Stunning Business Intelligence Visualizations… from 1870

FastCompany has a great article this week on the results of the 1870 census, and the hand-made graphics (“BI –2.0”?) that were made from the data (thanks to RadicalCartography.net and the Library of Congress). [NOTE -- the original version of this post erroneously said "1830" throughout] Here’s a selection of my favorites – click on each one to get the full graphic. US geology – the hand-shading is so much nicer to look at than computer-generated... [Read More...]

BI in Bahrain

I was in Bahrain this week, presenting as part of a keynote with José Duarte (President and CEO of SAP Europe) at the SAP Users Group Middle East & North Africa (SUG-MENA) 2009 event in Bahrain. There was a good turnout, and lots of interest in the SAP BusinessObjects solutions, although several attendees mentioned the relative lack of local expertise available in the products. Coverage in the Gulf Daily News: IT investment push in Mideast... [Read More...]

Alternative Dashboards?

After a previous post on early cardboard dashboards, I was offered some alternatives by my Twitter-mates (@timoelliott). Enjoy! Barry (@meneerharmsen): “Good post, but I thought dashboards like Xcelsius had their roots here:” Andy Bitterer (@bitterer): “I’d say this guy is working with a dashboard. A bit earlier.” “And this is the real dash board:” Anybody else out there have some good early dashboard images to share?   Technorati... [Read More...]

Where Was the Best Place to Work in the US in 2008?

I forgot to post this last year — better late than never… Click on the image below to see survey data from Computerworld’s Best Places to Work 2008 survey in an interactive Xcelsius dashboard. (I believe that SAP doesn’t appear because it’s not a US-headquartered company.)  Read More →

BI 2.0 News Briefs

More on how Web 2.0 companies are helping people collect, analyze, and share structured information — i.e. providing some of the functionality now associated with business intelligence vendors. Information display: Google makes it easier to show data on their maps. Data cleansing: Google submits a patent for “online data verification of listing data”. According to Intelligent Enterprise: “The application describes a system... [Read More...]

Comparing Apples and Oranges on the Web?

IBM’s Many Eyes site lets users carry out analysis over the web, using information from a range of public sources, or with data that they have uploaded, and then share their analysis with others. Interestingly, one of the team was apparently the creator of the baby name popularity chart that did the tour of the web a while ago. So what can you do? Here’s an example: a chart comparing the consumption of Apples and Oranges in the US... [Read More...]