Edinburgh Repository Fringe – Friday 1 August 2008 Open Data, Open Minds - Web 2.0 Data Visualisation Tools Stuart Macdonald DISC-UK Datashare EDINA National Data Centre & Edinburgh University Data Library

Edinburgh Repository Fringe – Friday 1 August 2008 Context DISC-UK DataShare Project – funded by JISC (March 2007 – March 2009) - a collaborative project led by the University of Edinburgh, with the University of Oxford, the University of Southampton and the London School of Economics (Associate Partner). Investigate the legal, cultural and technical issues surrounding research data sharing within UK tertiary education community Explore new pathways to assist academics wishing to share their data over the Internet via Institutional Repositories (IRs)

Edinburgh Repository Fringe – Friday 1 August 2008 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 –

Edinburgh Repository Fringe – Friday 1 August 2008 Programmableweb map or spatial mash-up ‘resource discovery tool’ GeoCommons – - ‘brings intelligence to the GeoWeb, unleashing tools and data’ (downloadable as CSV, KML, Shape) – see also Platial, Mapbuilder, Mapufacturehttp://geocommons.com/ 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” Spatial Data Visualisation

Edinburgh Repository Fringe – Friday 1 August 2008 UCL Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis – develop computing technologies in several disciplines which deal with geography, space, location and the built environment 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 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)

Edinburgh Repository Fringe – Friday 1 August 2008 …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 – 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 Research at Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona Researchers mining spatial-temporal data provided by geotagged Flickr photos of urban locations – Thematicmapping.org Thematic Mapping Engine (TME) enables you to visualise global statistics on Google Earth. The primary data source is UNData -

Edinburgh Repository Fringe – Friday 1 August 2008 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” Easy to use

Edinburgh Repository Fringe – Friday 1 August 2008 But … Ephemeral nature of web Not trusted repositories / archives If it’s computer generated and looks good it must be right! Palimpsest Project -

Edinburgh Repository Fringe – Friday 1 August 2008 Numeric Data Visualisation Tools ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Edinburgh Repository Fringe – Friday 1 August 2008 Comparison of 8 Web 2.0 numeric data visualisation tools Upload data file

Edinburgh Repository Fringe – Friday 1 August 2008 Horizontal Bar Chart Pie Chart

Edinburgh Repository Fringe – Friday 1 August 2008 Macro-data Visualisation OECD Country Statistical Profiles – OECD statistics in SDMX (Statistical Data Mark-up eXchange) - IMF Data Mapper - 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 – & UNEP Global Environment Outlook (GEO) Data Portal spatial and numeric data visualisation tools

Edinburgh Repository Fringe – Friday 1 August 2008 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 ….

Edinburgh Repository Fringe – Friday 1 August 2008 Thank You DISC-UK DataShare