Social Data Visualization

"The new website Verifiable [verifiable.com] is yet another contender in the now seemingly crowded social data visualization area, which include other free services like Many Eyes, Swivel, iCharts, Trendrr, Widgenie, Track-n-Graph and Timetric. The goal of Verifiable is to "democratize data" as it allows to easily upload data, visualize it, join it with other data, and allows "the world" to interact with it.

Verifiable seems to be unique for its "clean, low-chartjunk philosophy" and its many included functionalities, including the ability to add one-click small multiples, access the data "behind" the visualization, interactively rechart it using different criteria, or to join the resulting visualizations with any other piece of data for comparison."

Quote from Information Aesthetics no_reply@infosthetics.com, received April 19, 2009.

To explore Verifiable go to http://verifiable.com/

Let us know what social data visualization sites work best for you.

Wikiality from Colbert's Nation

Greetings, So this aired long ago but it is still priceless. Please see Colbert's video on wikiality. http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/72347/july-31-2006/the-word---wikiality tinyurl http://tinyurl.com/6dxqd3

While I don't always agree with everything Colbert says, (I am a lot more liberal than he poses to be) this video has food for thought. And evaluating sources is where it is at these days, So please enjoy and evaluate.

OECD Updates Web Tool for Analyzing Regional Statistics

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), "recently announced a new OECD eXplorer [stats.oecd.org], a very powerful web-tool for analyzing regional statistics. The new online geographic visualization is unique because of its focus on regional and states (versus national) statistical data, its large amount of features (from the choice of the color scale to deciding a percentile or uniform distribution) and its slick visual design. The data is based on OECD Regional Database, containing 30 indicators measuring demography, economic and labour market performance, education, healthcare, environmental outputs and knowledge-based activities. As Hans Rosling lectured before, the economic performance and social indicators can vary within countries every bit as much as they do between countries."

Quote is from one of my favorite alert services, Information Aesthetics
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/infosthetics/~3/8LeKcTsXlAY/oecd_explorer_online_tool_for_analyzing_regional_statistics_updated.html

Tiny url for link just above is http://tinyurl.com/cgpvuv

For easy access to OECD eXplorer, go to http://stats.oecd.org/OECDregionalstatistics/
Access requires Adobe Flash 10

Global Economic Forecast Update from the World Bank

Greetings, in responding to a student query today, I came upon an updated report from the World Bank on Global Economic Prospects, which was issued on March 31, 2009

Global Economic Prospects 2009
Forecast Update
March 30, 2009
World Bank

http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTGEP2009/Resources/5530448-1238466339289/GEP-Update-March30.pdf

tinyurl for this site: http://tinyurl.com/cfm4pg

Readability

Have you ever felt fed up with trying to read something on the web? Are you tired of seeing a congo line of jerkily dancing teddy bears in the banner ad? Does trying to concentrate on the content with all the badly animated ads vying for your attention drive you crazy?

Readability will get rid of most of these distractions.

A free service, all you need to do is drag a button to your bookmarks bar on your browser. I will not work with databases (but then the commercial databases we pay for do not have animated ads). It may not work with other subscription based services either. But for much of the day-to-day reading of the web, it can cut out the visual noise - quickly and easily.

It can also remember your preferred settings for layout and font size, removing the need for you to make these adjustments with every single web site you visit every time.

Searching throughout the world: Country Based Search Engines

Thanks to Phil Bradley who has comipiled links to country-based search engines throughout the world, see

Country-Based Search Engines

http://www.philb.com/countryse.htm

Scope note at beginning of site reads as follows: "Country search engines and regional search engines - currently a total of 4,017 search engines and 222 countries, territories, islands and regions. When 2 versions of a search engine were available I simply listed the search engine in English. I've tried to match the name to the title of the search engine when possible. Failing that I've used the search engine URL as the name." Quote is from website, listed above, retrieved March 8, 2009.

Thanks to Larry for bringing our attention to this terrific site!

The Daily Show on the Financial Crisis

Although not a "scholarly" source, this clip from Jon Stewart's The Daily Show gives a factual run-down of hype vs. reality during 2007 and 2008. Useful as a tool for teaching critical thinking skills in evaluating business news reports.

CNBC gives financial advice.

UPDATED March 16, 2009:

Cramer vs. Stewart.

In the March 12th appearance by Jim Cramer (host of CNBC's Fast Money) on The Daily Show we find out more about Cramer's background in finance as Jon Stewart shows clips of a 2006 interview of Cramer when he worked as a hedge fund manager. Again, this should not be viewed as a scholarly source, but Stewart gives voice to popular anger over the present financial crisis in a most articulate manner.

By the way, you can also view three "out takes" of Cramer's interview on The Daily Show's home page (as of March 16, 2009).