Visualization Matters

Charts and other visual displays can promote greater understanding by reducing the complexity of large data sets. We are now in an age where visual elements are critical in telling a story. Plain text no longer suffices – just ask the newspapers.

Our belief is that information can no longer be hoarded; like it or not (and we like it), information is now in the public domain. Thanks to the web and the multitude of open source tools it has spawned, we can combine available data with the best open source analysis and visualization tools, and deliver it to you on this site.

All information on this site can then be shared with others via a Creative Commons license, making it available for all to enjoy. So post to Facebook and Twitter, email, download, and comment – help expand the role of visualization in the baseball universe and beyond.

The web is filled with resources on visualization. Do it yourself sites like ManyEyes, Tableau Public, Visual.ly, and Easel.ly allow users to create charts and infographics using their own (or onsite) datasets, and are a good place to start. If you are more inclined toward building your own charts using open source tools, I can recommend Protovis, d3, and Rickshaw for starters. If network maps are your thing, visit Gephi. For a nice combination of stats and visuals, check out Orange. To get a holistic view on visualization, have a look at the work of Stephen Few, Edward Tufte, Nathan Yau, Manuel Lima, and Alberto Cairo.

If you want to see some of the best work being done in the visualization space, here are a few of my favorites: Jan-Willem Tulp, Jerome Cukier, Jer Thorpe, and Moritz Stefaner. These guys are incredible!

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