3. Review:Features of Data Journalism Depends on emergence of the datasphere Transparency (Politics 2.0) All data leaks ... and freely available tools for publishing and visualizing data (Web 2.0) Google Docs, Zoho, Factual ManyEyes Data converted into a common format CSV = “comma separated vales” = tabular data in a text file
4. Features of Data Journalism (ii) Stories directly reference the data they use e.g. via embedded links to Google Docs Definition of story changes ... Visualizations can be stories in themselves The act of data curation itself considered a journalistic act Journalism, as the Fifth Estate, still mediates between power and people, but in new ways A new relationship of power is opened up
5. TBL says the future of journalism scholarship "lies with journalists scholars who know their CSV from their RDF, can throw together some quick MySQL queries for a PHP or Python output … and discover the story lurking in datasets released by governments, local authorities, agencies, [libraries, museums] or any combination of them – even across national borders." http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/nov/22/data-analysis-tim-berners-lee
7. Overview Download a CSV file from Google Format as tab separated file with Excel Open up with a text editor Cut and paste into ManyEyes Explore ManyEyes visualization Upload to Google Explore Google Docs
8. Preliminaries Download jEdit A powerful, open source, cross platform text editor for programmers http://http://www.jedit.org/index.php?page=download Get an account on Google If you do not have one, or if you want a new one for this class Get an account on ManyEyes http://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/
9. Grab Some Data Go to links on Dataesthetics site Click on each link Should send you to Google Docs For each file, do: File > Download As > Excel Note where you are saving your files
10. Convert the Data Open each file up in Excel Do: Save as > tab delimited text Close file (resave if necessary) Open file in jEdit Make sure that ... Tabs are not converted to spaces File is saved as a Windows or Unix file These options found in Utilities > Buffer Options
11. View in ManyEyes Log in to ManyEyes For each spreadsheet, do: Participate > Upload a Dataset Cut and paste the content of the jEdit window into the text box Do: Ctrl-A, Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V Add metadata and press Create ...
12. ManyEyes What kind of visualization to we choose? See Learn More > Visualization Types (Open in new window or tab) Start with first two visualizations
13. Visualization Types See relationships among data points Network Diagram Scatterplot Matrix Chart Compare a set of values Bar Chart Block Histogram Bubble Chart Track rises and falls over time Line Graph Stack Graph Stack Graph for Categories See the parts of a whole Pie Chart Treemap Treemap for Comparisons Analyze a text Word Tree Tag Cloud Word Cloud Generator Phrase Net See the world Massachusetts Map World Map US County Map New Jersey Map http://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/page/Visualization_Options.html
14. Combos Social networks in the world Two rows of names Matrix Chart, Treemap, Map (custom) Owners of US Treasury Bonds One row of numbers, one row of names Bubble Chart, Bar Chart Combined Two rows of names + row of numbers Bubble Chart
16. Google Docs Go to docs.google.com Upload the files you had previously saved Use the drag and drop feature or just upload one at a time Create a folder an move them into it Click on an item Explore freezing, sorting, sharing, gadgets ...
Editor's Notes
See http://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/page/Visualization_Options.html
