I devoted today to familiarizing myself with the software and the data I will be using. On the Tableau Public website I found some really helpful tutorials and I watched them and took notes. I now have a better idea of all the neat things I can do with Tableau. I also got some feedback about the visuals I created yesterday so I now know which designs will work better for the data set that I'm using.
I will build each of my visuals in the Worksheet section, and then put together related graphs or maps into a dashboard. This is essentially what a dashboard looks like:
Finally, I will collect everything together into a story where I will add some captions, descriptions, and images. I will be working with the USGS data set I described in my Day 2 post. The Excel file includes multiple sheets that focus on different aspects of the Hurricane Sandy damage. Since there is lots of geographic data, I will be creating several maps with Tableau.
Today I listened in to a really interesting Webinar entitled Harness the Power of Location Data in Government with CartoDB. (See this link: http://www.digitalgov.gov/event/harness-the-power-of-location-data-in-government-with-cartodb/) Speakers included Roger Keren, Phil Ashlock, and Nate Irwin, who each use CartoDB in their work. CartoDB is a mapping software used by government agencies to create interactive maps of data from http://www.data.gov/, the USGS, and other sources. Maps can be customized with a variety of editing tools, including a CSS editor. My favorite part of the talk was when Irwin described how the National Park Service is using CartoDB to create maps that can be easily updated by park employees to provide the most up-to-date info about happenings in the park, weather conditions, and really anything that can be put on a map. This allows for greater efficiency. Irwin's team have also been working on mobile apps that provide maps and other helpful information for certain parks such as Yellowstone.
From what I can tell, CartoDB is free and available to use for everyone, not limited to just government employees. The Webinar provided a short tutorial of how to work with the program, and I saw some similarities with Tableau Public. I think that this is definitely worth looking into, especially considering the type of data that I'm working with.
I will build each of my visuals in the Worksheet section, and then put together related graphs or maps into a dashboard. This is essentially what a dashboard looks like:
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| Source: http://lh3.ggpht.com/-YJzK-fi-NXY/T9DLp-W_iRI/AAAAAAAAZRw/B4sUMeWSMsI/image_thumb6.png?imgmax=800 |
Today I listened in to a really interesting Webinar entitled Harness the Power of Location Data in Government with CartoDB. (See this link: http://www.digitalgov.gov/event/harness-the-power-of-location-data-in-government-with-cartodb/) Speakers included Roger Keren, Phil Ashlock, and Nate Irwin, who each use CartoDB in their work. CartoDB is a mapping software used by government agencies to create interactive maps of data from http://www.data.gov/, the USGS, and other sources. Maps can be customized with a variety of editing tools, including a CSS editor. My favorite part of the talk was when Irwin described how the National Park Service is using CartoDB to create maps that can be easily updated by park employees to provide the most up-to-date info about happenings in the park, weather conditions, and really anything that can be put on a map. This allows for greater efficiency. Irwin's team have also been working on mobile apps that provide maps and other helpful information for certain parks such as Yellowstone.
From what I can tell, CartoDB is free and available to use for everyone, not limited to just government employees. The Webinar provided a short tutorial of how to work with the program, and I saw some similarities with Tableau Public. I think that this is definitely worth looking into, especially considering the type of data that I'm working with.
I'm really enjoying learning about all the new softwareware you are using in your internship. One thing you might want to be aware of is the license terms of the software you choose. Is it "free software"? Free software doesn't just mean you don't have to pay for it, it refers to a license that grants you freedom to use the software the way you want (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software).
ReplyDeleteCartoDB is free software (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CartoDB). Tableau is not (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tableau_Software). The reason this concern is important is that if you are going to put a large amount of project value in a software platform, you may encounter problems with software that isn't free that you didn't anticipate. The company could change their licensing terms and start charging you for service that had early been available without charge. Or they could go out of business and the tool could simply disappear altogether.
Wikipedia is a great source of information on new software you are investigating, since it provides information (often thorough) rather than advertisement.
Thanks for your feedback Mr. Elkner! From what I can tell Tableau Public is designed to be free for everyone to use, so it's unlikely that they're going to start charging me. All of my work is published to the web though, so anyone can see it.
Deletejelkner raised an interesting issue that software companies may often have a freemium model or licensing agreements that can be troubling. But I think in the case of Tableau Public, I think their value is seeing the cool things the public can do with their software. TIBCO's Spotfire tool and QlikView are other visualization tools that I am exploring that you can as well once we have them set up.
DeleteYou have done an impressive job in creating a dashboard and 8 visualizations in Tableau. I'm glad you found it easy and quick to learn and get started with this tool. You making great progress in generating visualizations with our USGS data.
ReplyDeleteYou also did a great job in summarizing what you learned in the CartoDB webinar. I was also quite impressed with how the National Park Service has used the full capacity of the CartoDB platform by providing real-time updates, which I did not know about. I agree that CartoDB is a good place to start to create some simple interactive maps with our USGS data.