast_notehttp://code.google.com/apis/chart/docs/gallery/dynamic_icons.html#weather_forecast_notehttp://code.google.com/apis/chart/docs/gallery/dynamic_icons.html#weather_forecast_notehttps://chart.googleapis.com/chart?chs=75x50&cht=gom&chd=t:70&chco=FF0000,FF8040,FFFF00,00FF00,00FFFF,0000FF,800080%20https://chart.googleapis.com/chart?chs=75x50&cht=gom&chd=t:70&chco=FF0000,FF8040,FFFF00,00FF00,00FFFF,0000FF,800080%20https://chart.googleapis.com/chart?chs=75x50&cht=gom&chd=t:70&chco=FF0000,FF8040,FFFF00,00FF00,00FFFF,0000FF,800080%20http://code.google.com/apis/visualization/documentation/using_overview.htmlhttp://code.google.com/apis/visualization/documentation/using_overview.htmlhttp://code.google.com/apis/visualization/documentation/using_overview.htmlhttp://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9214755?pageNumber=13http://code.google.com/apis/visualization/documentation/using_overview.htmlhttps://chart.googleapis.com/chart?chs=75x50&cht=gom&chd=t:70&chco=FF0000,FF8040,FFFF00,00FF00,00FFFF,0000FF,800080%20http://code.google.com/apis/chart/docs/gallery/dynamic_icons.html#weather_forecast_notehttp://code.google.com/apis/chart/docs/gallery/dynamic_icons.htmlhttp://code.google.com/apis/visualization/documentation/queries.htmlhttp://code.google.com/apis/chart/docs/chart_playground.htmlhttp://code.google.com/apis/chart/docs/chart_playground.htmlhttp://code.google.com/apis/chart/docs/data_formats.htmlhttp://code.google.com/apis/chart/docs/chart_wizard.htmlhttp://code.google.com/apis/charttools/docs/choosing.htmlhttp://blogs.computerworld.com/20079/farewell_google_chartshttp://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9214755?pageNumber=13http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9215504?pageNumber=3


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Drawbacks: The static charts tool requires a bit more work than some of the otherWeb-based services, and it doesn't always offer lots of extras in return. And for the API,as with other JavaScript libraries, coding is required, making this more of aprogramming tool than an end-user business intelligence application.

Skill level: Advanced beginner to expert.


Learn more: See Getting Started With Charts and Interactive Charts . There are alsosamples in the Google Visualization API Gallery .

JavaScript InfoVis Toolkit

What it does: InfoVis is probably not among the best known JavaScript visualization

libraries, but it's definitely worth a look if you're interested in publishing interactive datavisualizations on the Web. The White House agrees: InfoVis was used to create theObama administration's Interactive Budget graphic.

What sets this tool apart from many others is the highly polished graphics it createsfrom just basic code samples. InfoVis creator Nicolas Garca Belmonte, senior softwarearchitect at Sencha Inc., clearly cares as much about aesthetic design as he doesabout the code, and it shows.
http://code.google.com/apis/chart/docs/making_charts.htmlhttp://code.google.com/apis/chart/docs/making_charts.htmlhttp://code.google.com/apis/visualization/documentation/using_overview.htmlhttp://code.google.com/apis/visualization/documentation/using_overview.htmlhttp://code.google.com/apis/visualization/documentation/using_overview.htmlhttp://code.google.com/apis/visualization/documentation/gallery.htmlhttp://code.google.com/apis/visualization/documentation/gallery.htmlhttp://code.google.com/apis/visualization/documentation/gallery.htmlhttp://thejit.org/http://thejit.org/http://www.whitehouse.gov/winning-the-future/interactive-budgethttp://www.whitehouse.gov/winning-the-future/interactive-budgethttp://www.whitehouse.gov/winning-the-future/interactive-budgethttp://www.whitehouse.gov/winning-the-future/interactive-budgethttp://thejit.org/http://code.google.com/apis/visualization/documentation/gallery.htmlhttp://code.google.com/apis/visualization/documentation/using_overview.htmlhttp://code.google.com/apis/chart/docs/making_charts.html


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This sunburst of a directory tree shows some of the visualization capabilities of the JavaScript InfoVis Toolkit. You can see alarger, interactive version on the InfoVis website .

What's cool: The samples are gorgeous and there's no extra coding involved to getnifty fly-in effects. You can choose to download code for only the visualization typesyou want to use to minimize the weight of Web pages.

Drawbacks: Since this is not an application but a code library, you must have codingexpertise in order to use it. Therefore, this might not be a good fit for users in anorganization who analyze data but don't know how to program. Also, the choice ofvisualization types is somewhat limited. Moreover, the data should be in JSON format.


Runs on: JavaScript-enabled Web browsers.

Learn more: See demos with source code .
http://thejit.org/static/v20/Jit/Examples/Sunburst/example2.htmlhttp://thejit.org/static/v20/Jit/Examples/Sunburst/example2.htmlhttp://thejit.org/static/v20/Jit/Examples/Sunburst/example2.htmlhttp://thejit.org/demos/http://thejit.org/demos/http://thejit.org/demos/http://thejit.org/demos/http://thejit.org/static/v20/Jit/Examples/Sunburst/example2.html


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Protovis

Update: Protovis is no longer being developed, and the team is now working on the D3 JavaScript library. See our writeup of D3 (March 6, 2013).

What it does: Billed as a "graphical toolkit for visualization," this project from StanfordUniversity's Visualization Group is one of the more popular JavaScript libraries forturning data into visuals; it's designed to balance simplicity with control over the display.

What's cool: One of the best things about Protovis is how well it's documented, withplenty of examples featuring visualization and sample code. There are also a largenumber of sample visualization types available, including maps and some statisticalanalyses. This is a robust tool, capable of building graphics like this color-coded U.S.map with timeline slider .

Drawbacks: As is the case with other JavaScript libraries, it's pretty much essential forusers to have knowledge of JavaScript (or at least some other programming language).While it's possible to copy, paste and modify code without really understanding what it'sdoing, I find it difficult to recommend that approach for nontechnical end users.


Data cleaning Statistical analysis Visualization applications and services Code help: Wizards, libraries, APIs GIS/mapping on the desktop Web-based GIS/mapping Temporal data analysis Text/word clouds Social and other network analysis


Runs on: JavaScript-enabled Web browsers.

Learn more: Try the How-to: Get Started Guide . You can also find examples of thetypes of graphics you can build with Protovis at the Protovis Gallery .

GIS/mapping on the desktop

There's a wide range of business uses for geographic information systems (GIS),ranging from oil exploration to choosing sites for new retail stores. Or, as The MiamiHerald did for its Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of Hurricane Andrew, you cancompare maximum wind speeds with damage reports and building information (and
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perhaps discover, for example, that the worst damage didn't happen in the areassuffering the heaviest winds, but in areas with a lot of new, shoddy construction).

Quantum GIS (QGIS)

What it does: This is full-fledged GIS software, designed for creating maps that offersophisticated, detailed data-based analysis of a geographic regions.

The best-known desktop GIS software is probably Esri's ArcView, a robust, well-supported application that costs quite a bit of money. The open-source QGIS is analternative to ArcView.

Quantum GIS (QGIS) offers full-fledged geospatial visualization and analysis on the desktop.Click to view larger image.

As OpenOffice is to Microsoft Office, QGIS is to ArcView. ArcView enthusiasts arguethat Esri's offering is a couple of years ahead of open-source alternatives, has a better-developed interface, enjoys commercial support and is better suited for print output. ButQGIS users say the open-source alternative is an excellent program that does a greatdeal of useful GIS work -- and may even be better than ArcView when it comes togenerating maps for the Web, thanks to a plug-in dedicated to generating HTML imagemaps.

What's cool: QGIS has an enormous amount of GIS functionality, including the abilityto create maps, overlay various types of data, do spatial analysis, publish to the Weband more. It can also be enhanced with plug-ins that add support for numerousundertakings, including geocoding, managing underlying table data, exporting toMySQL and generating HTML image maps.
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Drawbacks: As with any sophisticated GIS application, learning to use this softwareentails a serious commitment of time and training. Even in hour-long hands-onsessions with first ArcView and then QGIS, I noticed things that were easier to do in thecommercial option. For example, ArcView had a one-click "normalize" function toimmediately calculate, say, the percentage of people 65 and over versus the totalpopulation from a data table with both columns; in QGIS, I needed to pull up a "fieldcalculator" and create a new column with the formula to do that calculation myself.

Runs on: Linux, Unix, Mac OS X, Windows. (This is one case where installation ismore complicated on OS X, since it requires manual installation of severaldependencies. There's a one-click installer for Windows.)

Skill level: Intermediate to expert.

Learn more: Timothy Barmann of The Providence Journal posted two very useful

tutorials for the CAR conference that are still available: Introduction to QGIS and TheLatest in Mapping With JavaScript and jQuery . Barmann also offers a sample: RhodeIsland's Ethnic Mosaic . Another resource to help you get started: QGIS Tutorial Labs from Richard E. Plant, professor emeritus at the University of California, Davis.

Note: If you're interested in GIS and want to consider other free software options,download this PDF listing of Open Source/Non-Commercial GIS Products . And if you'relooking for a free open-source desktop GIS program that might be fairly easy to use,Jacob Fenton, director of computer-assisted reporting at American University'sInvestigative Reporting Workshop, recommends taking a look at the System for

Automated Geoscientific Analyses (SAGA) site . Finally, if analyzing geographic data ina conventional database sounds interesting, PostGIS "spatially enables" thePostgreSQL relational database, according to the site.

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Web-based GIS/mapping

Most of us are familiar with mapping tools from major companies like Google (whichhas a number of third-party front ends such as Map A List , an add-on that adds info to
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a Google Map from a spreadsheet). There's also Yahoo Maps Web Services and BingMaps -- all with APIs. But there are numerous other options from smaller organizationsor lone open-source enthusiasts that were designed from the ground up to mapgeographic data.

OpenHeatMap

What it does: This user-friendly website generates color-coded maps; the colorschange depending on underlying info such as population change or average income. Itcan also place markers on a map, varying the size of the markers based on a datatable.

OpenHeatMap is extremely easy to use for creating data-based maps, although there are still occasional bugs in this well-thought-out service. Click to view interactive graphic.

In addition to providing the Web-based service, author Pete Warden has also packagedOpenHeatMap as a jQuery plug-in for those who don't want to rely on hosting atOpenHeatMap.com. However, not all data formats work correctly when hosted locally."My recommended way is to embed the maps from the site," Warden wrote via Skypechat.

What's cool: It is astonishingly easy to create a color-coded map from many types oflocation data -- even IP addresses (just use the column header ip_address).

It took me about 60 seconds to create a basic map from a spreadsheet of magnitude 7or higher earthquakes around the world since Jan. 1, 2000, then a couple of minutesmore to customize the rollover box to display both date and magnitude. (You can see alarger version on OpenHeatMap.com .)
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Marker transparency, size and color are extremely simple to customize; you can alsoupload your own marker image, and customize what appears in the tooltips rollover byadding a tooltip column to your data source.

OpenHeatMap automatically figures out and maps locations based on a wide range ofplace definitions, relying on how the location columns are named -- "address,""country," "fips_code" (used by the U.S. Census Bureau), "zip_code_area" (for five-digitZIP codes), "lat" (latitude), "lon" (longitude) and so on.

This is a well-thought-out interface from a onetime Apple engineer. (Warden said heworked on several software projects at Apple, including Final Cut Studio .)

Drawbacks: There's no way to delete data once it's been uploaded (you can getaround this by using a Google Spreadsheet as a data source), and editing time islimited to as long as your browser is open and you haven't started a new map.

Embedded OpenHeatMap.com-hosted maps may be slow to load.

The documentation doesn't make it clear whether you can set where the map iscentered or what the default zoom level should be; Warden told me by e-mail that thesystem remembers where you last positioned and zoomed the map before saving. Andthis feature still can occasionally be buggy, although Warden is responsive to bugreports.


Runs on: Web browsers enabled for Flash or HTML 5 Canvas.

Learn more: Its title notwithstanding, the four-minute video "How OpenHeatMap CanHelp Journalists " offers a clear explanation for anyone interested in using the service.You can also view samples on the OpenHeatMap Gallery and check out this Guardian interactive map of where Facebook is used .

OpenLayers

What it does: OpenLayers is a JavaScript library for displaying map information. It's

aimed at providing functionality similar to those big companies' code libraries -- but withopen-source code. OpenLayers works with OpenStreetMap and other maps, as thistutorial about use with Google shows.

Other projects build on it to add functionality or ease of use, such as GeoExt , whichadds more GIS capabilities. For users who are comfortable hand-coding JavaScriptand prefer not to use a commercial platform such as Google or Bing, this can be acompelling option.
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Drawbacks: OpenLayers is not yet as developed or as easy to use as, say, GoogleMaps. The project page notes that it is "still undergoing rapid development."



Learn more: Try this OpenLayers Simple Example . A good sample is Ushahidi's Haitimap .

There are other JavaScript libraries for overlaying information on maps, such asPolymaps . And there are a number of other mapping platforms, such as Google Maps,which offers numerous mapping APIs ; Yahoo Maps Web Services , with its own APIs;the Bing Maps platform and APIs; and GeoCommons .

OpenStreetMap

What it does: OpenStreetMap is somewhat like the Wikipedia of the mapping world,with various features such as roads and buildings contributed by users worldwide.

What's cool: The main attraction of OpenStreetMap is its community nature, which hasled to a number of interesting uses. For example, it is compatible with the Ushahidi mobile platform used to crowdsource information after the earthquakes in Haiti and

Japan . (While Ushahidi can use several different providers for the base map layer,including Google and Yahoo, some project creators feel most comfortable sticking withan open-source option.)

Drawbacks: As with any project accepting public input, there can be issues withcontributors' accuracy at times (such as the helicopter landing pad someone onceplaced in my neighborhood -- it's actually quite a few miles away). Although, to be fair,I've encountered more than one business listing on Google Maps that was woefully outof date. In addition, the general look and feel of the maps isn't quite as polished ascommercial alternatives.

Skill level: Advanced beginner to intermediate.


Data cleaning Statistical analysis Visualization applications and services Code help: Wizards, libraries, APIs
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GIS/mapping on the desktop Web-based GIS/mapping Temporal data analysis Text/word clouds Social and other network analysis


Learn more: See the Quick Tutorial on the OpenLayers site.

Temporal data analysis

If time is an important component of your data, traditional timeline visualizations mayshow patterns, but they don't allow for sophisticated analysis or a great deal ofinteraction. That's where this project comes in.

TimeFlow

What it does: This desktop software is for analyzing data points that involve a timecomponent. In a demo I wrote about last summer , creators Fernanda Vigas andMartin Wattenberg -- the pair behind the Many Eyes project who are now working atGoogle -- showed how TimeFlow can generate visual timelines from text files, withentries color- and size-coded for easy pattern spotting. It also allows the information tobe sorted and filtered, and it gives some statistical summaries of the data.

TimeFlow offers a number of different ways to easily visualize data with an important time component.Click to view larger image.

What's cool: TimeFlow makes it incredibly easy to interact with data in various ways,such as switching views or filtering by criteria such as date ranges or earthquakes ofmagnitude 8 or more. The timeline view offers a slider so you can zero in on a time
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period. While many applications can plot bar graphs, fewer also offer calendar views.And unlike Web-based Google Fusion Tables, TimeFlow is a desktop application thatmakes it quick and painless to edit individual entries.

Drawbacks: This is an alpha release designed to help individual reporters doinginvestigative work. There are no facilities for publishing or sharing results other thantaking a screen snapshot, and additional development appears unlikely in the nearfuture.


Runs on: Desktop systems running Java 1.6, including Windows and Mac OS X.

Learn more: Check out Top tips .

Note: If you're looking to publish visualized timelines, better options include GoogleFusion Tables, VIDI or the SIMILE Timeline widget .

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