The document discusses various online tools for visualizing and sharing data on the participatory web. It provides examples of tools for mapping and spatial data visualization, including ProgrammableWeb, GeoCommons, and OpenStreetMap. It also lists tools for numeric data visualization like Graphwise, Numbrary, and Swivel. The document questions whether these types of online data visualization tools are just a temporary phenomenon or have more lasting potential to support academic research and open data initiatives.

1. The ‘Participatory Web’ and Data Visualisation Tools Stuart Macdonald EDINA National Data Centre & Edinburgh University Data Library

2. Context DISC-UK DataShare A JISC-funded collaborative project led by EDINA at the University of Edinburgh, with the University of Oxford, the London School of Economics (LSE) and the University of Southampton. Explore new pathways to assist academics wishing to share their data over the Internet via Institutional Repositories (IRs) Investigate alternative mechanisms for researchers to share data beyond the IR.

3. Data Visualisation: The set of techniques used to turn a set of data into visual insight. It aims to give the data a meaningful representation by exploiting the powerful discerning capabilities of the human eye*. * Edinburgh Online Graphics Dictionary – http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/rbf/GRDICT/grdict.htm

4. Programmableweb - http:// www.programmableweb.com /tag/mapping - map or spatial mash-up ‘resource discovery tool’ GeoCommons – http://geocommons.com/ - ‘brings intelligence to the GeoWeb, unleashing tools and data’ (downloadable as CSV, KML, Shape) OpenStreetMap – http://www.openstreetmap.org/ free editable map of the whole world - see also Platial, Mapbuilder, Mapufacture BODC SRON & KMNI U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center USGS Earthquake Hazards Program UNHCR layer in Google Earth – mash together news, images, video, statistical databases relating to refugees across the globe via the “Google Earth Outreach programme” - http://www.unhcr.org/events/47f48dc92.html Spatial Data Visualisation

5. UCL Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis - develop computing technologies in several disciplines which deal with geography, space, location and the built environment - http://www.casa.ucl.ac.uk/ GeoVUE – one of the 7 nodes of the National Centre for e-Social Science set up to develop ‘new kinds of virtual urban environments’ (VUEs) through which users can participate in furthering their understanding of cities London Profiler - link publicly available datasets such as Population Census to non-proprietary mapping e.g. visualising a neighbourhood's geodemographic profile using different area classifications through Google Maps - http://www.londonprofiler.org/ MapTube – a free resource for viewing, sharing, mixing and mashing maps online created by GMapCreator. Engage in other forms of collaboration e.g. Virtual London (via Second Life)

6. … and there’s more John Hopkins University’s Interactive Map Tool Supports digital field assignments allowing users to create custom mashups using a variety of digital media, text and data – http:// www.cer.jhu/index.cfm?pageID =351 Minnesota Interactive Internet Mapping Project A mapping application that provides maps and imagery similar to Google Maps – claims to be data rich, interactive, secure, easy to use, have analytical capabilities - http:// maps.umn.edu / Research at Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona Researchers mining spatial-temporal data provided by geotagged Flickr photos of urban locations – http://www.giradin.org/fabien/tracing/ Thematicmapping.org Thematic Mapping Engine (TME) enables you to visualise global statistics on Google Earth. The primary data source is UNData - http:// blog.thematicmapping.org /

7. Numeric Data Visualisation Tools: ‘ Open’ ethos – anyone can upload/download or use data Commercial Services embracing Web 2.0 business models Collaborative and participatory – “harnessing collective intelligence” The Death of Distance Easy to use

8. But … Ephemeral nature of web Not trusted repositories / archives If it’s computer generated and looks good it must be right!

9. Numeric Data Visualisation Utilities http://graphwise.com/ http://numbrary.com/ http://www.swivel.com/ http://www.statcrunch.com/ http://www.data360.org/ http://manyeyes.alphaworks.ibm.com/ http://infochimps.org/ http://graphs.gapminder.org/world/ http://dabbledb.com/

10. Comparison of 8 Web 2.0 numeric data visualisation tools Upload data file

11. Horizontal Bar Chart Pie Chart

12. Macro-data Visualisation OECD Country Statistical Profiles – OECD statistics in SDMX (Statistical Data Mark-up eXchange) - http://stats.oecd.org/nawwe/csp/default.html IMF Data Mapper - http://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/index.php Stat@tlas Europe - An online atlas of European statistical themes hosted by the Federal Statistical Office of Switzerland Eurostat Tables Graphs Maps (TGM) - an interactive user interface to Eurostat data UNData – http:// data.un.org/ & UNEP Global Environment Outlook (GEO) Data Portal - http://geodata.grid.unep.ch/ - spatial and numeric data visualisation tools

13. The Open Knowledge Foundation (OKF) - promoting Open Knowledge in a Digital Age - http://www.okfn.org/ . Open Data Commons – set of legal tools to assist in provision and use of open data: Public Domain Dedication Licence (PDDL) - public domain for data/databases Open Database Licence (ODbL) – Share-alike for data/databases Projects: Comprehensive Knowledge Archive Network (CKAN) - a registry of open knowledge packages and projects - http:// www.ckan.net / Weaving History - http:// weavinghistory.org / - spatio-temporal visualisation of events Open Economics - provides open content, data and code related to Economics - http://www.openeconomics.net/ Working groups: Open Environmental Data, Open Geodata

14. Wolfram|Alpha & Google Public Data Project Wolfram|Alpha – ‘Computational Knowledge Engine’ (or giant semantic calculator) Data maintained by Wolfram Research – collection of curated and standardised datasets include: astronomical, chemical; geopolitical; financial; biomedical; meteorological Deploy formulas and algorithms to compute answers for searchers Not editable nor interactive – output semantically poor (pixel images) Share prices / weather data delivered in real-time Google Public Data Project – ‘ a new search feature that makes it easy to find and compare public data’ Data from US Bureau of Labour Statistics & US Census Bureau’s Population Division Deploy Motion Chart * plus other visualisation tools from Gapminder Trendalyzer Results to search query as interactive and customisable graphs Data import facility Soliciting more ‘free, authoritative, high quality’ data from governmental agencies, research institutions * Public use component of Gapminder – part of the Google Visualisation API

15. Google Squared – a Google Labs project – looks for facts from webpages, pulls them together, and organises them into a table with rows and columns e.g. search for Scottish Islands

16. Other Semantic innovations Powerset - http://www.powerset.com/ (Microsoft) Hakia - http://www.hakia.com/ Calais - http://www.opencalais.com/ (Reuters) AdaptiveBlue - http://www.getglue.com/ Twine - http://www.twine.com/ Freebase - http://www.freebase.com/ (Metaweb)

17. Are such utilities a flash in the pan or here to stay? Are they more appealing for researchers than IRs? Is such functionality desirable in IRs? Do they lack gravitas for academic purposes? Can/should institutions support the use of these tools? Do such ‘open data’ resources contribute to the ‘Global Database’? Food for thought ….

18. Thank You DISC-UK DataShare [email_address]