Open Visualisation

Visual representation is a time-tested way of making large, complex bodies of information manageable – whether in the form of maps, timelines, graphs, or charts. Emerging digital technologies have revolutionised what is possible in this domain.

These pages are to document open-source software for visualisation and existing (open) knowledge visualisation projects.

See also:

• open-visualisation mailing list

• Open Visualisation Workshop

• Software Tools

Software

Other listings:

• http://the.taoofmac.com/space/infoviz

• http://datavisualization.ch/tools/13-javascript-libraries-for-visualizations

Field meanings:

• Ratings go from 1-5
• Active goes from 1-3 (1 = inactive, 3 = very active)

Javascript

Flash

Python

Java

• Mondrian (GPL)

• JFreechart (GPL)

Other

• Processing

  • ruby-processing - ruby implementation

• GraphViz -- fast network visualization (C)

• networkx: python network visualization based on matplotlib (can also use graphviz)

• VTK - high performance esp. 3-d visualization (bindings to python, java etc)

Other (Not Much Known about

• Mindraider

• Graph Gear

• Ggobi

• Nodebox

• Clutter

• TouchGraph (undergoing changes, and currently being split into proprietary and open-source components)

• Drishti - visualization of 3D volume data

• BoB - "Brick of Bytes" visualization of 3D volume data

• OpenDX

• igraph - under GPL

• ParaView - open source data visualisation application.

• GD

• xgobi

Domain Specific

Bioinformatics

• Artemis

• CIRCOS

• synteView (GPL)

• lookseq - developed by Magnus Manske at Sanger Institute, available under GPL

• xmatchview - developed by Canada's Michael Smith Genome Science Centre, licensed under GPL

• sam - license not clear

• Cytoscape - "bioinformatics software platform for visualizing molecular interaction networks and integrating these interactions with gene expression profiles and other state data", under LGPL.

Cave and caving

• Therion

• Survex

Diagram

• DIA

Maps

• Cartographer.js Thematic Maps for Google Maps

Satellite

• Savi

Projects

• Swivel

• Gapminder

• ManyEyes

• Open Processing

• Add-A-Tag

Blogs and references

todo: aggregate feeds

• Infosthetics

• Datavisualization.ch

• Open Source Graph or Network Visualisation - listing of packages

• Visual Complexity

• WikiViz

• Chris Harrison's Visualization page

• From Tom Carden's blog:

  • http://infosthetics.com/

  • http://flowingdata.com/

  • http://www.visualcomplexity.com/vc/

  • http://benfry.com/writing/

  • http://www.formfollowsbehavior.com/

  • http://dd.dynamicdiagrams.com/

  • http://blog.many-eyes.com/

  • http://datamining.typepad.com/data_mining/

  • http://simplecomplexity.net/

  • http://leebyron.com/how/

  • http://eagereyes.org/

  • http://accuracyandaesthetics.com/

  • http://www.juiceanalytics.com/writing/

  • http://diuf.unifr.ch/people/bertinie/visuale/

  • http://well-formed-data.net/

  • http://www.numberpix.com/

  • http://www.mentegrafica.it/blog/

  • http://junkcharts.typepad.com/junk_charts/

  • http://informationandvisualization.de/

  • http://designnotes.info/

  • http://perceptualedge.com/blog/

  • http://shiffman.net/

  • http://abeautifulwww.com/

  • http://makingmaps.wordpress.com/

Articles and Books

• The original graphical guru: http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/books_vdqi and http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/books_ei

• Websites as Graphs

• http://www.tacticaltech.org/infodesign Visualizing Information for Advocacy: An Introduction to Information Design, by Tactical Tech