VizWorld.com

Imagine if government data were open and interactive. Well, the United States government has a great deal of information that you can download in an spreadsheet format. While that is a beginning, would it not be better if you had a website that took all the data the government collects and you could map it out yourself, however you like. In Victoria, Australia, they have such a website called VisualPlace.

VisualPlace is a six month Proof of Concept testing innovative ways of capturing, exploring and visualising government information and services through maps.

The website is actively soliciting the public’s participation, and suggestions for improvement.

via : VisualPlace

Graphics australia, data visualization, Website

New South Wales has created an online data repository focusing the home of Sydney, and focuses heavily on innovation and visual design.

The website culls data from many different sources, ranging from the usual “archival” suspects like the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the State Records NSW and the National Archives of Australia, in addition to some refreshing collections from the NSW Film and Television Office, the Historic Houses Trust and the Australian Dictionary of Biography.

This means users can do more than searching for images and articles on popular topics related to New South Wales, and also browse artworks, heritage sites, museum artefacts and related information on a map, or explore demographic data and compare different regions to each other.

Information Aesthetics has a great collection of links about the design and construction of the system that make for great reading.

via About New South Wales: Putting Open Data Online, the Australian Way – information aesthetics.

Science australia, data, government, portal

In an attempt to analyze the major trends of Australian online properties and Australian internet usage, a group has created a permanent public record visualizing the results from 2001 to 2008 as an interactive flash-based website.  Bubble colors map to categories (government, social, etc) and the sizes and axes are configurable by the user to metrics such as page views,audience size, and more.

It’s fun just to hit play, tho, and watch a few big sites (facebook, ebay) rise to the top as the smaller players churn quite rapidly.

History of the Australian Web via Information Aesthetics

Science australia, flash, infographic, interactive, internet, Website