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.

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

I clicked on their Books list, and saw many of my favorites. What caught my eye was a link, under each book, called “map”. This references AmazNode, a flash app that uses Amazon’s recommended reading data to create a relational mapping.

A search like this:

 gives you a mapping like this:

 The static screenshot doesn’t even begin do it justice, because after you search, it grows slowly, with new connections being added every second for several minutes. The cloud bounces and jiggles and dances as new items pop up and add weight to parts of the cloud.

And then, you can drag and pull on any one book in the map to get a sense of the connections. Here is a screencap of me pulling the book Emergence around:

Many connections to Emergence, as shown by the many lines. And when you try it yourself, you’ll see the cool effect of stretching, pulling, and snapping into place. So when I pull on Emergence and drag it around the screen, the whole cloud follows it like a flock of sparrows.

If I drag around one of the books from the edge of the cloud, it will have a diminished effect, having the power to really only pull a few strings and not the whole cloud.

And each book provides more info and offers a clickthrough to Amazon. Very cool, not just from the perspective of finding related books, but as a cutting edge method for creating visualizations of complex networks.

Link: AmazNode Amazon Related Product Search