If you've ever had the displeasure to sit anywhere near me at work you will know that I love graphs. If I get a data set I love to graph it. I've used graphs in gnuplot to model player acceleration when writing the controls for a FPS, graphs to show people playing a game over time and graphs to show memory allocation over time. I just can't stop myself.
For me graphs allow me to unlock the huge potential of the human mind to see data. Numbers are abstract but graphs are somehow more real, more tangible. There are huge areas of the brain devoted to image and pattern recognition so I see no reason to ignore them with abstract data sets.
So when Webb Alert put me on to this TED talk I was really pleased to see graphs, graphs and oh yes animating graphs.
On an important note Hans Rosling uses his software to graph statistics for the third world and succeeds in changing my opinion on the nature of first and third worlds.
Here he is in 2006 with his graphs
and in 2007 with more graphs, more animated fun and good news about the opening of statistics about us (and mostly paid for by us as well)
