Slagsmålsklubben – Sponsored by destiny from Tomas Nilsson on Vimeo.

Thanks to Brain Pickings for  bringing this to our attention.

Data is boring, information is interesting! I’ve always used this statement whenever the issue of data is being discussed. No one is really interested in looking at a large number of data rows, or even a small one. As humans, we tend to better understand a particular issue when it is presented to us in a visual way, and in this roundup you will find 20 sites using data visualization that deliver information to the user in an effective and inspiring way.

– Singlefunction.com

From SingleFunction.com comes 20 Inspiring Uses of Data Visualization.

Well, in my own geeky kind of way, I think data, in iteself, is not necessarily boring, but I get the point. In fact, I live the point. Presenting complex data in a way that gives us information—actionable information—is, of course, the point.

The goal is to gain advantages in business by being able to more effectively process more and more data into intelligence that can be acted upon in intelligent way. And with great methods of visualizing complex datasets, we learn to live simply with complexity.

At TED 2007, he stepped back up to show how his work had progressed. Who’s imagine that statistical analysis could be so entertaining? But if you’re reading this blog, I think we’ve already established that for you, like me, this our kind of geeky fun.

He said that the goal was to “use information so that patterns pop and we can see trends that would otherwise be invisible.”

The video is about 6 minutes, and well worth the watch. Things are about to change dramatically in the way we look through content-related data.

Tufte is known for a series of book on graphic design, particularly when it comes to the visualization of data. I went to a full day seminar of his in 1996, and became baptized in the Church of Tufte. I left with a armful of gorgeous hard cover books, smitten for data viz. I still pull The Visual Display of Quantitative Information down off the shelf regularly to consult and inspire.

His task for the administration is to track the many individual projects of the 2009 stimulus package, and determine how to best represent their progress on Recovery.gov.

Forbes.com recently ran an interview of him. Take a look.

Forbes.com – Obama’s Data Visionary

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TIP Strategies has posted a great visualization of the job gains and losses since 2004. This is a great use of times series data visualization, dramatically showing the changes over time, and in different regions of the country.

As far as entertainment goes, it’s no MadMen episode. But it is just cool enough, with a dramatic finish, that I watched it all the way through 3 or 4 times.

Click to see the visualization run: The Geography of Jobs from TIP Strategies

In 2006, Hans Rosling gave a presentation at TED, the context of which was income distribution, health, and tech adoption in the third world. But mostly, the presentation became known for the method of presenting the data more than the data itself.

He had wanted a way to visualize data that went beyond the X and Y axis, a way that could show many dimensions, including time, in a visually compelling, animated fashion.

In short, a way to clearly communicate the nuance that is often buried deep in complex data, underneath the convenient summarizations that can cause us to miss more granular opportunities.

From this, he worked to create gapminder.org which in turn created the software he needed. And it’s this software, called Trendalyzer, that is demo’d in his presentation at TED.

About a year later, Trendalyzer was bought by Google, and is now part of the Google Visualization API.

Here is the awesome presentation at TED. If you’re a data geek like me, this is well worth the 20 minutes. Perhaps the most entertaining presentation of 3rd world life expectancy data ever.

I’m eager to dive into this API and use the tool to create motion charts that will help me understand complex PPC campaign performance and site conversion data.

If you’ve used this tool, I would love to hear about your experiences with it.

(And here is Hans Rosling’s Bio on the TED website.)