Clickstream

They Rule

This flash application at They Rule shows the interlocking relationships of corporations and their directors. It provides a great example of how connections can be made and shown in a clean visual interface, and this all done simply with Flash. I particularly like the "find connection" query which allows you to enter two companies and show the path of board members and companies between them. What is most striking after playing around with this is the small number of people who control such large swaths of the US economy and the few degrees of separation between them. From their web site:

"They Rule aims to provide a glimpse of some of the relationships of the US ruling class. It takes as its focus the boards of some of the most powerful U.S. companies, which share many of the same directors. Some individuals sit on 5, 6 or 7 of the top 500 companies. It allows users to browse through these interlocking directories and run searches on the boards and companies. A user can save a map of connections complete with their annotations and email links to these maps to others. They Rule is a starting point for research about these powerful individuals and corporations."

Be sure to check out some of the other information visualization projects when you're done browsing the site. It may provide inspiration if you are cobbling together an interface for gnarly data, like a competitive intelligence system, and you want a way to try things out without getting complicated or spending a lot of money and time.

Posted by Mark Tuesday, August 10, 2004 9:18:00 PM | permalink | (0) comments

Data Visualization Applied to Politics

Someone created a chart that compiles data on past terror alerts correlated with political events. The information comes from a timeline that includes sources for all of the information. Quote from the creator:

"I compiled all these correlations and organized them chronologically into a timeline. I also added additional news items and other instances that I found out, detailing the terror alerts over the last few years, and located the original sources for many of these news articles. Soon, Biltud and I started to research together all these occurrences, and more interesting "coincidences" started to appear. We finally built this timeline of terror alerts and how they relate to the news headlines of the days immediately prior to that very alert. I think it's very easy to see a pattern recurring."

There are a few disturbing correlations that can be drawn, mirroring what some cynical people are saying about the terror alerts being used to prop up the administration's sagging approval rating or unfavorable media events.

I thought this was an interesting way to visualize the events, although the presentation could use some design improvements. I'm looking forward to a future where textual information can be parsed and interpreted automatically, then linked with numeric data to make richer BI applications.

Posted by Mark Friday, August 06, 2004 12:19:00 AM | permalink | (0) comments