Blog assignment #4. Visual communication with Visualization lab.

Today we worked with New York Times Visualization lab, which is a new text analysis feature built on IBM’s Many Eyes. This feature makes it possible for the user to create visual representations of information and data, like maps, charts and other graphic presentations out of the articles posted on NY Times homepage.

When does this come in in handy, and why do we need it?

This is a new way to interact with their online users. It can come in handy especially with texts that involves politics, where the usage of words can give away a lot of the content of the text. The charts you can make can put other perspectives on the text, it can help you form questions on the subject and clarify the sours standpoint. So, the tool can be of help in many ways. Charts and such has been around for ages, just because it is a simple way to represent statistics and facts.

• What kinds of data can you analyze using your suite of tools?

NY Times articles.

• What kind of information can you extract from the data?

You can create visual representations of the articles.

• What kinds of questions can you ask of your data using text analysis and data visualizations?

The main thing with this tool is to create discussions. You can analyze the text and make statements in the commentary area.

• What hidden patterns are revealed using text analysis and data visualization?

Well, the patterns are there, maybe its not the pattern that you thought it would be, but this is a tool to find new information about the information…

• Who would be most likely to perform this kind of text analysis or data visualization?

The point is that every body can use it. It is a way of integrating this into articles to make more discussions out of it. 

My Text analysis and data visualization exercise. I'm gonna look at the novel: The Count of Monte Cristo. I will see if can come up with some good metadata and visualizations for the text, using Wordl. Many Eyes or TAPoR, which is other text analyzing programs might also be used...