Tasty Data Goodies

Exponential Times

At Swivel, we believe facts and figures drive decision-making and change. With that in mind, it's interesting to consider how far we've come in collecting, sharing, and actively using information.

This video helps convey the speed at which our world and technology is evolving in the information and globalization age. It's full of fun factoids and infographics that show how we live and thrive in these exponential times. For example, "it is estimated that a week's worth of the New York Times contains more information than a person was likely to come across in a lifetime in the 18th century."

How do you keep up in the information age?

(via Marketing Profs)

What's Your Eco-Footprint?

Happy Earth Day! With the eco-friendly spirit in the air, I decided to take the quiz over at Earth Day Networks to calculate my ecological footprint.

To calculate your personal toll on the Earth, the quiz takes you through things like what you eat, how much trash you have, where you live, and how you get around.

According to my results:

• If everyone lived like me, we'd need 3.5 planets to provide enough resources.
• To support my lifestyle, it takes 15.4 acres of the Earth's productive area.
• And here's the breakdown of my ecological footprint:

What's your ecological footprint? Take the quiz and post your answers here!

What's Happening Now

If you love numbers, then don't be surprised if a smile creeps across your face while watching Sprint's newest ad series, What's Happening Now. The creative ads use interesting stats with a touch of humor to tell a story about what's going on in the world.

Ever wanted to know what people are texting about from their business meetings? Or how many couples are breaking up? Check out the videos below:

And data addicts with a short attention span will love Sprint's widget collection, displaying stats on everything from the number of babies being born to the number of people stuck in elevators.

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.

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.


 

History of the Internet

It's amazing to think about how far the Internet has come in the last 5 years. From Google to Youtube, today we can do things once imagined impossible. Since its invention, the Internet has grown exponentially and millions of people around the world surf the web every day.

But, how did it all start? This video, using Picol icons, documents the history of the Internet from time-sharing to file-sharing, Arpanet to Internet. The eye-pleasing graphics are very straightforward, making some of the difficult concepts easier to understand. Plus, how could you not love the narrator's accent?

Australia takes town hall to the web

The Australian government has begun facilitating an open conversation between citizens and policy-makers in the world of web 2.0. Senator Stephen Conroy, Minister for Broadband, Communications, and the Digital Economy, has established a blog on the department's official website which will run for the next two weeks. As Conroy works to outline a roadmap for the future of the digital economy, he is turning to the public for guidance, comments, and opinions.  Within the first 48 hours, the blog received over 500 comments.

A recent post about open access to Public Sector Information (PSI) invites readers to discuss the value of such information and how it could be used. They cite a point of view similar to our mission -- that access to public data has tremendous social benefits and economic value. In addition, the Australian Bureau of Statistics is currently preparing to release a majority of their stats under a Creative Commons license.

Although we may not agree with everything Conroy has put on the table, such as his plans to filter Internet content, we do think how he is shaping the practice of policy-making is pretty savvy.

Three cheers for public data

 
Last Thursday, Amazon launched its Public Data Sets web service. The project hopes to make it easy for developers and researchers to access and use (very) large data sets in their Amazon Web Services applications.

Available data sets include: an annotated form of the Human Genome, a public database of chemical structures, and plenty of US census data. There is one small catch -- Amazon is hosting all of the data for free, but in order to access and download the numbers, you have to be an Amazon Web Services subscriber. Shucks.

Either way, we think its pretty awesome, since we believe that data is most valuable when its out in the open for everyone to see and share. Hip, hip, hooray for public data!

Charts rule!

Everyone loves charts.  Whether you're a manager putting together a presentation, a student researching stats on world health or an advanced data analyst, you can't deny the simple beauty of a chart to help you visualize and understand data.

PBS presents Sid the Science Kid, who playfully reminds us just how "sweet" charts are as "handy, dandy scientific tools."

Tell a (Political) Story with Data

One of our advisors, Charley Kyd, recently suggested we check out a book about communicating with pictures called Back of the Napkin by Dan Roam.

Today, on Dan's blog, there is a story that is at the heart of the US presidential campaign.

Regardless of one's politics, it's an interesting use of pictures and data to create a compelling narrative.