[LINK] The Next Frontier: Decoding the Internet's Raw Data

[Marghanita da Cruz]

Bernard Robertson-Dunn wrote:
> The Next Frontier: Decoding the Internet's Raw Data
> By Kim Hart
> Monday, June 1, 2009
> Washington Post
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/31/AR2009053102340.html
> 
> There's no shortage of uses for the massive amounts of data in every 
> nook and cranny of the Internet.
> 
> Advertisers want to mine the photos and status updates you post on 
> Facebook to better sell their wares. Scientists want to track weather 
> patterns based on decades of climate records to better forecast 
> troubling storms. And White House officials now want to make government 
> data sets available for citizens to use however they see fit.
> 
> The problem is figuring out how to organize and display the data in a 
> useful and informative way, instead of forcing people to sift through 
> heaps of mind-numbing spreadsheets. When are bar graphs and pie charts 
> enough to break down a set of numbers? What is the best way to display 
> flu outbreaks, cellphone call logs or senators' voting records?
> 
><snip>

Don't know about mind numbing spreadsheets (these have had graphics tools 
connected to them for over 20 years)!

But there are certainly some mind numbing PDF documents around. I recently tried 
to sift through my local council's budget and management strategy.
<http://www.ramin.com.au/annandale/lmc-budget.shtml>

Marghanita
-- 
Marghanita da Cruz
http://www.ramin.com.au
Phone: (+61)0414 869202