Tool: New improvements to google's fusion tables

Including a node link visualization. 

Working with your Data: Easier and More Fun

Google Research Blog

Posted by Rebecca Shapley, Fusion Tables Team

The Fusion Tables team has been a little quiet lately, but that’s just because we’ve been working hard on a whole bunch of new stuff that makes it easier to discover, manage and visualize data.

• A new way to look at your Fusion Table - Try the “Experimental” version of our Fusion Tables web application. The new design helps you explore and collaborate better on data. Faceted search make it easier to dive into a big data set and specify what you want to see. Multiple tabs let you experiment, trying different views of a table. And the new card layout lets you give a row of data your own custom layout. Give it a spin.

• More visualizations on lots of data - People love using Fusion Tables to put data on a map, but there are new visualizations available in our Experiment menu.Try the Zoomable Line chart. Playing with social network data? Try out the Network Graph visualization.

• New Fusion Tables API works great with javascript - Our new API, currently available to trusted testers, is more powerful and easier to use. The API can now return data in JSON so it’s easy to get data and manipulate it with javascript, right from the browser. You can now also RESTfully modify tables, templates and map styles. Want to try it out early and give your feedback? We’re looking for Trusted Testers... just join this group to become one.

• New open-source tools library welcomes your contributions - Fond of Fusion Tables Layer wizard? Just recently discovered the chart creator? These great point-n-click tools and more for working with Fusion Tables are now available in the Fusion Tables open source library. Please contribute your tools and enhancements!

You’ll notice a bunch of our new things are “Experimental”....that’s because we need you to use them and tell us what you love and what could be better. But we didn’t want to keep them secret any longer! On behalf of the Fusion Table team, thanks for all you do with Fusion Tables, and we’re looking forward to hearing your thoughts and feedback.

Find: A google event at the convergence of visualization and journalism

Wish I could be there. 

Technologists and muckrakers pursuing a more perfect union

Google

Today, roughly 200 reporters, editors and technologists are gathering at the Googleplex in Mountain View for our first TechRaking summit. Co-hosted with the Center for Investigative Reporting, the oldest nonprofit investigative reporting organization in the United States, this gathering is meant to inspire muckraking by exploring tools that help reporters tell stories with greater interactivity, opportunities for long-form journalism to thrive in new mediums, best practices for verifying information and fact-checking online and much more throughout the course of the day. Think of it as the intersection of science and art when it comes to converting information into knowledge.

#more 

Here are a few of the highlights in store:

• The Center for Investigative Reporting will discuss its new Knight Foundation-funded investigative news channel on YouTube that will be a hub of investigative journalism. Expected to launch in July, the channel will feature videos from major broadcasters and independent producers globally—both nonprofit and for-profit—and is an example of the power of collaborations that can serve the public.
• The Google Fusion Tables team will discuss tips and tricks for data-driven journalists with Wendy Levy and Jeremy Rue during an afternoon breakout discussion. In another step toward making it easier for people in any industry to discover, manage and visualize data, this morning we announced a new interface for Fusion Tables, which helps you better explore and collaborate on data, includes more visualizations under the “experimental” tab and has a new Fusion Tables API for developers.
• Richard Gingras, head of news product at Google, is kickstarting the day with a series of questions for journalists, newsrooms and technologists to consider. Mary Himinkool, who leads global entrepreneurship, is delivering a rapid-fire seven-minute look at lessons learned from entrepreneurs around the world, and Brian Rakowski from Chrome is sharing the process involved in rethinking the modern browser.

We wish we could have welcomed an even larger crowd, but for those who weren’t able to join us in person, tune in to the Center for Investigative Reporting’s Google+ page for updates from the day and highlights afterward. At 1:30pm PT we’ll broadcast a Hangout with Krishna Bharat (distinguished research scientist at Google and founder of Google News), Amna Nawaz (Pakistan bureau chief/correspondent at NBC News), Nic Robertson (senior international correspondent at CNN), Sarah Hill (news anchor at KOMU) and Sree Sreenivasan (dean of student affairs and professor, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism). You can also follow #techraking and participate on Twitter.

TechRaking was born out of a lunchtime conversation at NewsFoo, another unconventional conference focused on moving forward the future of journalism and technology. We look forward to seeing the ideas and outcomes that emerge and develop from today.

Posted by Sean Carlson, Global Communications & Public Affairs

Sent with Reeder

Tool: First look: Qt 5 makes JavaScript a first-class citizen for app development

Qt begins to play with js. 

Feature: First look: Qt 5 makes JavaScript a first-class citizen for app development

Ars Technica

The Qt development toolkit is undergoing a major overhaul. The developers behind the project announced the availability of the Qt 5 alpha release this week. It's a key milestone on the path to the official launch of Qt 5, expected to occur later this year.

Qt is an open source toolkit designed to support cross-platform desktop and mobile application development. It provides libraries, user interface controls, and other components. Qt was originally created by Trolltech, a Norwegian software company that Nokia acquired in 2008. Nokia subsequently relicensed Qt under more permissive terms and transitioned the toolkit to a community-driven open governance model.

Viz: The Media Map: Who's Reading What And Where

Too many colors, especially in the blue range. 

The Media Map: Who's Reading What And Where

bitly blog

The Media Map: Who's Reading What And Where:

Did you know that The Onion is disproportionately popular in New Mexico? bitly’s data science team had the pleasure of working with Forbes to make a map of which publications are popular in which US States. The results may surprise you!

Tool: JavaScript Meetup City

On js, transpiling, js.next, backbone.js. 

JavaScript Meetup City

NYT > Open

"What's so special about JavaScript?" I asked the question to Brian Mitchell, the Director of Engineering at General Assembly, an entrepreneurial and educational hub for New York City's tech community. "It's the frontline. It's where the Internet is evolving," he told me.

Find: Rethinking design with IDEO's Tim Brown

Find: more on Wind Map

Hmm. Didn't realize this was Wattenberg and Viegas. Digging deeper....

Wind Map

Design Language News

Wind Map:

Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg’s beautiful animated map of wind patterns in the US. It even shows speed based on the contrast. Oh, and the map is almost in realtime.