The seemingly impossible is possible - data visualisation

Via the Open Rights Group mailing I came across this wonderful 18 minute talk by Hans Rosling, the Swedish co-founder of the Gapminder Foundation about the need for datasets to be made publicly available. Gapminder is "a non-profit venture for development and provision of free software that visualise human development". This is "done in collaboration with universities, UN organisations, public agencies and non-governmental organisations". [Parts of the talk Rosling gave are similar to a much more effectively recorded, longer, and more wide-ranging talk - including..... sword-swallowing - at the March 2007 TED conference in Monterey, and this is the second video in the continuation post below. The first as an equally compelling talk given by Rosling in 2006.]  One of Gapminder's tools is Trendalyzer, which in March this year was acquired by Google, with Trendalyzer’s developers leaving Gapminder to join Google. I do not know how long you have been able to access a Google-hosted implementation of Trendalyzer, but if you've any interest in data visualisation tools, or in health, or in international development, spend some time examining it. If you get stuck, then the Gapminder World Tutorial, will help you get the hang of the tool. Rosling also has a web log.

Hans Rosling TED talk 2006

 

Hans Rosling TED talk 2007