Data can be funny, by Jeffrey Veen

Data can be funny

Swivel launched recently, and was immediately dubbed by TechCrunch as the "YouTube for data." The service allows people to upload datasets and then provides visualization tools. Very cool stuff.

But this isn't just a lightweight web-based Mathematica - they've included a slew of features aimed at connecting people through their data. I upload mine, you upload yours, and then we all can mash them together to see what happens.

This has immediately given rise to many fine examples of the fallacy of causation and correlation. The graph below, for example, graphs Apple Computer's daily stock price against the temperature in Cupertino indicating that you should most certainly sell when the weather heats up in the Bay Area.

Seeing these tongue-in-cheak comparisons reminded me of the excellent Indexed blog - a series of fantastically sarcastic charts drawn on index cards. Here's an excellent example:

And finally, there's the infamous Pac Man pie chart that recently re-emerged on BoingBoing.

Data visualization can be funny.

This entry was written by Jeffrey Veen and posted 7 December 2006 at 7:56 PM. It was filed under Technology. | View blog reactions

Comments

1. On 8 December 2006 at 3:43 AM Matthew Theobald wrote:

Thanks for pointing out Swivel. ISEN.org might interest you too, but is not yet in production. We are getting 8-10K hits a month for the past year.
Patent application is linked from the blog.

We briefly met at the Boston IA conference around 2000 I think.

All the Best!

2. On 8 December 2006 at 7:36 AM WillMahoney wrote:

Data is silly.

3. On 10 December 2006 at 3:49 PM Nancy wrote:

First things first. Yes, data can be funny.

The real reason for my post: Why does Amazon keep delaying delivery of your book?

Why, Jeff? Why?

4. On 10 December 2006 at 10:19 PM veen wrote:

Nancy, you can get a preview of my book as a downloadable PDF here:

http://www.veen.com/jeff/archives/000747.html

5. On 11 December 2006 at 12:38 AM Nancy wrote:

Thanks. I actually have the book from the library, but I want my own copy so I can mark it up. I like it for its historical information. Plus it's pretty.

I saw a comment on you preview post that said how about a part 2? Well how about it? I hope you write another one.

6. On 11 December 2006 at 7:06 AM cheap web hosting wrote:

Thanks for the link given to Nancy, i was going to ask the same question what she had asked.

7. On 11 December 2006 at 7:14 PM unclaimed wrote:

Sounds like a great book Jeff.

8. On 20 December 2006 at 1:57 AM Ricky Onsman wrote:

It IS a great book. I keep going back to it, to remind myself, as much as anything else.

Also - finally got around to listening in your heavy rotation choices, Jeff. You might like Suburban Songbook a newish work by Bob Evans.

Australian singer/songwriter (actually an alter ego for frontman for band called Jebediah), recorded in Nashville with Brad Jones (Yo La Tengo et al).

http://www.bobevans.com.au

9. On 20 December 2006 at 10:16 PM Onno wrote:

Perhaps you already know Information Aesthetics, but that weblog completely dedicated to new and graphically pleasing ways of presenting data, it can be beautiful as well: http://infosthetics.com/