Two separate blog articles led me to a couple of new things that if they get out of the beta stage should be a great compliment to each other. One is called FreeBase which is a search engine for databases. It is in the invitation only stage and while I have sent them my email address I have not yet received an invitation so I hope to be able to say more abou this in the future. According to their site:
Free + Database = Freebase
It’s about film, sports, politics, music, science and everything else all connected together. Our contributors are collecting data from all over the internet to build a massive, collaboratively-edited database of cross-linked data. Its a big job and we’re just getting started.
The second link is a new tool that allows you to create some beautiful animated graphs. they have several you can view right now. The site is called GapMinder and you can manipulate the graphs (I hesitate to even call them that because they are so much more) by clicking play, maps, changing the population at the bottom right, selecting a county, or clicking on the sidebars to choose specific indicators. It is well worth visiting and playing with but the real value will come if we can use data from databases to create new graphs to fit specific lessons. Instead of looking at a graph you can change the indicators and see the effects of the changes happen before your eyes.