ASBPE 2013 Bootcamp: Data Visualization Resources
by Sharon Machlis, Online Managing Editor, Computerworld
Email: smachlis@computerworld.com
Twitter: @sharon000
Google+
Chart of 30+ free data visualization and analysis tools: http://bit.ly/DataVizToolChart
Accompanying original Computerworld story: http://bit.ly/DataVizToolStory
One-stop data visualization sites: http://cwrld.us/1stopdataviz
Storytelling with data: Ideas for improving Excel defaults, including downloadable templates.
Quartz's open-source Chartbuilder
IBM's Many Eyes: Dataviz pioneer that makes it easy to upload data and create various types of visualizations.
Tableau Public: Free Windows-only software for create robust online visualizations. Data must be uploaded to their site and made available for download. Commercial desktop version available for free to some members of Investigative Reporters and Editors.
Tips for formatting Excel data for use in Tableau, plus a link to an Excel plug-in
Links to Tableau Public training materials from IRE 2012 training sessions
Infogr.am: Easy-to-use Web-based dataviz startup.
Brief Computerworld review
Datawrapper: Another easy-to-use Web-based dataviz service, this one created by a German journalism-training organization.
Brief Computerworld review
Highcharts: JavaScript charting library with professional-looking defaults that are not difficult to tweak for your own use. $80 one-time site-wide license.
Examples:
Basic line: http://www.highcharts.com/demo/line-basic
Zoomable time: http://www.highcharts.com/demo/line-time-series
Other JavaScript libraries:
Data Driven Documents (D3)
Michael Bostock's D3 tutorials page
Scott Murray's online D3 tutorial, basis for his more in-depth Interactive Data Visualization for the Web book
Example: N.Y. Times interactive on President Obama's 2013 budget
InfoVis toolkit
Exhibit (MIT SIMILE spinoff)
Cascading Tree Sheets -- a CSS-like library for HTML structured data.
Google Chart Tools (Visualization API)
Michelle Minkoff's step-by-step tutorial on the Google Visualization API for Poynter
Google Spreadsheets and JavaScript libraries to make it easy to use spreadsheets' data:
Tabletop open-source project by Balance Media and WNYC for pulling in Google Spreadsheet data
Andy Boyle video presentation on Javascript, Google Docs and Tabletop.js presented at the Society of Professional Journalists in Chicago
Dataset, offering a robust way to pull in and transform data from multiple sources, including Google Spreadsheets. Well documented with multiple examples.
Bonus link: How to create an auto-updating Google Spreadsheet
Google Fusion Tables
Example: Connecticut superintendent salary by Digital First Media's Thunderdome team, plus a writeup on how they did it
Rebecca Shapley's Get More Out of Fusion Tables resource sheet
My How to Make a Map in Google Fusion Tables and Chrys Wu's How to make a heat map in Fusion Tables (note that the Fusion Tables UI changed since these were published, but the basic ideas are the same)
QGIS: open-source alternative to ArcGIS
Timothy Barmann'sQGIS tutorials:
Intro
Dynamic maps
R Project for Statistical Computing
Beginner's Guide to R
60+ R resources to improve your data skills
Turn CSV files into interactive charts with R and rCharts
Statwing: One-click statistical analysis
Brief Computerworld review
Quandl, a site to search for data and also customize and embed their graphics.