For the WikiViz 2011 contest, which marks the 10th anniversary of Wikipedia, I wanted to make something a little epic and a lot open. I used the open source software Processing and R for the visualization and data manipulation. The data is all openly available online from Wikipedia and the World Bank.
As for epic, the visualization represents 246 languages, 212 locations, and 1190 connections. Countries and Languages can each be sorted in a number of ways, and all data represented is available via hover over. Regions can be highlighted, as well as countries with surprisingly high usage and low internet access, or surprisingly low usage and high internet access.
I could go on, but really – the point is to play with it:
My advice? Start with “Tell me a story.” Look! Harald Sack agrees:
Epic? I hope. Overwhelming? Mmmmm…..Maybe. I hope you don’t get too lost:
A Thousand Fibers Connect Us – Wikipedia’s Global Reach
Thanks to WikiSym for the inspiration and to Wikipedia for 10 years of answers.
Thanks also to:
- Ben Fry and Casey Reas – for the simplicity and power of Processing.
- Andy Clymer – for extraordinary brainstorming support and endurance through very long emails.
- Jer Thorp – for his open code, permission to use map() for everything, and useful advice in a panicked coding moment.
- Eyeo Festival 2011 – always and forever.
Processing (v1.5) code and data files: wikiviz.zip.
