Review: 4 supercool JavaScript tools for data visualization

Free, open source D3, InfoViz, Processing.js, and Recline.js bring dynamic, interactive — and jaw-dropping — data-driven graphics to the Web browser
By Rick Grehan

Read more at infoworld:

Data Viz Training MOOC

Alberto Cairo’s third ‘Introduction to Infographics and Visualization’ Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), offered through the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas, will begin October 6. It’ll be shorter than the two previous courses —four weeks, instead of six. Registration is free and space is limited to a few thousand people.

Learn more about what to expect and register:

Interesting site for Data Visualization

Gapminder is a non-profit venture – a modern “museum” on the Internet – promoting sustainable global development and achievement of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.

Find out more about Gapminder

Media Maven 10/10: Display Your Data Like a Pro

From Common Good Vermont

Media Maven: Know More & Do More With Data Visualization 10/10

As nonprofits track their progress with data, we struggle to tell our stories. Many of us are ready to learn how to communicate complex information with simple, effective charts, graphs and maps.

 

Using data provided by Vermont nonprofits, Peter Karlson, CEO of NeuEon, will show how to illustrate the numbers with form, function and appeal.

• What is data visualization?— Watch this video
• Learn more about data visualization from the American Evaluators Association.

Sign Up Today!

Skeptical About Data

We are data skeptics. We don’t believe a lot of what we see and hear. We believe in verifying. And we believe trust is the currency of this website. Here’s how we invite you to build trust in the information you find on SwayWhat.
1. Trust who you trust
Start by focusing your trust on what you already know. Find posters, both people and organizations, you already trust. Add them to your trust list. Pay attention to who they trust and what their favorite charts are.
Check the sources of the charts you see. Some sources you will find to be more trustworthy than others.
Filter your search results to only show you sourced charts from people you trust.
2. Check out the power users
As we grow we will implement a SwayStrength score. Posters will be rated based on percentage of viewers designating a post as a favorite; number who follow (a second type of feed for people whose posts you want to see but don’t necessarily trust are well sourced) vs. trust the poster; interconnectedness of the people who trust a poster.
When we are ready to implement the SwayStrength score we will be fully transparent about the ratings and how they are calculated.
3. Believe in our vetting
From the start we will select “Editor’s Picks,” posts that we have selected for value of information on a given topic and validated for quality of data.
Eventually we hope to grow large enough to hire a research desk. At that point we will vet and research the most trafficked posts. We hope our stamp of approval will become synonymous with good data and trustworthy facts.
Our mission is, “More facts. Smarter people. Better world.”
We can’t vet everything. But we hope you will join us in our mission to bring out more facts and build better understanding of how to evaluate truth. Together we can make the world a smarter and better place.

Find out more at SwayWhat:

BBBC More or Less Stats program

Tim Harford investigates numbers in the news. Numbers are used in every area of public debate. But are they always reliable? Tim and the More or Less team try to make sense of the statistics which surround us. A half-hour programme broadcast at 1600 on Friday afternoons and repeated at 2000 on Sundays on Radio 4. BBC World Service broadcasts a short edition over the weekend.
Tim Harford investigates numbers in the news. Numbers are used in every area of public debate. But are they always reliable? Tim and the More or Less team try to make sense of the statistics which surround us. A half-hour programme broadcast at 1600 on Friday afternoons and repeated at 2000 on Sundays on Radio 4. BBC World Service broadcasts a short edition over the weekend.

Subscribe to the podcast:

Measuring National Well-being – What matters most to Personal Well-being?

Abstract

This article uses data from the Annual Population Survey collected between April 2011 and March 2012 which includes measures of personal well-being. It describes the results of regression analysis – a statistical technique which analyses variation in well-being outcomes by specific characteristics and circumstances of individuals while holding all other characteristics equal. This allows for a better understanding of what matters most to personal well-being than when different factors are considered separately.

Read the article

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is the UK’s largest independent producer of official statistics and is the recognised national statistical institute for the UK. It is responsible for collecting and publishing statistics related to the economy, population and society at national, regional and local levels. It also conducts the census in England and Wales every ten years. The ONS plays a leading role in national and international good practice in the production of official statistics. It is the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority and although they are separate, they are still closely related.

Visit the site:

What’s the Story with Our Long-Term Debt?

Greetings Visual Budget enthusiasts,

The Visual Budget team has some exciting news!

We were recently selected by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation to collaborate on a series of interactive data visualizations about the fiscal challenges facing our nation. Today, we have launched the first visualization in the series, “Long-Term Debt: An Unsustainable Future,” which shows the astonishing impact of our failure to address the causes of our long-term debt.
You can watch the video on YouTube here, but for the full interactive experience, we suggest viewing it on the Peter G. Peterson website here.
We’d love to hear your thoughts about the visualization. In the meantime, stay tuned for additional stories which we will release throughout the fall and winter.
Best wishes,
The Visual Budget Team

Results of VT GPI study out today

Made available by Jon D. Erickson

Attached is a summary of our latest and greatest estimates the Vermont
Genuine Progress Indicator. Eric Zencey and I presented to Vermont’s
Government Accountability Committee today as a pre-release of the full
report out later in August. A huge thanks for all the hard work of so
many Gundiees in getting the GPI built, especially Matt Burke, Sam
Carlson, and Zach Zimmerman.

If you want the Reader’s Digest version (does anyone under 30 know what
that means?), the Associated Press did a short piece, picked up here by
the Kansas City Star:
http://www.kansascity.com/2013/07/30/4377163/vt-takes-economic-temp-with-new.html.

There’s also a short article in VT Digger at:
http://vtdigger.org/2013/07/30/lawmakers-get-a-peek-at-genuine-progress-indicator-progress/.

or read the entire
Findings and Recommendations here.

EdWeek Update: When Bad Things Happen to Good NAEP Data

The top story in this week’s Education Week Update “When Bad Things Happen to Good NAEP Data.” It is a very insightful article that illustrates a number of things including the need for 101 statistics.