Interactive Multimedia Technology: visualization

Showing posts with label visualization. Show all posts

Sep 15, 2013

Librarians as Data Scientists: Data Science for All

"The ability to take data - to be able to understand it, to process it, to extract value from it, to visualize it, to communicate it - that's going to be a hugely important skill in the next decades. " - Hal Varian, McKinsey Quarterly

I came across the above quote from the Data Scientist Training for Librarians website. It provides the motivation for librarians - and others- to consider learning more about data science - a field that applies to just about every field of study in some way, as well as most professions.

Credit: Dirk Tiede/DST4L

Librarians are in a good position to become early embracers of data science, as they are interested in information, understand a wide range of scholarly (and not-so scholarly) topics, and serve as the human interface bridging people and ideas. Wearing many hats, they provide resources for people from all walks of life, in community libraries, schools, universities, government, industry, and research centers. With the power of today's computers and software tools, they have the potential to play an important role in the way we discover, curate, understand, and communicate knowledge.

Chris Erdmann, the head librarian of the John G. Wolbach Library at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, in collaboration with like-minded others, organized the first Data Scientist Training for Librarians (DST4L) course. The first round of the course included a number of noted speakers from a variety of disciplines, and covered a number of topics, as summarized by Jennifer Prentice (Simmons Graduate School of Library and Information Science Tech Lab) on the course website.

The second DST4L course was opened to all librarians, with a solid list of topics outlined on the syllabus. The course started with a 2-hour introduction to the course last July, captured in the video below:

I'd like to share that Chris Erdmann is a member of the Seamless Astronomy Group, a multi-disciplinary collaboration of astronomers, computer scientists, librarians, visualization specialists, and information scientists. The aim of this group is to research and develop systems that "seamlessly integrate scientific data and literature, the semantic interlinking and annotation of scientific resources, the study of the impact of social media and networking sites on scientific dissemination, and the analysis and visualization of astronomical data and research communities".

As I looked at the info-graphic posted on the Seamless Astronomy website (below), it occurred to me that this conceptualization could apply to a number of disciplines. I look forward to learning more about the tools, methods, and processes that this group generates!

Credit: Seamless Astronomy Group

One of the projects that interests me is the WorldWide Telescope, a collaboration between Microsoft Research and the Seamless Astronomy group. The WorldWide Telescope is a visualization software that enables people to explore data and high resolution images stored in the "cloud" through a web browser or computer application. According to Chris Endermann, a student project exploring the use of the new Oculus Rift virtual reality headset with the WorldWide Telescope is in the works.

RELATED AND SOMEWHAT RELATED

Data Scientist Training for Librarians
Data Scientist Training For Librarians Course Details

Data Science: What's in it for the New Librarian?
jmstanto, Information Space, 7/16/12

Cracking the Code: Librarians Acquiring Essential Coding Skills Matt Enis, The Digital Shift, 3/6/13 (Links to tutorials)

OpenRefine: Data Scientist Trainings for Librarians Presentation (SlideShare)
Tom Morris, 3/28/13

Librarians Are Becoming Big Data Experts
John Edwards, BigData Republic, 8/9/13

Code {4}lib Issue 21

Prototyping as a Process for Improved User Experience with Library and Archives Websites
Shaun Ellis, Maureen Callahan, code{4}lib Journal, Issue 18, 10/3/12

Crafting Linked Open Data for Cultural Heritage: Mapping and Curating Tools for the Linked Jazz Project M. Cristina Pattuelli, Matt Miller, Leanora Lange, Sean Fitzell, Carolyn Li-Madeo, code{4}lib Journal, 7/15/13

Collaborative Librarianship News

Confederation of Open Access Repositories

Public Libraries Add Multimedia Learning to Digital Mission
Nora Fleming, Education Week, 9/15/13

Life of an emerging technologies librarian in the health sciences (must-read)
Patricia F. Anderson, UMSI Monthly, 1/2013

Data and Coding for Journalists

Although journalists aren't librarians, the profession has expanded to include data journalism, a growing field fueled by the visual nature of the web and the increase in popularity of mobile devices in the form of smart phones and tablets. Books and newspapers are still with us, but technology has changed the way journalists do their jobs

I'm not sure if the journalists and librarians are collaborating with each other as they venture into coding and data analysis. If not, they should! The links below would be of interest to librarians, journalists, and other knowledge junkies.

Video: Journalism in the Age of Data

Journalism in the Age of Data from Geoff McGhee on Vimeo.

Coding for the Future: The Rise of Hacker Journalism
Maryanne Reed, Media Shift, 5/2/13
The above post includes a number of video and audio clips on the topic, plus a number of links, such as the following:

Data scraping tool for non-coding journalists launches (Import.io)
Sarah Marshall, Journalism.Co.Uk, 9/9/13

Data Journalism Handbook: A Five Minute Field Guide
Data Journalism Handbook Chapter: Getting Data

ODDS AND ENDS
A little history about the idea of seamlessness in computing:
The Computer for the 21st Century
Mark Weiser, Scientific American, September 1991 (online draft)

My thoughts on the need for data/information visualization not long after the world-wide financial crisis:
Reflections: Need for Interactive Infoviz for the Financial Biz, Business Leaders, Government Officials, Educators and the Rest of US...
Lynn Marentette, Interactive Multimedia Technology, 2/1/09

Since I'm a school psychologist (in my day job), I thought I'd slip this in:
Why every (psychology) student should learn to code
Matt Wall, Computing for Psychologists, 1/13/13
Many of Matt Wall's links would be of interest to anyone thinking about learning more about technology, data analysis, and related coding.

Aug 13, 2013

VISUAL LEARNING: EMOTION-EXPRESSION-EXPLANATION CALL FOR PAPERS - Deadline for abstracts Aug. 15th

CALL FOR PAPERS

VISUAL LEARNING: EMOTION — EXPRESSION — EXPLANATION

Conference to take place in Budapest, November 15-16, 2013
(Note: The deadline for the CFP for the following conference is August 15th, 2013. An abstract of a maximum of 200 words and a short bio of a maximum of 100 words is required by the deadline.)

Conference organized by the Visual Learning Lab, Department of Technical Education,

Budapest University of Technology and Economics. (http://www.vll.mpt.bme.hu)

Speakers will include:

Petra Aczel
David Freedberg
James E. Katz
Zoltan Kovecses
Sybille Kraemer

Contributions are invited from educational, communication, and media theorists, philosophers, linguists, psychologists, and other interested scholars on the following and related topics:

educational theory and visual learning
images, aesthetics, art history
images and media theory
metaphor and emotion
images in psychotherapy
visual rhetoric
pictorial meaning
pictorial communication
visual imagery
visual intelligence
the visual mind
the image problem in the history of philosophy
resemblance, representation, reality
visual argument
scientific visualization
visualization and higher education
information visualization
image and language
image and creativity
images in the network age

A slot of altogether 35 minutes is planned for each presentation. We envisage an ensuing volume of selected papers (vol. 4 in the series Visual Learning, ed. by Andras Benedek and Kristof Nyiri).

Submission of abstracts (max. 200 words) and short biographical statements (max. 100 words) by Aug. 15, 2013. Please send your submissions simultaneously to Prof. Andras Benedek <benedek.a@eik.bme.hu> (Head, Department of Technical Education) and to Kristof Nyiri <knyiri@t-email.hu> (Professor of Philosophy, Department of Technical Education). Those submitting abstracts will be notified of the decision concerning acceptance by Sept. 1, 2013.

No conference fees will be charged. Participants are encouraged to arrange their own accommodation. The conference venue (Budapest University of Technology and Economics, 1117 Budapest, Magyar Tudosok korutja 2, Bld. Q, Wing A) is located near downtown Budapest.

Series Visual Learning
Volume 1
András Benedek, Kristóf Nyíri (eds.) 2011: Images in Language
Metaphors and Metamorphoses (Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Wien, 2011)

Volume 2
András Benedek, Kristóf Nyíri (eds.) 2012: The Iconic Turn in Education. (Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Wien, 2011)

Volume 3 of the series will be published in September, 2013: "How To Do Things With Pictures: Skill, Practice, Performance"

Apr 29, 2012

Infographic about CISPA, contrasted with SOPA, by Lumin Consulting. Food for thought for those who might be mistakenly viewed as a "cyber threat"

Below is an interesting infographic from Lumin Consulting that explains the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA). Thanks to Cathy Davidson for sharing this on Facebook!

Infographic designed by Lumin Consulting

Nov 25, 2011

ADDRESS IS APPROXIMATE: Stop-motion animation short by Tom Jenkins about the journey of a lonely desk toy through Google Street View

Address Is Approximate from The Theory on Vimeo.

Below is information about the video posted on Vimeo:
"Google Street View stop motion animation short made as a personal project by director Tom Jenkins. Story: A lonely desk toy longs for escape from the dark confines of the office, so he takes a cross country road trip to the Pacific Coast in the only way he can – using a toy car and Google Maps Street View. All screen imagery was animated - there are no screen replacements.

Produced, animated, filmed, lit, edited & graded by Tom Jenkins (www.theoryfilms.co.uk / https://www.facebook.com/theoryfilms - !NEW MAKING OF PICS ON FB PAGE! / @thetheoryUK / http://twitter.com/#!/thetheoryUK). Shot using Canon 5d MkII, Dragonframe Stop Motion software and customised slider. Music by the wonderfull Cinematic Orchestra (www.cinematicorchestra.com) and the track is Arrival of the Birds."

Thanks to Nathan Yau (Flowing Data) for sharing this video!

Sep 22, 2011

Intel's 'Museum of Me': Moving 3D visualizations of your Facebook life.

(I missed this one when the buzz started. Thanks to Liz Dorland for the link.)

Museum of Me is a website created by Intel that provides a variety of interesting information visualizations of your photos and other information from Facebook. Below is a video from Intel that gives a preview of what Museum of Me is about. Better yet, take a look at all of the 'Museum of Me' videos posted on YouTube.

Video Demo: Museum of Me

RELATED
Intel's 'Museum of Me' is Cool, Creepy Facebook Fun
Sarah Jacobsson Purewal, PCWorld, 6/1/11

Intel's Facebook 'Museum of Me' is a Must-Try
Don Reisinger, CNET News, The Digital Home 6/2/11

Intel on Facebook

Jul 9, 2011

"Rise and Shine": TED video featuring Simon Lewis and his recovery from a serious brain injury, and how cutting-edge technology helped. (Video includes interesting visuals)

Simon Lewis was in an automobile accident that resulted severe injuries to his body, including a very severe head injury that left him in a coma. As a result of his experience, he wrote a book, "RISE AND SHINE", covering his journey over 15 years of recovery and regeneration. In the book, Lewis shares what he learned along the way, and how cutting edge technology and some non-traditional thinking helped him move forward.

Simon Lewis had the opportunity to discuss his journey at a TED partner event in India in December, 2010. The following video of his talk is about 22 minutes long, but worth taking the time to watch. A variety of visuals are used to illustrate his journey and the research he did along the way. Near the end of the video, Simon Lewis demonstrates some of the technologies that he wears that supports his functioning.

Here is the blurb about the book from the Borders website:

"An impassioned tale of survival and recovery, this inspirational story recounts the author’s horrific car accident, his subsequent coma, and the more than 15 years of cutting-edge treatments and therapies endured during convalescence. With specific details of the rigorous rehabilitation process that ensued, including numerous breakthrough and experimental surgeries, the book also provides practical insight into navigating the treacherous world of insurance and how to differentiate between the often conflicting medical opinions offered. In addition to describing the numerous procedures undergone, the author tells not only of his pain, frustration, and despair, but also of his childlike wonder at the beauty and miracle of creation. A first-person account of sudden, unexpected tragedy and life-affirming courage, this remarkable tale of regeneration imparts lessons both medical and spiritual."

The Rise and Shine website includes many of the graphics used in Simon's video, and is worth taking some time to explore. Some of the graphics are interactive. (Since the website relies on Flash, it won't work if you try to access it using an iPad.)

Comment: As a school psychologist with additional training in neuropsychology - specifically assessment and intervention for children and teens who have experienced traumatic brain injury (TBI), this topic is important to me. I'm watching the video a second time, and I plan to read his book.

(Cross-posted on the TechPsych blog.)

Apr 30, 2011

"Visualize This": Nathan Yau's (FlowingData) book about information and data visualization

I've been following Nathan Yau's FlowingData blog for several years. It is one of my favorites. His new book, Visualize This : The FlowingData Guide to Design, Visualization and Statistics, will be out in July 2011, and is available for pre-order on-line on Amazon, Barnes&Noble, and Wiley.

I love Nathan's editor's comment about his latest chapter: "Thanks for yet another very enjoyable chapter. If I had known statistics would be like this, I would have actually taken classes"

Visualize This: The Flowing Data Guide to Design, Visualization, and Statistics

Visualize This: The Flowing Data Guide to Design, Visualization, and Statistics

Here is the plug for Visualize This, from the Wiley website:

"Data doesn't decrease; it is ever-increasing and can be overwhelming to organize in a way that makes sense to its intended audience. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could actually visualize data in such a way that we could maximize its potential and tell a story in a clear, concise manner? Thanks to the creative genius of Nathan Yau, we can. With this full-color book, data visualization guru and author Nathan Yau uses step-by-step tutorials to show you how to visualize and tell stories with data. He explains how to gather, parse, and format data and then design high quality graphics that help you explore and present patterns, outliers, and relationships.

Presents a unique approach to visualizing and telling stories with data, from a data visualization expert and the creator of flowingdata.com, Nathan Yau
Offers step-by-step tutorials and practical design tips for creating statistical graphics, geographical maps, and information design to find meaning in the numbers
Details tools that can be used to visualize data-native graphics for the Web, such as ActionScript, Flash libraries, PHP, and JavaScript and tools to design graphics for print, such as R and Illustrator
Contains numerous examples and descriptions of patterns and outliers and explains how to show them

Visualize This demonstrates how to explain data visually so that you can present your information in a way that is easy to understand and appealing."

Feb 11, 2011

Talk to Me: An exhibition on the communication between people and objects, Museum of Modern Art, July 24- Nov. 7, 2011 - Great website!

The Museum of Modern Art, located in New York City, is preparing for the "Talk to Me" exhibit, which will run from July 24 through November 7, 2011. The Talk to Me website is an online journal that chronicles the exhibition's team's process of organizing the exhibition, allowing feedback from readers along the way. The Talk to Me website includes lots of interesting links, including readings. The blogroll on the site is worth looking at, too. I've included on near the end of this post. (The Interactive Multimedia Technology blog was included in the list!)

To get a good understanding of the concepts behind the Talk to Me exhibit, take the time to explore the website. It is full of treasures!

Below is a brief description, quoted from the site:

"Talk to Me is an exhibition on the communication between people and objects, and how designers write the initial script that enables the two parties to communicate effectively and elegantly."

"The exhibition hinges on an important development in the culture of design (and in culture at large), a shift from the centrality of function to that of meaning. From this perspective, all objects contain information that goes well beyond their immediate use or appearance. In some cases, objects exist to provide us with access to complex systems and networks, behaving as gateways and interpreters. Whether openly and actively, or in subtle, subliminal ways, things talk to us, and designers help us develop and improvise the dialogue."

"Talk to Me will focus on objects that involve a direct interaction, such as interfaces, information systems, visualization design, communication devices, and projects that establish an emotional, sensual, or intellectual connection with their users, ranging from the early 1980s (few iconic examples) all the way to projects in current development (the bulk of the show). It will feature a diverse array of examples, from computer and machine interfaces, to websites, videogames, devices and tools, furniture and other objects, all the way to installations and whole environments."

RELATED
MOMA's Talk to Me Readings - each link below leads to a page of related links:
interfacesliminal spacescritical thinkingsocial interfacestech updatesvisualization design bibliography

Talk to Me Blogroll