Tuesday 27 March 2012

The Dynamic Dimension of Geneva:
Ville Vivante
"...The mobile phone has rapidly become a very essential tool, that we carry with us all the time, everywhere we go. It has become the focus of our communication and information in a hyper-connected world, which tolerates less and less that we disconnect or just don't have immediate access to information. Based on this conclusion the City of Geneva decided to take the challenge to visualize these digital traces created by our mobile phones. The objective of this installation is to make this data visible and allow you to explore these streams of connected people around the city, in their everyday life..."

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What is BIS² gameVis?



gameViz is a powerful, easy-to-use, gaming industry data visualization solution that allows gaming operators to directly query their data, and enable them to see what they need to do.

Visualize your data! 
Diagram of the Causes of Mortality by Florence Nightingale



Professor Friendly looks at Florence Nightingale's Coxcomb diagrams:

"Florence Nightingale is remembered as the mother of modern nursing. But few realize that her place in history is at least partly linked to her use, following William Farr, Playfair and others, of graphical methods to convey complex statistical information dramatically to a broad audience..."

"...This figure makes it abundantly clear that far more deaths were attributable to non-battle causes ("preventable causes") than to battle-related causes..."

See the beautiful remake here and read more here.

Thursday 22 March 2012

Casey Reas' Visualizing Systems in Motion and at Rest

We just stumbled upon Casey Reas' website and work – spectacular!

Have a look at some more of his projects here.

From his website:

"Casey Reas' ongoing Process series explores the relationship between naturally evolved systems and those that are synthetic. The imagery evokes transformation, and visualizes systems in motion and at rest. Equally embracing the qualitative human perception and the quantitative rules that define digital culture, organic form emerges from precise mechanical structures. Reas' software, prints, and installations have been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions at museums and galleries in the United States, Europe, and Asia."

"Signals [video above] is a commissioned mural for building 76 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). It was created in collaboration with Ben Fry."
Real-world Applications of 
Big Data

In the linked article, The New Zealand Herald talks about big data and "augmented intelligence". The article discusses recent advancements in technology and how they will effect us on a more personal level; the role of data scientists; and how big data is being applied to many areas of our life already.

"...Banks can already monitor customers' transactions in real time, enabling them to detect potential fraud and other risks, he [Andy Lark] notes. If you buy petrol, sunglasses and jeans in a single day, for example, you could get a call from the bank, says Lark - those three items happen to be the most common purchases by credit card fraudsters...."

A great look into the personal ramifications of the big data field. Read more here.

Wednesday 21 March 2012

Getting Ready for Big Data!

Techworld's Thor Olavsrud talks about how to be ready for big data. The article covers the role of big data, the semantic data model and securing your data. An interesting read!

Tuesday 20 March 2012

Visual Complexity Interview

This interview on Forbes with Manuel Lima of Visual Complexity by Jess3 is a great read.

Buy the book!


Image from Manuel Lima's project portfolio.

Complexity Graphics by Tatiana Plakhova



Upon searching the creative video portal vimeo, Caroline–our resident Clever George–found a wealth of stunning short films and productions depicting art through maths. As you may have gathered, we're pretty excited about the algorithms and mathematics that occur behind the visualization of information, so the results of this search had us pretty excited. And pretty speechless, to be honest.

We came across Miss Tatiana Plakhova, a Graphic Designer with a background in Social Psychology. Her productions depict complex evolving mathematical designs, full of fascinating patterns and universal mathematical truths:

"You can either call it Complexism or Networkism ... where imaginary landscapes of interconnected entities are the prevailing theme."

See more of Tatiana's inspiring work here

Monday 19 March 2012

map=yes



"map=yes is a collaboration between MapQuest Open and Stamen Design, using data from the OpenStreetMap project. The project is an exploration of new frontiers in online cartography and the mapping of open data."

Exciting stuff!

Read more here.

Sunday 18 March 2012

Data Visualization Art  by Andreas Nicolas Fischer



"Andreas Nicolas Fischer concerns himself with the physical manifestation of digital processes and data through generative systems to create sculptures, videos, prints and installations."

This image comes from a project called Fundament, which details a map of the world with areas rising up representing values of gross domestic product distribution.

See more of Andreas' stunning projects here

Thursday 15 March 2012

BIS² Super Graphics 

 

The BIS² Super Graphics data visualization enables users to understand and take action on their data in a new way. Users can see a multitude of data points simultaneously to understand patterns, identify meaningful relationships, and gain new insights which were not previously possible.

Wednesday 14 March 2012

Making Data Sexy

Prolific technology writer Quentin Hardy at the New York Times talks about the increase in demand for data scientists, and how being labeled a 'Data Scientist' has become somewhat of a party trick. Read more here.

Pictured below: This woman is a certified Data Analyst (or a model for istockphoto).

BIS² announced today a highly successful implementation of its War Room strategy at French Lick Resort, Indiana.

"Quite simply our BIS² War Room has become the focal point for the organization and the instrument of change in our business," said Brian Marsh, Vice President of Casino Operations, at French Lick Resort. “Furthermore, the success of the BIS² War Room has set us on a path to deploying a number of War Rooms each dedicated to different areas of our business," added Marsh.

“French Lick proves once again the power of visual query. The business users are able to leverage intricate queries which redefine the way that business users can interact with their data. By simply pointing and clicking, users can make extremely powerful high-dimensional queries of their data,” states Andrew Cardno, BIS² Chief Technology Officer. “There are three main components to the BIS² solution – powerful visual query tools, a flexible customer-centric database and War Room focused Super Graphics™ that bring it all together,” Cardno adds.

Read more here.

Sunday 11 March 2012

Let's Talk About Data!

But let's talk about 'Big Data', with sliding video frames and a theme song! Coming Soon...

Wednesday 7 March 2012

How Bin Laden News Exploded on Twitter: A Visualization via Mashable Social Media

A stunning visual description of the communication pathways in the minutes and hours following President Obama's announcement of Osama Bin Laden's death in May 2011.

Read more here.

Tuesday 6 March 2012

Jer Thorp on The Weight of Data

We just had to share this TEDx talk from Jer Thorp on The Weight of Data. The Data Artist in Residence for the New York Times speaks about putting data into a human context and giving it narrative, in order to fully embrace and deliver the promise that big data has to offer. He also discusses his approach to data visualization – crossing art, design and science to create some spectacular animated designs depicting real world issues. We particularly loved the project on cascades looking at information sharing on the internet.

Thank you to the ever-inspiring FlowingData for the heads up on this video.


Monday 5 March 2012



MapReduce and MPP:
Two sides of the Big Data coin?
 
Article by Andrew Brust

Over on ZD Andrew Brust discusses combing Big Data technologies to produce a more cohesive approach to large volumes of data.

"...For now, expect to see lots of permutations of Hadoop and its excosystem components with data warehouse, business intelligences, predictive analytics and data visualization technologies. In the future, be prepared to see these specialty areas more unified, rationalized and seamlessly combined..."

We're enjoying some exciting times at BIS², doing just that!  

Sunday 4 March 2012

Article by Quentin Hardy on Bits: Big Data's Grass-Roots Revolution

Pop over to the New York Times' Bits to read more by Quentin Hardy on the recent Strata Conference about Big Data. Hal Varian (see video below) spoke at the Strata conference about Google Trends and some of the methods he has used to correlate and predict notable economic events with public data on Google search queries. Exciting stuff!