An online platform for users to publish and debate graphics in a group

A new experimental online platform ‘Many Eyes’ allows users to share their graphs, charts and complex tables. The ‘Many Eyes’ offers various ways to present data, right from diagrams, which let people map relationships to stack graphs and bar charts.

One popular tool at the website is Treemaps that shows information in colourful rectangles. Initially, the website offered only certain analytical tools, such as graphs for visualising numerical data.

“The interesting thing that we noticed was users kept trying to upload blog posts, and books,” Fernanda Viegas stated. The website then added techniques even for unstructured text. Viegas, an IBM researcher at the Cambridge lab, and his colleague Martin Wattenberg are the brain behind the whole exercise. Wattenberg is a computer scientist and mathematician.
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Collaboration like this sure can be effective to generate insight, states Pat Hanrahan, a Stanford University professor of computer science. His research includes scientific visualisation. “When analysing information, no single person knows it all,” he stated. “When you have a group look at data, you guard against bias, and get more perspectives. This can lead to more reliable decisions.” The idea is to help people publish, discuss graphics in a group.