Visualizing eComm and the Augmented Reality Conference 2010 with Stacked Graphs

Posted by caseorganic on Apr 29, 2010 in Data Viz | 0 comments

Note: This is a content preview of a full resolution PDF report that will be made available on the site next week.

A stacked graph method is one way of displaying buzz around speakers and topics at conferences. I’ve been tracking conferences with stream/stacked graphs for the last two years.

In a way, the stacked graph is a more organic version of a bar graph, because it can be used to show an increase and decrease in volumes of conversation around a subject.

What is This?

This is a stacked graph displaying Tweets associated with the #eComm and #arconf hashtags during the three days of San Francisco’s Emerging Communications Conference and the Augmented Reality Conference from 4/19/10-4/21/10.

The interesting part about visualizing data in this way is that it shows that there is an inherent difference between what a speaker says and what an audience “hears”. Hearing, in this case, is defined by how a speaker’s name, company, and words are picked up by microbloggers and re-tweeted online.

After looking at the full graph of the conference over three days, @anthropunk commented that while the streamgraph for #arconf was significantly larger than those for the other days, it did not necessarily mean that the first two days of the conference were not interesting, but that there were simply more people tweeting during the last day of the conference.

History

Until recently, I used a Java applet that only queried the last 1000 tweets associated with a word. A month ago, stacked graph creator Lee Byron, released his source code, allowing Nathan Bergey to build an open source version of the Neoformix Twitter Stream Graph. Aaron Parecki was whitelisted on the Twitter API, and their combined capabilities allowed for a greater level of data visualization to occur.

Now we all have an excellent way to visualize Tweets associated with conference hashtags. This method of data visualization is an improvement on a the process I used to visualize the Internet Strategy Forum Summit 2009 and the Internet Strategy Forum 2008.

This project was originally inspired by the Neoformix Twitter Stream graph. It was a clunky, limited machine programmed in Java. After several requests for the source code, we were forced to make our own. The result is a much better, lighter, and faster loading system that has a linear time scale. Nathan Bergey was the force behind this. He created a Python Stream Graph Library that Aaron Parecki was able to use to make the graphs.

Stream Graphs and Wordle Clouds

A stacked graph shows the same data as a Wordle graph, but adds an axis of time.

The conference visualization is split up into sections according to time. Each day and time period has two graphs associated with it. One is the stacked graph, and the other is a Wordle graph. The stacked graph shows time and volume, while the Worlde simply shows volume.

Monday, April 19th, 2010

Morning

8:45:00 AM

Introduction

Hello and Welcome (Replacement)

Doc Searls, Harvard University/UC Santa Barbara

8:45:00 – 9:00:00 AM, Salon E

9:00:00 AM
Keynote
The Future of P2P
Eric Klinker, Bit Torrent

9:00:00 – 9:22:30 AM, Salon E

9:22:30 AM
Keynote
Communications Heading Into The Cloud
Craig Walker, Google

9:22:30 – 9:45:00 AM, Salon E

9:45:00 AM

Keynote

The National Broadband Plan and the Future of the Internet

Carlos Kirjner, Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

9:45:00 – 10:07:30 AM, Salon E

10:07:30 AM

Keynote

The Rise of the Open Network: Or How I was David Isenberged into Submission

JP Rangaswami, British Telecom/Ribbit

10:07:30 – 10:30:00 AM, Salon E

10:30:00 AM

Break

Morning Break

11:15:00 AM

Keynote

Social Sharing 2.0: The Rise of Real-Time

Jonathan Rosenberg, Skype

11:15:00 – 11:35:00 AM, Salon E

11:35:00 AM

Keynote

Identity for Global Communication

Cullen Jennings, Cisco

11:35:00 – 11:55:00 AM, Salon E

11:55:00 AM

An Anthropologist’s Eye for the Tech Guy: Emerging Market Opportunities in a Post-BRIC World

Dawn Nafus, Intel

11:55:00 – 12:10:00 PM, Salon E

12:10:00 PM

Launch

Ringio Launch

Michael Zirngibl, Ringio

12:10:00 – 12:17:30 PM, Salon E

12:17:30 PM

Launch

CounterPath Launch

Donovan Jones, CounterPath

12:17:30 – 12:25:00 PM, Salon E

12:25:00 PM

Launch

(Canceled Due To Volcanic Ash) Telio Launch

Alan Duric, Telio

12:25:00 – 12:32:30 PM, Salon E

12:30:00 PM

Break

Social Networking Lunch

Afternoon

eComm Stacked Graph Afternoon 4/19/2010

2:00:00 PM

The Future of Mobile Networks: Offloading Congested Mobile Networks with a Software-Only Approach

Elad Barkan, Bzeek

2:00:00 – 2:10:00 PM, Salon E

2:10:00 PM

How Open Data and the Gov 2.0 Movement are Changing Communications With Government

Mark Headd, Tele-Works, Inc.

2:10:00 – 2:20:00 PM, Salon E

2:20:00 PM

Keynote

What Can Cities be Like When Everything Talks

Assaf Biderman, MIT

2:20:00 – 2:40:00 PM, Salon E

2:40:00 PM

Lightning Talk

With 500 Ways to Communicate, Why Should a Customer Choose Your New Offering?

Jared Goralnick, AwayFind

2:40:00 – 2:45:00 PM, Salon E

2:45:00 PM

Orbiting Data Centers for Global Connectivity

Keith Lofstrom, Server Sky

2:45:00 – 3:00:00 PM, Salon E

3:00:00 PM

Your Reality is Augmented

Benjamin Joffe, +8*

3:00:00 – 3:15:00 PM, Salon E

3:15:00 PM

Break

Afternoon Break

Evening

eComm Stacked Graph Evening 4/19/2010

4:00:00 PM

Keynote

Making Music with the World on the iPad and iPhone

Ge Wang, Smule/Stanford

4:00:00 – 4:30:00 PM, Salon E

4:30:00 PM

Mobile Video Communication – iPhone & Android Lead the Way

Jan Linden, Global IP Solutions

4:30:00 – 4:45:00 PM, Salon E

4:45:00 PM

Recombinant Communications Manifesto: Piecing Together the Disaggregated Infrastructure

Dan Miller, Opus Research

4:45:00 – 5:00:00 PM, Salon E

5:00:00 PM

Disruption and Death: Telephony, Open Platform and Network APIs

Oren Michels, Mashery

5:00:00 – 5:15:00 PM, Salon E

5:15:00 PM

Evolution of Mobile Applications: Role of WebKit and High-End Browsers

Benoit Schillings, Myriad Group AG

5:15:00 – 5:30:00 PM, Salon E

5:30:00 PM

Designing For The Future

Julia Tsao, yU+co/Fair Enough
5:30:00 – 5:40:00 PM, Salon E
5:40:00 PM

STATUS: Bringing User Presence To The Voice World

Zhao Lu, Orange Labs

5:40:00 – 5:50:00 PM, Salon E

5:50:00 PM

Keynote

(Moved to Tuesday 10:00-10:15, Due To Volcanic Ash) Cloud Communications and How to Destroy a $700bn Industry for Fun and Profit

Martin Geddes, Independent

5:50:00 – 6:05:00 PM, Salon E

5:50:00 PM

Beyond Voice – Designing an Open Communications Platform (Moved Into Slot, Due To Volcanic Ash)

Jose de Castro, Voxeo

5:50:00 – 6:05:00 PM, Salon E

6:05:00 PM

Keynote

Macro Trends and Predictions in Mobile Broadband (Calling In Due To Volcanic Ash)

Moray Rumney, Agilent

6:05:00 – 6:25:00 PM, Salon E