Nathan Yau (FlowingData) and Robert Kosara (Eagereyes) have opened up an interesting dialogue of the many terms behind the field of visualization. Terms like Infographics, Visualization, Charts, and Analytics all have different meanings to different groups so they each chime in with their own insights.
I was glad to see Robert point out one striking omission (striking to me anyway):
It’s interesting to see Nathan completely ignore scientific visualization, though it’s also not surprising: he is not a product of the academic visualization community. His focus is on statistical graphics and more information graphics-style things than visualization in general.
I can also think of a few other terms like Visual Analytics (which Robert ties in with Information Visualization) and the ever-popular “Data Porn”: Real data visualized to be “pretty”, without any real regard for making it useful.
