Five Apps: Visualize your collected big data

By Jack Wallen October 8, 2013, 11:34 AM PDT

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Five Apps: Visualize your collected big data

Five Web-based Apps to help you visualize big data

This gallery is also available as a TechRepublic article.

Big Data is here to help you define, re-define, guide, orrnbuild a better, more flexible and powerful business. The limits are beyond thernimagination when you have enough data collected. The problem is; what do you dornwith that data once it’s collected? You have to have the means to visualize therndata in order for it to aid your journey to success.

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That doesn’t mean you have to pay a huge cost for a piece ofrnproprietary software you may use once or twice during the lifetime of yourrnbusiness. Fortunately, there are plenty of web-based applications that canrndisplay your data, in various fashions, so your company can benefit from the timernspent in designing and collecting the data.

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I have found five such applications. Each of them falls intorna range of feature sets and complexity; but all of them will get you where yournneed to go. Let’s take a look at these web-based apps and see which one willrnbest fit your needs.

rnrnCredit: Images by JackrnWallen for TechRepublic

Many Eyes 1

Five Apps

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1. Many Eyes

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ManyrnEyes is an experiment, by IBM, that allows you to easily visualize yourrndata set. With Many Eyes you can either upload your own data set or make use ofrnthe many data sets already within the framework. Many Eyes offers multiplernvisualization types, such as: Scatterplot, Matrix Chart, Network Diagram, BarrnChart, Block Histogram, Bubble Chart, Line Graph, Stack Graph, Pie Chart,rnTreemap, Word Tree, Tag Clouds, and much more. In order to upload your own datarnset, you must be registered (which is free). The one caveat to using Many Eyesrnis that your data sets will be made available to the public. Make surernthe data you are uploading is not sensitive or proprietary. Also, the sizernlimit of any given data set is 5MB; so if you’re looking to upload very largerndata sets, you’ll have to turn elsewhere.

rnrnCredit: Images by JackrnWallen for TechRepublic

Many Eyes 1

Credit: Images by JackrnWallen for TechRepublic

iCharts 1

2. iCharts

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iCharts has two options -rna free option and an option for business. The business plans start at $25.00rnper month and goes up to an Enterprise plan (contact for details).rnThe free plan allows for data interactivity, public sharing, and unlimitedrnstandard data sets. When you jump up to the paid versions, you get featuresrnlike: Private charts, custom templates, upload images and logos, downloadrnhigh-res images, unlimited live database connections, survey data sets, largerndata sets, chartbooks, capture leads, branded chartchannels, mass reportrncustomization, and much more. With iCharts you can load just about any kind ofrndata including spreadsheets, Google Drive documents, and more. Interactiverncharts are a unique feature that allows you to integrate data pop-ups, zoomrn& pan, or rich comments. If you’re looking for a data visualization toolrnthat will not only help you internally, but help brand your company, iChartsrnmight be what you’re looking for.

rnrnCredit: Images by JackrnWallen for TechRepublic

iCharts 2

Credit: Images by JackrnWallen for TechRepublic

Wolfram Alpha 1

3. Wolfram Alpha

rnrnWolfram Alpharnis a computational knowledge engine which attempts to rival Google. What isrnunique to WolframAlpha is that you can enter a string and have the toolrnimmediately compute the string and display the results. For example, I canrnenter “American Demographics”, click compute, and instantly haverndisplayed various pieces of information regarding that string. Or, with the Prornsubscription, you can input your own data and have it quickly computed intornvarious dynamic and interactive charts. The Pro account is limited to twentyrnuploads per month (images, tiles, tabular data, and more), and is $4.99 perrnmonth. The Pro account also offers much richer data results (unlimitedrnstep-by-step solutions, longer computations, etc.).

rnrnCredit: Images by JackrnWallen for TechRepublic

Wolfram Alpha 2

Credit: Images by JackrnWallen for TechRepublic

Visualize Free 1

4. Visualize Free

rnrnVisualize Free isrna hosted tool that gets you to upload your own data sets as well as gives yournaccess to publicly available datasets. With this data you can build your ownrninteractive visualizations to help illustrate your data. Visualizationsrninclude: Charts, maps, diagrams, dashboards, and much more. Creating arndashboard for your data is simple with the drag and drop designer. You canrneither upload a data set (spreadsheet or tab-delimited text) or you can cut andrnpaste tab-delimited data into the cut and paste area (in the upload data page).rnYou must register for an account (it’s free) in order to get to the uploadrnportion of the tool. You can also gain access to numerous public-available datarn(such as data.gov). As thernname implies, Visualize Free is free to use. Any dataset you upload will bernprivate only to you – so you don’t have to worry about other users gainingrnaccess to your data.

rnrnCredit: Images by JackrnWallen for TechRepublic

Visualize Free 2

Credit: Images by JackrnWallen for TechRepublic

Data Wrangler 1

5. Data Wrangler

rnrnData Wranglerrnis a web-based service from Stanford University’s Visualization Group. Thisrntool is used for cleaning and rearranging data into a form that other tools canrnuse (such as a spreadsheet). Although this tool will not actually visualizernyour data, it will clean it up so that visualization tools can actually makernuse of the data. What this means is you will spend less time formatting yourrndata and more time analyzing it. With this tool you can split, but, extract,rnfill, translate, drop, merge, wrap, delete, promote, fold, unfold, andrntranspose various data points. Be warned, there is a bit of a learning curve tornusing Data Wrangler; but once you’re used to the interface and the availablerntools, you’ll be getting your collected data ready to be visualized in no time.rnData Wrangler is free, but also in beta.

rnrnCredit: Images by JackrnWallen for TechRepublic

Data Wrangler 2

Bottom line

rnrnThe larger your company grows, the more dependent uponrndata it will be. In order to keep up with the competition you must be able tornget all of that collected into a visualized, interactive form in order to bestrnuse the results. Each of these tools will help you, in various ways (and atrnvarious price points) to achieve that very goal.

rnrnCredit: Images by JackrnWallen for TechRepublic

By Jack Wallen

Jack Wallen is an award-winning writer for TechRepublic, The New Stack, and Linux New Media. He's covered a variety of topics for over twenty years and is an avid promoter of open source. For more news about Jack Wallen, visit his website jackwallen.

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