The World Map of Social Networks, which measures popularity of social networks around the world based on Alexa & Google Trends for Websites data, has been updated for 2011. You can also compare with older maps and browse an animated version of the map on the Vincos blog.
Fusion tables is yet another hidden gem that Google quietly graduated from Google Labs to their (seemingly perpetual) beta status. It’s a free tool for managing, visualising and publishing data with a particular strength for developing chart and map visualisations.
You can get started just by uploading a spreadsheet or other data collection – it supports file formats such as .xls, .csv and .kml.
Depending on the information available in your spreadsheet, you can view the data as a chart, map, timeline, intensity map, bar graph or storyline. For example, motion, timeline and storyline visualisations need to have a valid date field available. If you’re spreadsheet includes an address field or other location data, this will be automatically geocoded for the map view.
There are various options to customise the info window and style and you can also then embed the map or chart in your website.
Check out the example gallery for more ideas about what Fusion Tables are capable of and there’s plenty of data available in the public tables to get started with. Try the ‘UK libraries under threat’ table to view the data behind the Map of Library Cuts used by Voices for the Library and Public Libraries News. To see an example of a timeline or storyline chart, there’s even a Twin Peaks timeline available.
The afternoon sessions of Middlemash were a chance to collaborate. It was loosely divided into 3 groups, although participants were free to break off into their own groups to develop and exchange ideas.
The main sessions were
I had originally intended to attend the JUICE session (led by JUICE creator, Richard Wallis), as I think a move towards a standardised way of managing and implementing web extensions for library systems is a great idea. JUICE has just moved to a new website and new documentation is being added everyday so if you are interested in finding out more, visit http://juice-project.org/.
But in the end I decided to join the Yahoo Pipes group (while still trying to keep an eye on the JUICE discussions – with only limited success). Yahoo Pipes formed the basis of many of the mashups mentioned during the day and was a much more powerful tool than I’d previously realised. The session, led by Tony Hirst, from the Open University, gave us an overview of the possible uses for Yahoo Pipes. You can view the slides for the session via slideshare. Also, it’s worth checking out some of Tony’s previous posts about pipes, such as the 2D journal pipe . One of the many interesting things about Yahoo Pipes is that, as well as RSS, it allows you to import data from other sources, such as XML and CSV files.
While Tony Hirst’s knowledge of Yahoo Pipes is incredibly advanced (and then some), his presentation is well worth viewing even as an introduction. As with everyone else who attended, I left the session blown away by the potential for data manipulation using pipes. There are also introductory videos available for those just getting started. You can sign up for an account and experiment with some simpler options such as merging and filtering RSS feeds. Another option is to ‘clone’ existing Pipes, which is a great way to find out what’s ‘under the bonnet’ of other people’s creations.
And to finish, a non-pipe but very useful technique for using SplashURL.net to create QRCode. These are graphical representations of URIs, to save us all from having to copy down long web addresses in the midst of (un)conference fever.
Unfortunately I didn’t manage to catch any of the ‘mapping the library’ discussion but details about the project can be found at the Mashed Library wiki. There is also a bit about the session on the Panlibus blog.
Thanks again to Damyanti Patel and others at Birmingham City University for organising such an inspiring event. Can’t wait for Mashed Library 2010.
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