Audrey Watters
Audrey Watters is a technology writer and rabble-rouser with a Master's Degree in Folklore. She was working on a PhD in Comparative Literature, but chose instead to write about data, culture, education and technology outside of academia rather than finish her dissertation. Audrey has written for ReadWriteWeb, Huffington Post, and NPR.
Visualization of the Week: The U.S. Wind Map
Animated Van Gogh-like patterns reveal wind speed over a U.S. map.
This week's visualization comes from data artists Martin Wattenberg and Fernanda Viegas, who have created an "almost live" interactive wind map of the United States.
Strata Week: The allure of a data haven
Wikileaks and Sealand may not be a good match, ThinkUp reboots, Factual's CEO gets the NYT's attention.
In this week's data news, a look at Sealand as a potential data haven for Wikileaks, ThinkUp reboots, and the New York Times profiles Factual's Gil Elbaz.
Visualization of the Week: Anachronistic language in "Mad Men"
A look at the historical accuracy of "Mad Men's" dialogue.
"Mad Men" is praised for its precise attention to historical visuals, but how does its dialogue stack up against text from the 1960s? Ben Schmidt's new visualization explores that question.
Strata Week: Machine learning vs domain expertise
Debating the data skills of machines and experts, a key data move for Microsoft, and Google Analytics gets social.
This week's data news includes another look at the Strata Conference's debate about machine learning versus subject matter expertise, Raghu Ramakrishnan moves from Yahoo to Microsoft, and more social data comes to Google Analytics.
Visualization of the Week: Visualizing Big History
ChronoZoom takes timelines to an entirely new level.
ChronoZoom is a tool for visualizing Big History, a field of study that combines multiple disciplines to examine events since the beginning of time.
Strata Week: Infographics for all
A new infographic tool, San Francisco upgrades its open data efforts, and decades of Stephen Wolfram's data.
Visual.ly launches an infographic creation tool, San Francisco upgrades its open data initiative, and Stephen Wolfram offers a peek into more than 20 years of his personal data.
Visualization of the Week: Kids Count in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., parents have a new view of schools and other data related to child welfare.
This week's visualization, the result of a Data Without Borders Datadive, aggregates school performance, child care facilities and other factors relevant to child welfare in Washington, D.C.
Strata Week: Profiling data journalists
The work of data journalists and a comparison of four data markets.
This week's data news includes a look at the work of various data journalists, Edd Dumbill surveys four data marketplaces, and the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference experiences impressive growth.
Visualization of the Week: Visualizing the Strata Conference
The Information Lab visualizes the Strata Conference's attendees.
This week's visualization comes from The Information Lab and shows who was at the Strata Conference, how far they traveled, and the data their companies produce.
Strata Week: Datasift lets you mine two years of Twitter data
Datasift offers more access to the Twitter archive, and a proposal for a data school.
In this week's data news, Datasift will offer deeper access to old tweets, P2PU and the Open Knowledge Foundation announce a School of Data.
