Tasty Data Goodies

Reshaping the economic landscape

Will your city be able to bounce back from the economy's downturn? A compelling article in The Atlantic explores how cities will or will not be able to recover from the economic crash.

The article discusses how diversity in a dense environment is the key ingredient for creativity. And innovation is what keeps cities relevant in the global economy today. So who's going to conquer and who's going to crash? This interactive map shows historic changes in innovation, measured by the number of patents, for cities around the U.S. You can get more detailed information about a particular city to see how it compares to the rest of the country. You can also see historical data on changing income levels and shifts in population. Very cool.

Alcohol Drought?

Site FiveThirtyEight.com points out that alcohol purchased for personal consumption is way down this quarter.

Personally, whenever I see a drop like that (in terms of standard deviations), my first instinct is that it's a data error, or that I'm looking at a number I don't understand (like a partial quarter's worth of data).

What do you think?  The source data is available from the BEA.

If it's not a data error, hopefully the decrease in sales won't have an effect on the relationship shown in Swivel's infamous wine and violent crime graph.

Oscar ratings get a boost

Last night, I curled up on the couch with a bowl of trail mix and watched the opulent glitz and glamor of the 81st Oscars. And I liked it. I liked Hugh Jackman's ridiculous opening number featuring Anne Hathaway as Nixon and various cardboard cutouts befitting to the recession. I liked Tina Fey and Steve Martin's pokes at Scientology when they presented the awards for best screenplay. And I loved Kate Winslet's acceptance speech for best actress.

Other viewers may agree with me, as last night's Oscar ratings were slightly up from last year. This year, an estimated 36.3 million people tuned in to watch the awards show. What did you think about the Oscars this year?

Statistical Samurai?

Google Product Management SVP Jonathan Rosenberg recently published an interesting thought piece about the future of the internet on the Google blog.

One quote caught my attention:

Hal Varian likes to say that the sexy job in the next ten years will be statisticians.  After all, who would have guessed that computer engineers would be the cool job of the 90s?  When every business has free and ubiquitous data, the ability to understand it and extract value from it becomes the complimentary scarce factor.  It leads to intelligence, and the intelligent business is the successful business, regardless of its size.  Data is the sword of the 21st century, those who wield it well, the Samurai.

At Swivel, we agree with Hal, extracting value from data is the future. We hope that Swivel will one day be in the quiver of every data Samurai.

Valentine's Day Goodies

No matter what you're doing for Valentine's Day, we've got some tasty data goodies for you. They're better than chocolate! (Okay, well not really. Nothing is better than chocolate.)

Looking for that special someone?

I Want You to Want Me: This is an interactive art project from the ingenious Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar. The visualization was built from data mined from user profiles on various dating sites. The collection of profiles, represented by floating balloons, offers a glimpse into humanity and our own desires.

Love-O-Graph: This fun app uses the Google Charts API and an algorithm to display how much potential you and your crush have as a couple.

Stumped on what to get your valentine?

Valentine's Day Ideas Chart: Are you scrambling around at the last minute with still no idea of what to get your gal for Valentine's Day? From corn dogs to pre-nups, this chart has you covered. Find the perfect gift based on a scale of how much you care and how much cash-money you have.

Just can't wait for it to be over?

The Dumpster: This interactive online visualization dives into the romantic lives of teenagers and their love pains. Visitors can surf through thousands of real-life breakups, extracted from millions of blogs.

Scary Recession Chart

It's going to be pretty painful riding out the current recession. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office just released a graph comparing job losses in the current recession to losses during the 2001 and 1990 recessions. The data behind the chart was taken directly from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  The slope of the current recession's job loss is so steep that if it was a mountain covered in snow, I wouldn't snowboard down it.  Yeah, it's that scary.

 

Show me the money!

Today, Senate and House leaders announced they had reached an agreement on a $789 billion economic stimulus bill intended to pull the country out of the worst recession it's seen in years. Now, all it needs is President Obama's signature.

So, just where is all that money going? The Washington Post has a great graphic that breaks the bill down into categories to show what the money will be spent on and when. Credit Loan also has a colorful bubble chart that maps out where all the money is going.

Google PowerMeter

At Swivel, we believe information and insight are the pathways to making better decisions. That's why we love Google PowerMeter, a new tool that will show people their electricity consumption with a handy-dandy iGoogle Gadget. Studies show that being able to see your energy usage makes it easier to reduce it, and Google hopes making that information more readily available to consumers will help them conserve energy.

For more information about the project, check out the video below or head over to Google for more energy saving tips.


 

Data Democratization

As you may already know, a big part of our mission here at Swivel is to make data accessible and useful so people can share insights, become more informed, and hopefully make better decisions, from the voting booth to Capitol Hill. President Obama's agenda echoes these ideas when it comes to creating a transparent and connected democracy:

• Open Up Government to its Citizens: Use cutting-edge technologies to create a new level of transparency, accountability, and participation for America's citizens.
• Bring Government into the 21st Century: Use technology to reform government and improve the exchange of information between the federal government and citizens while ensuring the security of our networks. Appoint the nation's first Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to ensure the safety of our networks and lead an interagency effort, working with chief technology and chief information officers of each of the federal agencies, to ensure that they use best-in-class technologies and share best practices.

Oh, and if you haven't already, check out at the tricked-out White House website. Obama will be posting a weekly video address there via Vimeo and YouTube.