#metalayer

The problem with infographics is that they are hard to create, time-consuming to design, or expensive to outsource. Not too mention that most infographics are static, meaning that they don't update in real time. Now this is great if you've got data that changes rather infrequently.  But what if you want to create compelling visualizations that are driven by real-time data?  

The mission of metaLayer is to make the creation of such data-driven visuals easy for anyone (not just expert data scientists and hackers).

We want to offer our users an 'insight engine' that allows them to do more than search for answers, rather they can compute their own or discover what others have done.  More importantly, they can ask questions of the data created.  

We aim to make data on the web more transparent, more interactive, and subsequently easier to understand and share.   

In metaLayer users can easily create and share infographics like one below, styled to match the channel that it's delivered on (their blog, website, etc.)

...however, what's really cool their audience has the option of diving into the data that was used to create said graphic:

Over the past few years I've had a few of my infographics spread around the web in interesting ways.  Some have gone viral on social media channels, others have been picked up by people for use in their slides, while others have been published or referenced by journalists. That has lead to a great deal of interest in the subject matter, but by far, the most common thread I've observed is from people who want to create visualizations of their own data.  

Usually they have little to no budget, but are so sick of looking at the hieroglyphics that only their PhDs can understand that they are willing to try something else.  Don't get me wrong, there is absolutely a need for the intricate designs that appeal to experts and academics, but sometimes relating that information to people outside of that domain of expertise is not as easy as it could be.

However, developing infographics is at the same time nuanced and slow, as it is complex and meticulous.  And there I'm only talking about static work - the path to learning R or Flex and creating heatmaps like the image below is even steeper! 

Over at my company metaLayer our dashboard product includes a visualization suite. Some of you may be wondering just what will be available in that suite.  Well, here are a some sneak peeks of the type of visualizations we're working on. 

These are just different ways of visualizing the incredibly difficult contextualization features we've developed for our platform, but they're necessary if our goal is to make such complicated information collection more consumable. 

Anyways, here is a sneak peak of some things I'm working on.  You'll have to visit blog.metalayer.com for more details about how and when these will be integrated. (Hint: Soon.)

The stacked area graph is a common chart in many programs.  The concept is simple, the columns represent periods of time, while the colors represent one measure of value, and the area of the stacked shapes represents another.

One that harkens back to my days as an audio engineer (it looks like a sine wave visualization). Using the same concepts illustrated above, this densely packed visualization can allow you to look at a set of information, a subset of that information and comparate it to a completely disparate type of information (the line in the background). It's best when used with excessive datasets to spot trends over time.

This past week I was in Lund, Sweden at a conference called "Innovation of the Mind". I was among a very diverse set of speakers which included Ray Kurzweil, Darryl Hannah, Danielle Lanyard, and Charles Leadbeater among others. Below you'll find slides and notes from my own presentation.

Globally, there are 1/3 trillion unindexed images between Facebook and MMS alone. These massive troves of image data from social networks like Facebook or Twitter aren’t available to be indexed by search engines.

Although people send more textual data in terms of quantity, visual data (image and video) may be shared less but in regards to costs is more expensive to transmit and store. People consume more information faster using images and video than text. Thus, the opportunity to innovate areas of visual data technologies has potential to not only save money, but improve experiences for people.

As the mobile web and number of networked devices grows, the number of images available to traditional search products is decreasing exponentially. So visual data is rapidly exploding, but unfortunately the methods for consuming it are not. Therein lies the opportunity.

“Investigators calculate that the human retina can transmit data at roughly 10 million bits per second. By comparison, an Ethernet can transmit information between computers at speeds of 10 to 100 million bits per second.” - Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, 2006

Let’s take a look at great example of traditional data visualization technologies. For the past year and a half, I’ve worked with a company called Ushahidi. Ushahidi began as a company that made interactive maps that served as real-time situational awareness tools in disaster scenarios. The idea is simple, the public can contribute information about how they are experiencing an event, while first responders gather deep insight in ways that weren’t possible before.

One popular use of Ushahidi is as a data collection and visualization tool. Collecting reports of violence or discontent via SMS and plotting it on an interactive map.

Most contemporary visualization tools work by using stored data, then generating graphical representations of that data. Much of the visual data that’s available on the web is constructed like this. Interactive maps, data visualizations, excel charts, websites and more are each generated from data containers that exist prior to the visualization. One of the things we’re working on at metaLayer is turning this problem on its head - generating the data from images.

When the objects contained within photos or video become sortable, it will be possible to crawl the web in new dimension and this gain deeper insight from information collected from communication.

Networked imagery is the linking of objects in images to relevant targets (wikipedia page, realtime conversations, search results etc.) Once it's possible to parse and search static media (images), it becomes possible to do the same for moving objects (video). Then it becomes possible to do it in realtime, with real world objects.

Earlier today, Ray Kurzweil mentioned that with solar energy we are capturing information that already exists and converting it into new forms that modern technology can consume. Likewise, with the internet of things we are capturing information that already exists and translating it into information that our devices can consume.

Rather than projecting an additional layer of information onto reality as we do with augmented reality, the internet of things allows us to augment our consumption of actual reality.

This is how we begin connecting non-networked devices to our networked devices like laptops, mobile phones and PCs. We believe this is the future of networked communication - when a glass that exists in the physical realm can share its information with electronic devices which can then relate that information to the user. That might make ordering a beer a little easier the next time I’m here in Sweden.

The future of computing is in connected things. This is where we will find our missing information.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of appearing on Al Jazeera's show The Stream. I've watched the show online before online and occasionally while traveling, so I was really eager to meet the team.  I love the concept, using social media platforms to discover issues that are important regionally but may not have captured the international mainstream media's attention. In other words, the stories that aren't trending globally but perhaps locally or within smaller communities.

In this case it was on the subject of how South Korean and Filipino shipyard protesters are using social media to fight for workers' rights.  I can't say I knew much about this specific issue going in to the show but I did see loose parallels between their struggle and that of workers around the globe, and also here in the United States.  

One observation we make on the show is that throughout the majority of human history it was the State (Governments) or Colonizers that people had to rise up to challenge for their freedoms. It seems like 'the Corporation' is threatening to become such an entity. Nonetheless, it was interesting to speak with activists like Sungmi Park and Precy Dagooc who aren't just dealing with this in theory.  

Ironically, this show was taped on July 4th, Independence Day here in the U.S. The anniversary of our freedom from the Kingdom of Britain. Maybe next time we'll be fighting against the Kingdom of Wal-Mart. ;-)

It's important to note this is only the evolution of an ongoing plight in Korea. The protests there have been going on most recently for six months but echo across decades.

Watch the Whole Show

I'll be hosting a live conversation about data deluge problems and discovering relevant content on the web on TED.com later today. Join us and share how you deal with your own personal data problems (too much email, too many tweets, too many messages on Facebook etc.).