vizTweets

a new way of debating and using data artefacts within visualizations

NOTE TO PROJECT ON THIS PAGE: If you see a correction/addition that needs to be made in this page please place edits in the comments section at the bottom of this page and I will change, please do not email me. /FvT

Project Summary

Abstracting and Sharing Information Visualization Over the Web

vizTweets involves sharing textual abstractions of Information Visualization using the Web2.0 infrastructure by:

• extending the HiVE visualization expression language to accommodate the needs of a broad set of stake-holders with whom we are in communication through formal and informal networks
• deploying existing micro-blogging technologies to share HiVE statements that describe graphics and sequences of graphical operations
• developing open re-usable clients and services that visualize key data sets and generate, interpret and transform HiVE statements
• using miroblogging technologies to both log, share and access HiVE abstractions
• engaging with a broad user community to inform and disseminate this activity through established networks of stake-holders, academic meetings that span disciplines and micro-blogging.

Broadening the scope of existing prototypes in this way and embedding them in accessible technologies will enable those using Information Visualization to ‘scratch’ a permanent shareable record of their activity on micro-blogging sites that will be interpretable by users and software, such as the lightweight clients that will be developed.

This solution is efficient, exciting, has been requested by the Information Visualization community and will be supported by the Willis Research Network. It will provide the means and the mechanisms for what Drew Baker describes as: “a new way of debating and using data artefacts within visualizations”

Video introduction

Please find the 3 minute introduction to the XXX project, from the VRERI Kick-off meeting at: http://vimeo.com/9855135 You can find the presentation in the Downloads section of this site.

-PROJECT Please add:

• Twitter description (120 characters laymen description, e.g. how would you describe this to your neighbour and not bore them):

#VRERI #VIZTWEETS Record, share & (b)log analytical graphics with software that tweets succinct descriptions of the visualization process.

• Questions this project answers (end user problems it solves):

vizTweets allow those using graphics to document the process. This is an essential aspect of the exploratory visualization process and supports sharing, discussion, sense-making and explanation.

• User Question (what itch does it scratch):

The project shows how this might be achieved in context of an interdisciplinary research network of scientists and analysts through an example language and applications that are able to produce and interpret this.

• Community Question (how does this change the way things were done):

The work will enable this particular community to use text to collaborate through graphics and thus employ existing lightweight microblogging technologies that occur on many desktops as the mechanism for this communication. The extensible expression language will be developed in discussion with the scientific community and will allow some forms of visualization to be recorded. The code and example applications generated will demonstrate how tweets can be used to share visualization states.

Project Details

• Host Institution: City University London, giCentre, Department of Information Science,
• VRERI/Strands: Theme-Resourcemgt / Theme-Experimentation / Theme-CommsnColl
• Duration: 9 months / 41 weeks
• Start Date: 18/01/10
• End Date: 29/10/10
• Amount Awarded to Project: £40,666

Project Team

• Product Owner: Dr. Jason Dykes, jad7@soi.city.ac.uk, 020 7040 8906
• Developer: Dr. Jo Wood, Dr. Aidan Slingsby, Dr. Jason Dykes.
• Admin:
• Partners: Willis Research Network
• Consultants: None.

Documentation

• Original Bid
• Code Repository: http://code.google.com/p/viztweets/
• Technical Documentation: http://code.google.com/p/viztweets/w/list
• Bug Tracking: http://code.google.com/p/viztweets/issues/list
• Progress (issues and status) : http://code.google.com/p/viztweets/issues/list
• End User Documentation: http://code.google.com/p/viztweets/wiki/SoftwareDocumentation
• Analytics Engine: TBC
• Project Website: http://gicentre.org/vizTweets/
• XMPP Feed (twitter): n/a
• RSS Feed From Project Blog: http://code.google.com/feeds/p/viztweets/updates/basic
• Final blog post: http://gicentre.org/vizTweets/