Heroes of Slovenia

My colleagues published the Slovene multi-player statistical quiz app on Tuesday 22nd. I love it!

We’ve all heard “statistics is boring”, but once you add lovely design, humorous content and a strategic game to it, it can be fun. In two days after the announcement there are more than 1200 players who already played abt. 24.000 games. And we know a lot more about Slovenia than we knew three days ago 😉

How the game works: First one selects his player name, then a favourite character (a hero from Slovenia), turns the wheel of fortune (automatic selection of the region one plays for) and then looks for an opponent (a region or a player). Each game has 7 questions, the last one always being a number range slider (statistical data). The one who wins gets some resources and so each region gradually evolves from the prehistory to the future. The competiton of the 12 regions lasts for 7 days, then the game resets to the starting point (keeping the overall score board of players).

In the current version we have about 2000 questions, 500 of these are statistical (others include interesting info about local peculiarities, history, literature, language, geography …).

At the moment there is the Slovene version only, but the App is ready to be translated or adjusted for another country (if adjusting you’d have to invest also into some graphic design adjustments). I sincerely hope we’d make an English version of the Slovene game someday, for our foreign visitors or fans of Slovenia 😉

Website announcement:  https://lnkd.in/gg3byB9

Game website: http://junaki-slovenije.si/

FB page: https://www.facebook.com/JunakiSlovenije

Developer: http://proxima.si/sl/project/junaki-slovenije

 

 

AoS: The new Atlas of Switzerland … and more

On June 20th, 2016 the moment arrived to unveil the new Atlas of Switzerland (AoS):

Simone Niggli-Luder (orienteering athlete and multiple world champion), Sarah Springman (Rector of the ETH Zurich), Marc Chardonnens (Director of the Federal Office for the Environment). (Foto AG)

AoS Version 4

The new Atlas of Switzerland AoS is (since 2000) already version 4.

“The AoS is mandated by law by the Swiss Federation to visualize themes from different fields such as socio-economy, ecology, history and energy, etc. in an ongoing long-term project. Since its beginning in 1961, the aim of this Swiss national atlas is to offer cartographically sound maps in combination with additional information to the general public in order to visualize visible and hidden structures and processes.” (Source: Atlas of Switzerland goes online and 3D – Concept, Architecture and Visualization. Methods. René Sieber, Marianna Serebryakova, Raimund Schnürer, Lorenz Hurni. EuroCarto 2015)

Version 4 is a step forward. It
– is based on a platform open for third parties’ products,
– is available online and
– presents information on a globe model and in 3D.

Platform

The AtlasPlatformSwitzerland (APS) is the architectural framework for future AoS products. It also offers the possibility to publish affiliated atlases from other institutions; one example is the Hydrological Atlas of the University of Bern.

Online

After downloading the client software (for te moment Windows only), thematic maps can be selected from the online archive and viewed.
Besides the navigation in the Atlas itself an easy access to these maps is also given on AoS’ Website:

Presentation

And here comes the fascinating part of the new Atlas: The presentation based on an earth model and also in 3D.

“The core of this APS – the so-called APSglobe – consists of a 3D virtual globe (osgEarth) with basic tools for navigation, visualization, and querying.” (http://www.atlasderschweiz.ch/portfolio/).

A globalized example shows the flights from Zurich in 3D:

 

Another map presents population density in two and three-dimensional views:

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Drilldowns show settlement structures  (here the train station Bern) with the possibility of navigating through cities and of changing perspectives:

Hydrological Atlas

On the same Atlas Platform, the University of Bern publishes its Hydrological Atlas of Switzerland using all the possibilities of navigating and presentation.

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More maps: Statistical Atlas of Switzerland

There’s another Atlas with hundreds of thematic maps based on statistics:

More about Statatlas in the –> Leporello

 

 

DigiPub

Mid-December 2014 Statistics Switzerland launched its first digital publication for tablets (iOs. Android) and (and!) browser, in French and German. The name for this publishing category is ‘DigiPub‘.

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In App Store and Google Play

DigiPubs are provided via the SwissStats App available on Apple Store and Google Play (Windows to come later ).

..

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In the browser .

The challenge: Storytelling in times of tablets

Storytelling in the time of tablets and mobile people performs in a new field.
The idea and the message are old – let‘s call it the book paradigm.
But it‘s a book in new clothes. New aspects must be taken into account: new possibilities, skills, tools and processes.

 

.folio

After evaluation, the choice for a performant and sustainable publishing instrument fell on: .folio, an open format, part of Adobe‘s Digital Publishing Suite DPS.

.folio provides:

• Standardised navigation
• Wide range of presentation possibilities
• Integration of internet content
• Runs on most platforms, also browsers
• Publication in the major stores
• Production based on layout programs, editing systems or web content management systems
• Open format (ZIP archive with PDF, HTML, XML inside).

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 Rethink publication !

Electronic publication offers everything needed to make a story appealing. But this means: Rethink publication!

Authors and also publication specialists (publishers, visualisers, layout designers) are challenged

• in terms of concept with regard to the content that is to be communicated
• in terms of the presentation due to the possibilities that the medium is opening up
• in terms of collaboration with specialists.

New ways of working, processes and also changing job descriptions are the result and necessary.

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The Concept

The whole story about choosing and developing DigiPubs is in the following presentation:

Download presentation (format: Powerpoint): Dotfolio.pptx

Download presentation (format: PDF): dotfolio.pdf

 

 

Social Media – Infographical Information

Social Media are state of the art.

But which one to use, which one to follow? Mobile,  desktop?

See the infographics by jeffbullas.com about Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Linkedin.

–> more

And it’s mobile and it’s Africa!

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Two People – One Opinion

‘Social Media Are Here to Stay’

Interview, Credit Suisse Bulletin, September 27, 2012. IPad Edition

HTML5: Flow map of internal migration in England & Wales

At the start of this year, I wrote a brief post on how we’ve been looking closely at the emergence of HTML5 as a visualisation platform. This week, we’ve published the first fruit of those labours – an interactive flow map of internal migration data for England & Wales:

The aim here was to really stretch the technology and give it a tough visualisation challenge to see what it’s capable of. The underlying data used in the map contains over 60,000 migration flows – yet we have still managed to produce an interactive application that will run on an iPhone.

I will aim to write some more details later on the development process and the good and bad experiences of transitioning from a platform like Flash. But the majority of solutions to our problems came from a general realisation that HTML5 doesn’t really exist at all, but is more an amorphous mixture of inter-related technologies and javascript libraries that are becoming increasingly cohesive as a development platform. So – take a bow jQuery and Modernizr – these libraries in particular have really helped us to exploit HTML,SVG,Canvas,CSS, XML and javascript technology in a single, integrated document. There’s a way to go yet, but these initial results are extremely promising.

One other element I’m pleased on with this work is that we went beyond simple visualisation of the flow data here – every time you interact with the map to generate a flow visualisation, the browser performs a test to identify ‘significant’ flows (highlighted in orange, to attract your attention), based on a procedure first suggested in 1977 by Professors Peter Hagget and John Holmes. The speed with which that test is performed is real testimony to the improvements in javascript performance made by web browser developers in recent years. That we are now able to perform near real-time tests on statistical data of this volume in a web browser raises another interesting suggestion – that the key to many exciting visualisation challenges might lie in re-examining the past…

Javascript and SVG: Back to the Future

Happy New Year! One of the things I am looking forward to in 2012 is yet more improvements in the no-longer-humble web browser. The move towards ‘web apps’ has made browser manufacturers focus on the speed at which users can interact with a page (usually this is done via javascript). This has brought with it remarkable improvements to the usability of complex, interactive data graphics.  By way of example, I’d point you to the following page, making sure you are using a modern browser (Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari or IE9+). The graphic uses open SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) content (not Flash) to show an interactive map of commuting patterns within Greater London (just mouseover the map to see dynamically-generated ‘flows’)

http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/HTMLDocs/dvc15/london2.svg

One of the reasons Flash has been so popular in recent years has been its better performance when dealing with complex animated/interactive content. But this map is easily handled by modern browsers (under Google Chrome, in particular, it flies along) – the excuse to use Flash for this kind of content is diminishing. Even better, because the content is based on open W3C technologies, it will work on any compatible browser, including mobile devices (e.g iOS 5+, Android 3+). Given the recent abandonment of mobile Flash by Adobe and the momentum towards greater mobile browsing, the rise of open standards for data graphics seems irresistible. And as a final bonus, there are some great visualisation libraries being put together which will make producing data graphics using these technologies even easier.

Here at ONS’ Data Visualisation Centre, we loved SVG a decade ago – so we’re really looking forward to re-working some of our existing Flash-based graphics back towards HTML5/SVG in the coming year – I’ll try and reflect on some of the experiences of doing this in a later post.

2012. What challenges?

What challenges will bring us 2012 ?

Mobile – social – open data and metadata –  making data findable and attractive (visualisation!)!

mobile

‘Web technologies have become powerful enough that they are used to build full-featured applications; this has been true for many years in the desktop and laptop computer realm, but is increasingly so on mobile devices as well. A W3C document summarizes the various technologies developed in W3C that increase the power of Web applications, and how they apply more specifically to themobile context.’

See also this blog post about mobile: https://blogstats.wordpress.com/2011/12/01/mobile-is-not-the-future-its-now/

social

There a lots of opinions and predictions about the role of social media. Here’s one in 11 points:

Many statistical agencies use social media, mostly as an additional information channel.

I.e. UK http://www.facebook.com/statisticsONS and nearly all are on twitter

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open data and metadata

The open (government) data movement gained further momentum in 2011 and will do so in 2012, too.

See also:

• Berners Lee speaking https://blogstats.wordpress.com/2011/02/24/linked-data-its-not-a-top-down-system-berners-lee-and-opengov/
• open data and official statistics: A presentation http://www.box.com/s/y0b619ro3b3m0oppx61x
• and a blog post  https://blogstats.wordpress.com/2011/07/05/open-data-some-perspectives/

findable and attractive

Finding the appropriate data in three clicks and understanding these data is a eternal challenge – not only for officuial statistics’ websites.

A lot has been done. See the new websites of Italy (ISTAT) and others (please update the information about new websites and put the links in a comment, thanks). More to come 2012 as Germany (destatis), Australia and Denmark and others (please … ) plan to bring their new websites.

Visualisation is a major topic in this context. Statistical offices present their interactive and visual content in overviews (i.e. destatis or FSO of Switzerland) and use more and more third party applications like NComVa (Italy, Eurostat) or Google public data (Catalunya).

Some thoughts on visualisation ..

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And there’s an issue whose importance is often underestimated. Not to forget:

statistical literacy!

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*****

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Finally, I wish you all the best for 2012!

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Mobile is not the future. It’s now.

Mobile access to the internet is growing at a tremendous speed. That’s a real challenge for information providers.

What tell us statistics about mobile use? An efficient interactive infornation offer and a quite interesting way of chart building provides

Our Mobile Planet

http://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/insights/featured/understanding-mobile-users/

ecosystem challenges

We live in ecosystems

The original highly biologically characterized definition is meanwhile modified. The term of ecosystem is used for a multitude of environments we live in and we interact with. There are  i.e. information-communication ecosystems where people get and discuss informations..

So the news aggregator netvibes calls the ‘Dashboard Widget Directory’ with its widgets to be integrated in netvibes as well as in Mac OS X, Google and Windows Vista a ‘ecosystem‘.

Here are some statistical widgets of netvibes’ ecosystem:

Statistics Spain, Census Bureau population estimates, Statistics Switzerland widget and netvibes universe.

App stores

Others are building ecosystems where people can get their software applications for specific platforms – be it for desktop or tablets or mobile phones. Apple opened its app store for mobile devices some time ago and for personal computers in January, Google did the same for Chrome and even the Windows platform has its app store (who knows this?).

Some say there’s a ‘war of ecosystems’. CEO Elop of Nokia expressed this clearly and dramatically before announcing the collaboration between Nokia and Microsoft:

“The battle of devices has now become a war of ecosystems, where ecosystems include not only the hardware and software of the device, but developers, applications, ecommerce, advertising, search, social applications, location-based services, unified communications and many other things. Our competitors aren’t taking our market share with devices; they are taking our market share with an entire ecosystem. This means we’re going to have to decide how we either build, catalyse or join an ecosystem.”

(Is Nokia burning? The internal memo from Stephen Elop to all Nokia’s employees. 9.2.2011)

Challenge for Content Providers

So why could all this be of importance for content providers like newspapers or statistical offices?

It’ s important because the paths to reach the customers and information seekers are dramatically changing. And there are not only platform-oriented ecosystems which are in (commercial) war and are trying to convince people to follow them. There are also application-based ecosystems like facebook running on all platforms which try to attract and to bind people.

Some time ago a browser-based information accessible on all platforms was the only and sufficient solution. Diversity in offers was necessary to fit the needs of diverse user categories (like ‘tourists,  farmers and miners’), reaching from storytelling with text and visualisations up to databases and access via api or web sevices.

Now in times of apps running outside browsers the question is a bigger one: In which ecosystem(s) with what kind of apps should we be active in order to be seen and to deliver the information people should know

Bye-bye Browser (?)

For more and more online users the device of choice is a mobile device and for more and more of these users  ‘Apps are the Web and the Web is Apps”.

Applications (Apps)  for mobile devices can be downloaded and installed in seconds. These apps focus on certain needs and perhaps half a dozen of Apps meet the daily online demands for you and me.

With Apple’s planned App store for laptop and desktop computers  these devices join this philosophy, too.  So what about the future of Websurfing using classic browsers? And what about the future of complex Websites offering many levels of browser navigation and tons of pages delivering information?

The discussion (the fight) is under way and the users will decide.

For information suppliers like statistical agencies this issue is of huge importance.

How to ensure the mission for public information and democracy given such developments in the online world?

– with traditional websites?
– with (small) Apps (or Widgets) with specific, user-focused information portions?
– or both (for how long)?
– with integration into existing Apps or platforms where people are, like facebook or Google?

There are already today some interesting developments in statistics’ dissemination giving partial answers.

So have a look at:

CBS iPhone App (search CBS Statline in the iPhone App store)

And also some of the widgets like i.e. https://blogstats.wordpress.com/2010/09/10/imaodbc-2010-and-the-winner-is/

Statistical yearbook, 2010: How to get an epub on your iPhone or iPod Touch – Statistics Netherlands

Publication, 16 August 2010 09:30

Statistical yearbook, 2010

The Statistical yearbook is a source of many figures on nearly all aspects of Dutch society. It is an indispensable tool for anyone who wants information on a range of areas: population, health, education, unemployment, agriculture, construction and manufacturing, trade environment, and many others. This year for the first time three special chapters focus on sustainability, the economic crisis and population ageing. The format of the printed edition of this book had already been adapted so that it could be carried almost everywhere; as an e-book figures on the Netherlands are accessible everywhere. Statistics Netherlands’ free online databank contains much more statistical information on the Netherlands. To access it go to http://www.cbs.nl

Statistical yearbook as e-book

The Statistical yearbook is now also available as an e-book in epub format. You can download the file and read it on your iPhone, iPod Touch or any other e-reader that supports this format.

How to get an epub on your iPhone or iPod Touch

Install Stanza from the App Store on your iPhone. Stanza is a free reader for e-books and you need it to read an epub on your iPhone.
If you have version 4 of the operating system:
Tap the link to the e-book version of the Statistical yearbook.
You should see a button “open with Stanza”. Tap this button.
The book will then be downloaded and automatically placed in the library.

If this doesn’t work, for example because you do not have version 4 of the operating system:
Start Stanza
Go to the library
Tap “get books” at the bottom of the screen
Tap “downloads” at the top of the screen
Tap the + sign in the top right-hand corner
Type the url of the site of the e-book version of the Statistical yearbook
Tap “download”
The book will then be downloaded and automatically placed in the library.

Characteristics

Key figure: A-3
ISBN: 978-90-357-1779-4
ISNN: 0303-6448
Order this publication at your book shops or Sdu.

Statistics Netherlands offers free e-mail subscriptions too.