VizWorld.com

Here’s a shocker, Barclays Private Equity now owns a majority stake in The Mill, the Oscar-winning studio behind several of the biggest commercials and movies of recent years.

Barclays Private Equity bought a majority stake in visual effects company The Mill, attracted by its exposure to the advertising market and rapidly growing emerging markets.

The stake, bought from U.S private equity firm Carlyle Group [CYL.UL], values Oscar-winning The Mill at 119 million pounds ($193.1 million), Barclays PE, part of Barclays Plc (BARC.L), said on Tuesday.

The co-founders are expected to remain after the deal, and I can’t find any details on exactly how much cash they laid out for this.  Anyone have the details?

via Barclays PE buys into Oscar-winning effects firm | Reuters.

Graphics business, the mill, vfx

Head to the nearest supermarket or quick-stop and you’ll see the walls of freezer cabinets stacked to the brim with teas, soft drinks, and waters.  Some interesting visualizations from Philip H. Howard show how all of the variety is merely in your own perception, with most of the actual product tracing back to 3 big firms.

Three firms control 89% of US soft drink sales [1]. This dominance is obscured from us by the appearance of numerous choices on retailer shelves. Steve Hannaford refers to this as “pseudovariety,” or the illusion of diversity, concealing a lack of real choice [2]. To visualize the extent of pseudovariety in this industry we developed a cluster diagram to represent the number of soft drink brands and varieties found in the refrigerator cases of 94 Michigan retailers, along with their ownership and/or licensing connections.

via Philip H. Howard | Soft Drink Industry Structure.

Graphics business

Visualization company ‘ezViz’ has just announced a bair of new BI products called ezViz RealTime and ezViz Office.  Working with input data from Excel spreadsheets, they are designed to provide easy visual interactive and analysis tools to users directly within Excel’s familiar environment.

Brian O’Keefe, President of ezViz, stated, ” ezViz was created to fill a void in the BI market by connecting users to their data and by removing typical BI barriers to entry – high costs, steep learning curves and IT reliance. With ezViz, users can buy, download, install and analyze data in minutes. Implementing ezViz software doesn’t require IT or procurement involvement and data does not need to be ‘prepped’ by power users or SQL experts beforehand.

As far as BI software goes, this is probably the most reasonably priced I’ve seen, with prices from $79 – $149 for a single license, with a free trial. Although, the name does make me chuckle.

Read the full announcement after the break, and check out their website.
Read more…

Science business, ezviz, software

In a recent article in BusinessWeek, Maria Popova discusses the work of Aaron Koblin and how data visualization is becoming a more prominent part of the business strategies of several companies.  Stephen Few took a look at it are saw that while it’s a well-intentioned article, there are several problem with it and sets out to correct them in his blog.

“Has nothing to do with pie charts and bar graphs”? I would gladly support any effort to dismiss pie charts (with a few exceptions), but the notion that bar graphs and other traditional displays of quantitative data have nothing to do with data visualization is just plain silly. No one who understands data visualization and has done any work in the field would make such a statement, nor would they go on to say that unlike quantitative graphs, “data visualization…is an interpretation, a different way to look at and think about data that often exposes complex pattern or correlations.”

It’s a well thought-out piece with several key points.  Plus, it’s signed.

via Visual Business Intelligence – Data Visualization: Keeping the Story Straight.

Graphics, Science business, infovis, opinion, stephen few

For those of you who have never heard of Stephen Few, author of this week’s Recommended Resource, an article by him on Information Management does a great job demonstrating his writing style and the many problems with data visualization in business.

In the world of business, the damage done by bad graphics has reached epidemic proportions, but so far only a few voices are being raised in warning. Bad graphics act as a virus that stealthily destroys information with little notice. Sadly, most business intelligence (BI) software vendors aren’t helping matters. They are busy throwing Botox parties, encouraging the popularity of cosmetic dazzle rather than fitness programs for healthy business communication.

It’s an older article, from 2005, but still applicable in so many ways.

via Bad Graphs: The Stealth Virus.

Science business, editorial, stephen few

In a new article on BusinessWeek, they acknowledge that Data Visualization is becoming a prominent, and profitable, new field that’s drawing in new experts and software systems into the corporate culture.

Data visualization has nothing to do with pie charts and bar graphs. And it’s only marginally related to “infographics,” information design that tends to be about objectivity and clarification. Such representations simply offer another iteration of the data—restating it visually and making it easier to digest. Data visualization, on the other hand, is an interpretation, a different way to look at and think about data that often exposes complex patterns or correlations.

Data visualization is a way to make sense of the ever-increasing stream of information with which we’re bombarded and provides a creative antidote to the “analysis paralysis” that can result from the burden of processing such a large volume of information. “It’s not about clarifying data,” says Koblin. “It’s about contextualizing it.”

Focusing heavily on the work of Aaron Koblin, it’s a great piece to keep on-hand when your boss comes around asking about the values of visualization.

via Data Visualization: Stories for the Information Age – BusinessWeek.

Science business, infographic, visualization

I just got an credible tip, confirmed by an SGI Sales rep, about a sour love triangle between the Old SGI, the New SGI, and the Pittsburg Supercomputing Center (PSC).

About a year ago, the National Science Foundation worked with PSC to prepare for a 1 PetaFlop system to be deployed there and integrated into the TeraGrid, a large global supercomputing network used for academic and public research.  The result was an SGI UltraViolet system, approximately 197 cabinets, 100,000 cores, and all of it for the low price of $30 million dollars.

Well, that was with the old SGI.  News now is that the new SGI has found other customers willing to pay higher “more reasonable” prices for these same cabinets, and has decided not to honor the original offer.  Legally, they don’t have to honor them but it puts PSC and the NSF in a tight spot as they now have $30 million that’s supposed to magically turn into a 1PF supercomputer, and won’t.

On the other hand, if you’re looking to buy an SGI UltraViolet, the wait just got a lot shorter.

Hardware business, nsf, psc, rackable, sgi

High-Speed distribution centers face a unique set of problems due to their mechanical nature and need for 24/7 problem-free operation.  Maintenance of these massive facilities is a big problem due to the specialized equipment involved, and some companies have found graphic visualizations essential.

When a system has a problem, defining where the problem lies can be a challenge. Dematic uses a graphic visualization program to tell technicians exactly where the problem is located. System manuals, including all of the parts for the equipment, are displayed on the visualization. It is a very efficient resource to identify where the problems are located and finding the right part to resolve it.

via The Changing Needs Of Maintenance In High-Speed Distribution Cen.

Science business, maintenance, visualization