@blprnt

It starts with a mystery.

It ends with a challenge.

Hacking the Newsroom

Mark Lombardi (1951-2000)

How to get data
How to use data

million
billion
trillion

Guardian API

360/365

“Depicting networks is a tricky subject, and too often leads to
representations that are a tangled and complicated mess. Such
diagrams are often referred to with terms like ball of yarn or string, a
birds nest, cat hair or simply hairball.”

“It’s also common for a network diagram to be engaging and
attractive for its complexity (usually aided and abetted by color),
which tends to hide how poorly it conveys the meaning of the data it
represents.”

Getting Data

WiredUK NDNAD Spread

The Olde Fashioned way: research.

Influenza Genomic Visualization Tool

• 2 Antigenic regions: Hemmagulitinin (HA) & Neuraminidase (NA)
• 1766 sequence samples from 1918 to 2009
• Track mutational changes over time
• Antigenic shift vs. antigenic drift
• 1918, 1937, 1958, 1968, 2009

DEMO: FluViz

The New Fashioned way: from an
API.

API

Application Programming
Interface

Open source

Open data

• NYTimes Article Search API
• NYTimes NewsWire API
• Guardian Content API
• Twitter Search API
• MetaCarta LocationFinder API

NYTimes Article Search API

1851-1944
1944-1981
1981-2009

1981-2009
2,633,074 articles

title
byline
abstract
article author
body
page
section

title
byline des_facet
abstract geo_facet
article author per_facet
body org_facet
page ...
section

facets are classifiers for articles added by human
indexers

query
client API
response

query {keywords facets extras}

response {fields facets}

{fields facets}
response XML
JSON

Processing Demo

Data from different APIs can be
combined

OMG...just arrived in manhattan....feels like I'm in a
movie hahaha

checrothers: Just landed in Dakar, Senegal… Another 9
hours n I’ll be in South Africa two entire days after I
left … Doodles

jjvirgin: Just landed in Maui and I feel better already …
Four days here then off to vegas

Queen_Btch: just landed in London heading to the pub
for a drink then im of to bed…so tired who knew
hooking up on an airplane would be so tiring =S

twitter -> MetaCarta -> map

Queen_Btch: just landed in London heading to the pub
for a drink then im of to bed…so tired who knew
hooking up on an airplane would be so tiring =S

{
"Styles" : {
"loc" : {
"DefaultSymbol" : {
"URL" : "http://ondemand.metacarta.com/img/symbols/location-marker.png",
"Width" : 30,
"Height" : 30
}
}
},
"Attribution" : "Copyright 1999-2007 MetaCarta",
"Warnings" : [
],
"MinConfidence" : 0,
"Locations" : [
{
"Confidence" : 0.733898,
"Name" : "London, London, United Kingdom",
"LocID" : "5fa97789b17a6a098040de968a11d86a",
"Style" : "loc",
"Centroid" : {
"Latitude" : 51.52,
"Longitude" : -0.1
},
"RemainingQuery" : "queen_btch: just landed heading pub for a drink then im bed…so tired who knew hooking up an airplane would be so tiring =s",
"Path" : [
"London",
"London",
"United Kingdom"
],
"Type" : "PPLC",
"ViewBox" : {
"MaxLatitude" : 51.72050476,
"MinLatitude" : 51.27071762,
"MaxLongitude" : 0.2818309963,
"MinLongitude" : -0.4967390001
}
}
],
"SystemVersion" : "MetaCarta GTS v3.8.1, JSON queryparser API v1.0.0",
"BBox" : {
"MaxLatitude" : 90,
"MinLongitude" : -180,
"MaxLongitude" : 180,
"MinLatitude" : -90
},
"ResultsCreationTime" : "Fri May 29 13:15:36 2009 UTC",
"Query" : "Queen_Btch: just landed in London heading to the pub for a drink then im of to bed…so tired who knew hooking up on an airplane would be so tiring =S
",
"ViewBox" : {
"MaxLatitude" : 51.72050476,
"MinLatitude" : 51.27071762,
"MaxLongitude" : 0.2818309963,
"MinLongitude" : -0.4967390001
}

"Confidence" : 0.733898,
"Name" : "London, London, United Kingdom",
"LocID" : "5fa97789b17a6a098040de968a11d86a",
"Style" : "loc",
"Centroid" : {
"Latitude" : 51.52,
"Longitude" : -0.1

VIDEO: Just Landed

VIDEO: GoodMorning!

DEMO: GoodMorning!

www.jennifergardy.com

NewsAlarm

NYTimes NewsWire API
“the fire hose”

API client NewsAlarm

Fiat Completes Acquisition of Chrysler Assets
Poll Finds Paterson Deeply Unpopular
Feeling Slighted, Rich Patron Led Albany Revolt
Palau to Take Chinese Guantánamo Detainees
filter NewsAlarm
28 Reported Killed in South Iraq Market Bombing
Just in Time, the Magic Goes Back to Basics
Brighton passes vomit bylaw
Feeling Slighted, Rich Patron Led Albany Revolt

Fiat Completes Acquisition of Chrysler Assets
Poll Finds Paterson Deeply Unpopular
Feeling Slighted, Rich Patron Led Albany Revolt
Palau to Take Chinese Guantánamo Detainees
filter NewsAlarm
28 Reported Killed in South Iraq Market Bombing
Just in Time, the Magic Goes Back to Basics
Brighton passes vomit bylaw
>10%
Feeling Slighted, Rich Patron Led Albany Revolt vomit

Why Data?

Why Now?

Nick Bilton
www.nickbilton.com

Nick Bilton
www.nickbilton.com

Our relationship with information has
changed.

Our relationship with information is changing.

Presenting nothing but data and pattern, Lombardi reminds us
that data is pattern.
Ryan Bigge

blprnt@blprnt.com