Above is a shot from the Digg Labs "Stack" - so cool - with APIs to mess with! Also check out Arc and Swarm to see the news sharing activity at Digg dance - live - in fun and interesting ways!How are you looking at your data flow to better understand your business and your customers? Check out the fine folks at Compete.com to see examples for any sites you are interested in.
Data visualization is pretty pictures... it is also the answer to making sense and value from all the information that passes through the Net. See an amazing representation of airline activity at this (long loading) video.
Zappos Shoes displays real time purchasing HERE
MSNBC has just launched Spectra to redefine how we view and categorize news and information. Their "Visual Newsreader" is a very cool way to differentiate (the MSNBC version of) this commodity we call News. Check out the several nifty "Newsware Apps" (NNT - Nice New Term).
Go here to see how a community's feelings are displayed
For more concepts to discuss - I met Ben Fry (check out Processing.org), one of the MIT wizards of this space at the O'Reilly Ignite party last fall.
Below are Ben's 7 stages to Data Visualization (thanks Steve):
1. Acquire (obtain data)
2. Parse (provide structure or meaning to data)
3. Filter (remove unwanted data)
4. Mine (Apply methods from statistics or data mining to place data in mathematical context)
5. Represent (a basic visual model like a bar graph or tree)
6. Refine (Improve the basic representation to make it clearer and more visually engaging)
7. Interact (provide means for allowing user interaction)
You will be amazed at the insight by simply looking at your data from a different angle - literally.
But all that data is hard to gather and index properly. The problem is outlined well in the Advertising Age article called "Why Tracking Marketing is Now So Tough"
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FYI - Ignite Boston 3 is May 29th