Thursday 24 May 2012

Graphing the Evolution of Debates

This TED talk by Hans Rosling, though fascinating in its own right, shows how computer generated graphs can help make sense of complex information. The same type of technology could be used to show how an Interactive Democracy debate evolves. For example, if each debating point grows or diminishes in approval, or is superseded by a counter point, this could be shown in a similar way as Hans Rosling's examples. If the data is open source, other people may create enhanced displays which may include demographic information about voters without divulging their identity (e.g. qualifications, age, sex and geographical location).

1 comment:

Stephen said...

Wonderful! I saw this guys info-graphic at University. It is one of the most renowned Interactive/Information designs in the world. He gets raw data from websites and databases from all over the world and stores it all in Microsoft Excel spread sheets. It is then imported into Adobe Flash, and converted into actual interactive data that is dynamic. Such clever design skills can really have a positive effect on the ID website we are designing. I think your idea about out sourcing the information design to third parties is a good one because it brings in more diversity and productivity to the concept of Interactive Democracy. I really enjoyed the video, cheers.

Stephen.