There’s a nice list of data visualization tools available on netmagazine.  I think it would be really interesting to experiment with a few of these in the context of the redevelopment of the OLnet Evidence Hub in the OER Hub project.

  • Modest Maps could be used instead of Google Maps to provide geolocation for organisations, input from TrackOER, etc.
  • Polymaps looks like it could do the same job but maybe while looking a bit nicer…
  • OpenLayers may have the best functionality while being a bit trickier to use
  • Google Chart API would allow us to create a range of dynamic visualizations
  • Raphaël is a Javascript library which supports the creation of custom charts
  • D3 offers similar functionality for a wider range of outputs: Voronoi diagrams, tree maps, circular clusters and word clouds
  • Crossfilter and Tangle allow you to create interactive visualizations and documents which can be manipulated in real time… I think these could be a really useful way to present information
  • Processing also offers interactivity, though it’s not clear to me how easy it would be to integrate these kinds of elements
  • Apparently R is good, but with a steep learning curve
  • Gephi is a good choice for a graph-based visualiser and data explorer

There’s a Tumblr page at http://vizualize.tumblr.com/ which looks worth checking out in more detail.

[Reblogged from http://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/openminded/?p=761]