
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


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


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
Tuesday, April 20th, 2010


Morning


8:45:00 AM
Introduction
Introductions (Replacement)
Benoit Schillings, Myriad Group AG
8:45:00 – 9:00:00 AM, Salon E
9:00:00 AM
Keynote
Infrastructure Shift: The Long-Term Challenge of Change
John Hagel, LLP Center for the Edge
9:00:00 – 9:30:00 AM, Salon E
9:30:00 AM
(Canceled Due To Volcanic Ash) Beyond Squeezing Lemons: The Future of Collaborative Business Models
Anders Sundelin, CIP
9:30:00 – 9:45:00 AM, Salon E
9:30:00 AM
Managing Growth and Profits in the Yottabyte Era (Replacement)
Chetan Sharma, Chetan Sharma Consulting
9:30:00 – 9:45:00 AM, Salon E
9:45:00 AM
Customer Experience in the Call Center: Can the Leaks in the Pipeline be Fixed?
Shai Berger, F?nolo
9:45:00 – 10:00:00 AM, Salon E
10:00:00 AM
(Moved to Monday 17:50-18:05, Due To Volcanic Ash) Beyond Voice – Designing an Open Communications Platform
Jose de Castro, Voxeo
10:00:00 – 10:15:00 AM, Salon E
10:00:00 AM
Cloud Communications and How to Destroy a $700bn Industry for Fun and Profit (Moved Into Slot, Due To Volcanic Ash)
Martin Geddes, Independent
10:00:00 – 10:15:00 AM, Salon E
10:15:00 AM
Break
Morning Break
11:00:00 AM
Yesterday’s Wire for Tomorrow’s Apps?
Brian Harris, New Mexico Attorney General
11:00:00 – 11:15:00 AM, Salon E
11:15:00 AM
Internet Gone Mobile
Richard Bennett, ITIF
11:15:00 – 11:30:00 AM, Salon E
11:30:00 AM
(Canceled Due To Volcanic Ash) Ubiquitous Collaboration: The Next Wave of Productivity?
Joe Burton, Cisco
11:30:00 – 11:45:00 AM, Salon E
11:30:00 AM
Teleku :: Cloud Communications (Replacement)
Chris Matthieu, GetVocal
11:30:00 – 11:45:00 AM, Salon E
11:45:00 AM
Keynote
(Canceled Due To Volcanic Ash) Our National Broadband Plan: The End of the Beginning?
Richard Whitt, Google
11:45:00 – 12:05:00 PM, Salon E
11:45:00 AM
Yeah I’m Stuck Too (Replacement)
Patrick Murphy, VoiceSage
11:45:00 – 12:00:00 PM, Salon E
12:00:00 PM
Panel
US National Broadband Plan – Moderator Introduction
Brough Turner, Ashtonbrooke
12:00:00 – 12:07:00 PM, Salon E
12:07:00 PM
Panel
US National Broadband Plan – Paul Brigner Introduction
Paul Brigner, Verizon
12:07:00 – 12:09:00 PM, Salon E
12:09:00 PM
Panel
US National Broadband Plan – Susan Estrada Introduction
Susan Estrada, FirstMile.US
12:09:00 – 12:11:00 PM, Salon E
12:11:00 PM
Panel
US National Broadband Plan – Tracy Rosenberg Introduction
Tracy Rosenberg, Media Alliance
12:11:00 – 12:13:00 PM, Salon E
12:13:00 PM
Panel
US National Broadband Plan – Richard Bennett Introduction
Richard Bennett, ITIF
12:13:00 – 12:15:00 PM, Salon E
12:15:00 PM
Panel
US National Broadband Plan
Brough Turner, Ashtonbrooke
12:15:00 – 12:35:00 PM, Salon E
12:30:00 PM
Break
Social Networking Lunch
Afternoon


2:00:00 PM
Panel
Walk-On Panel
You!
2:00:00 – 2:30:00 PM, Salon E
2:30:00 PM
Participatory Sensing
Deborah Estrin, UCLA Computer Science Department
2:30:00 – 2:45:00 PM, Salon E
2:45:00 PM
Mapping Mobile Social Networks with NodeXL: Finding Key Users, Groups, and Locations
Marc A Smith, ConnectedAction
2:45:00 – 3:00:00 PM, Salon E
3:00:00 PM
The 6th Sense Accelerator: When Mobile Meets Intuition
Barak Hachamov, My6sense
3:00:00 – 3:15:00 PM, Salon E
3:15:00 PM
Break
Afternoon Break
Evening


4:00:00 PM
Bring Your Own Wireless: How Smart Mobile Phones are Revolutionizing Wireline Customers
Piers Finlayson, Metaswitch
4:00:00 – 4:15:00 PM, Salon E
4:15:00 PM
Everything You Think You Know About High Performance Military Communications is Wrong
Tom Katis, RebelVox
4:15:00 – 4:30:00 PM, Salon E
4:30:00 PM
Keynote
Smart People, Dumb Objects, Networked Environments
Usman Haque, Pachube/Connected Environments
4:30:00 – 4:50:00 PM, Salon E
4:50:00 PM
From Distraction to Real Life, Humanizing our Mobile Future
Kristian Simsarian, IDEO
4:50:00 – 5:00:00 PM, Salon E
5:00:00 PM
A Glimpse Into the Future if XMPP and Wave are Successful
Jason Kolb, Cisco
5:00:00 – 5:15:00 PM, Salon E
5:15:00 PM
A Telephone System for the Next Three Billion
David A. Burgess, Kestrel Signal Processing
5:15:00 – 5:30:00 PM, Salon E
5:30:00 PM
Demo
Towards Painless, Free, Open Phone Data
Troy Davis, Cloudvox
5:30:00 – 5:40:00 PM, Salon E
5:40:00 PM
Awards
Mobile Application Awards – Introduction
Mike Rowehl, Mobile Monday Silicon Valley
5:40:00 – 5:42:00 PM, Salon E
5:42:00 PM
Awards
Mobile Application Awards – CrowdScanner
Adrian Avendano, Meetforeal & CrowdScanner
5:42:00 – 5:45:00 PM, Salon E
5:45:00 PM
Awards
Mobile Application Awards – Aloqa
Sanjeev Agrawal, Aloqa
5:45:00 – 5:48:00 PM, Salon E
5:48:00 PM
Awards
Mobile Application Awards – My6sense
Barak Hachamov, My6sense
5:48:00 – 5:51:00 PM, Salon E
5:51:00 PM
Awards
Mobile Application Awards – Waze
Di-Ann Eisnor, Waze
5:51:00 – 5:54:00 PM, Salon E
5:54:00 PM
Awards
Mobile Application Awards – Trippo VoiceMagix
Kimmo Sainio, Cellictica
5:54:00 – 5:57:00 PM, Salon E
5:57:00 PM
The Information in Everything: The Augmented Future of Communications
Adam Broitman, Circ.us
5:57:00 – 6:12:00 PM, Salon E
6:12:00 PM
Lightning Talk
Walk and Talk: Augmenting Conversation
Phil Wolff, Reef9 Media
6:12:00 – 6:17:00 PM, Salon E
6:20:00 PM
Event
Free Drinks Social Networking
Wednesday, April 21th, 2010


Morning


8:30:00 AM
Introduction
Introductions (Replacement)
Christine Perey, Perey Research & Consulting
8:30:00 – 8:45:00 AM, Salon E
8:45:00 AM
Sci-Fi to Sci-Fact: How Computer Vision Will Change AR and the World
Ben Newhouse, Yelp
8:45:00 – 9:00:00 AM, Salon E
9:00:00 AM
Keynote
Searches Originating Inside and Outside of your Head
Hartmut Neven, Google
9:00:00 – 9:30:00 AM, Salon E
9:30:00 AM
Generating Revenues with Mobile AR: The Ecosystem, Business Models and Metrics
Christine Perey, Perey Research & Consulting
9:30:00 – 9:45:00 AM, Salon E
9:45:00 AM
Keynote
Bridging the Gap Between Desktop and Mobile Augmented Reality
Blake Callens, Zugara
9:45:00 – 10:05:00 AM, Salon E
10:05:00 AM
What’s Wrong With ‘Reality’?
Usman Haque, Pachube/Connected Environments
10:05:00 – 10:15:00 AM, Salon E
10:15:00 AM
Break
Morning Break
Late Morning


11:00:00 AM
A View to a Future; Beyond the Hype of Mobile Augmented Reality Applications
Dana Farbo, Acrossair
11:00:00 – 11:15:00 AM, Salon E
11:15:00 AM
User Experience: A Possible Roadblock to AR Adoption
Tony Fernandes, The UE Group
11:15:00 – 11:30:00 AM, Salon E
11:30:00 AM
Context Is King: AR, Salience, and the Constant Next Scenario
Clark Dodsworth, Osage Associates Consulting
11:30:00 – 11:45:00 AM, Salon E
11:45:00 AM
The Wizard is Us: Symbiogenesis by Networking Part 1
Arturo Sinclair, Digital Worlds Institute
11:45:00 – 11:52:50 AM, Salon E
11:52:50 AM
The Wizard is Us: Symbiogenesis by Networking Part 2
Anton Yudin, Digital Worlds Institute
11:52:50 – 12:00:00 PM, Salon E
12:00:00 PM
Applying WWW Best Practices to AR
Erik Bovee, Mobilizy
12:00:00 – 12:15:00 PM, Salon E
12:15:00 PM
Where AR We Heading?
Steven Feiner, Columbia University
12:15:00 – 12:30:00 PM, Salon E
12:30:00 PM
Break
Social Networking Lunch
Afternoon


2:00:00 PM
Advancing the Business of AR, A Practical, Commercial Solution
Pamela Kerwin, GeoVector
2:00:00 – 2:15:00 PM, Salon E
2:15:00 PM
Who Will Own Our Augmented Reality?
Anselm Hook, Meedan
2:15:00 – 2:25:00 PM, Salon E
2:25:00 PM
Mobile Augmented Reality: The World Is Your Playground
Brian Selzer, Ogmento
2:25:00 – 2:35:00 PM, Salon E
2:35:00 PM
Spatial Computing: Designing an Interface for our Bodies
Albert Hwang, phedhex.com
2:35:00 – 2:45:00 PM, Salon E
2:45:00 PM
AR Today and Tomorrow
Bruno Uzzan, Total Immersion
2:45:00 – 3:00:00 PM, Salon E
3:00:00 PM
Advancing AR – Beyond Labels
Ivan Franco, YDreams
3:00:00 – 3:10:00 PM, Salon E
3:10:00 PM
Junaio and the Unifeye SDK Mobile Development Platform
Peter Meier, metaio GmbH
3:10:00 – 3:25:00 PM, Salon E
3:25:00 PM
Break
Afternoon Break
Early Evening


4:00:00 PM
Keynote
Future Vision: Decade of Ubiquity (Augmented Reality 2010-2020)
Robert Rice, Neogence Enterprises
4:00:00 – 4:20:00 PM, Salon E
4:20:00 PM
(Canceled Due To Volcanic Ash) Visual Recognition, the Future of Mobile AR browsers
David Marimon, Telefonica R&D
4:20:00 – 4:35:00 PM, Salon E
4:20:00 PM
Augmented Reality & The Venture Capital Community
David Blumberg, Blumberg Capital
4:20:00 – 4:35:00 PM, Salon E
4:35:00 PM
Seeing the Future of AR Through Digital Eyewear
Yohan Baillot, (Independent)
4:35:00 – 4:45:00 PM, Salon E
4:45:00 PM
Eyeborg – Terminator Lives
Rob Spence, Eyeborg Project
4:45:00 – 5:00:00 PM, Salon E
5:00:00 PM
Keynote
Strange Days. How the Computing Experience is Turning Inside Out
Mark Rolston, frog design
5:00:00 – 5:20:00 PM, Salon E
5:20:00 PM
Break
Late Afternoon Break
Late Evening


5:45:00 PM
Story as Software
John du Pre Gauntt, Media Dojo
5:45:00 – 6:00:00 PM, Salon E
6:00:00 PM
Solid to Liquid to Air: Cyborg Anthropology and the Future of the Interface
Amber Case, CyborgCamp
6:00:00 – 6:15:00 PM, Salon E
6:15:00 PM
Navigation Rising! A Deep Look at Live Mapping and Augmented Reality in the Car
Di-Ann Eisnor, Waze
6:15:00 – 6:30:00 PM, Salon E
6:30:00 PM
Building Business Models Around Augmented Reality
Matthew Szymczyk, Zugara
6:30:00 – 6:45:00 PM, Salon E
6:45:00 PM
Building Mobile Augmented Reality Applications with 3DAR
Mark Anderson, Bordertown Labs
6:45:00 – 7:00:00 PM, Salon E
7:00:00 PM
AR and the Mass-Market Business Opportunity
Matt Miesnieks, Layar
7:00:00 – 7:10:00 PM, Salon E
7:10:00 PM
Liberating AR from Basemaps, Markers and Overlays
Eric Kabisch, University of California, Department of Informatics
7:10:00 – 7:22:30 PM, Salon E
7:22:30 PM
Vision Based Mobile AR – A New User Interface For Mobile Applications?
Michael Gervautz, Qualcomm
7:22:30 – 7:35:00 PM, Salon E
7:35:00 PM
The Future of Augmented Reality
Steve Hoffman, ThinkHuge
7:35:00 – 7:50:00 PM, Salon E
7:50:00 PM
Event
Free Drinks Social Networking
Conclusions
Credits:
This image was created by Nathan Bergey (@natronics) and Aaron Parecki (@aaronpk). Aaron took data from the Twitter API and passed it through Nathan’s Python Twitter stacked graph library. This image excludes the actual “#ecomm” and "e;#arconf” terms leaving more room for the other terms to show through.
About
Stacked Graph History
Here’s a link to Lee Byron’s original Stacked Graph paper, “Stacked Graphs – Geometry & Aesthetics” www.leebyron.com/else/streamgraph/
“streamgraph_generator” can be checked out from github.
You can make these as well by downloading @natronic’s Python Stream Graph Library on GitHub.

—–
About
Amber Case is a Cyborg Anthropologist living and working in Portland, Oregon. You can follow her on Twitter at @caseorganic.