LSQHA Blog Reviews

ReadWriteWeb and Tableau are pleased to announce the winner of the Tableau User Generated Graph Contest : Rina Bongsu-Petersen and her interpretation of U.S. obesity data (see below). The judges - Marshall Kirkpatrick, ReadWriteWeb's co-editor; Stephen Few, a leading data visualization expert; and Jock Mackinlay, Tableau's director of visual analysis - found the entry to be not just a powerful tool, but also an indicator of how easy-to-use data visualization is changing the world. Sponsor "This entry was able to provide strong analysis with a view of the data that fits the subject, and the result is an incredible story anyone can discover," Mackinlay said. "People will look at it, immediately select their state and see relevant results." Kirkpatrick sees the contest in a broader context: "Judging this event, seeing data visualization projects from around the world, was a whole lot of fun. I believe that data is a key platform for the future, and stories drawn from data could become one of the next big forms of DIY publishing. Just like blogging changed the world by making text publishing easier than at any other point in history, then YouTube enabled almost anyone to become a video publisher, and then social networks made it simple to put all kinds of content online - so too will other types of content get brought to life by simple publishing tools that will change the world. "It was an honor to get to judge what I'm sure will be just the first of many of these kinds of contests. Look out Internet, data visualization is leaving the confines of experts and becoming another tool that any of us can use to change the world." Rina received more than $3,500 in prizes, including a free trip to Web 2.0 in San Francisco from May 3-6. Editors Note: This post is part of a series ReadWriteWeb produced in partnership with Tableau Software where we examined interesting data sets relevant to technology trends today. Tableau Public is a free service that lets anyone publish interactive data to the Web in interesting and compelling graphs. Download Tableau Public and you can create interactive graphs, dashboards, maps and tables from virtually any data and embed them on your website or blog in minutes. Once on the Web, anyone can interact with your graph and the data. They can re-embed your work, download the data, or create their own visualizations. Check out Tableau's gallery to see some of the cool graphs bloggers have created. Or learn how to do it yourself in this five minute video . Fit And Fat Powered by Tableau Discuss

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ReadWriteWeb and Tableau Announce Winner of Data Visualization Contest

The cloud fundamentally changes the way enterprise applications function. Increasingly we are seeing traditional enterprise applications emerge in the cloud and partner with other Web-based services that have consumer appeal. In turn, we are seeing cloud-based consumer type services transform into enterprise grade offerings that provide customers with the same experience they get in their work as they do at home. Sponsor IBM's Lotus Note s is a clear example of how this symbiotic relationships is evolving. Yesterday, Tungle , the calendar application, released a Tungle.me app for Notes users. Tungle allows users to view other people's calendards and availability. With Tungle.me for Lotus Notes, you can set custom availability and synchronize it with your Lotus Notes calendar. Once meetings are scheduled, they are automatically updated in the background. The news follows a number of applications that have been introduced for Notes users. Those include services like TripIt and Gist . Tripit is a travel planning service. Gist allows Lotus Notes users to add dynamic profiles for people in an inbox, calendar and contacts list. Gist for Notes allows a users to have news, blogs, and tweets all in one place, find related people, emails, links, and attachments. It connects to LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Discuss

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Lotus Notes Adds Tungle, Tripit and Gist

May 7th, at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California: the ReadWriteWeb crew is hosting some of the smartest people building the future of the mobile world and you to come together for a wonderful day of brainstorming, conversation and innovation in action at the ReadWriteWeb Mobile Summit . Who's speaking? You are. ReadWriteWeb events are facilitated in the increasingly popular unconference style, in which smart people are convened and take it upon themselves to pack a day full of value from start to finish. We've got an awesome group of people signing up to attend and you should add your name to that list. If you're going to the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco May 4th-6th, stick around one extra day for a power-house mobile event immediately following. There's a whole lot to talk about. Sponsor Who's Coming to the Summit? Featured participants include.... Don Dodge, Google Scott Kveton, Urban Airship Dion Almaer, Palm And people from... SimpleGeo Intuit Flickr Rhomobile And many more... Generously Sponsored By... CallFire WorldMate Alcatel-Lucent IPEVO Media Sponsors... MIT/Stanford Venture Lab EComm The One Club How Unconferences Work What's an Unconference all about? Here's the idea: convene an incredible group of people, frame the discussion, ask big important questions, then guide participants in building an agenda for the day to maximize the value of the event and minimize hot air. That's the recipe we're following, with the capable guidance of professional unconference facilitator Kaliya Hamlin. Kaliya has been facilitating events like this all around the world for almost 10 years. Martin Källström, CEO of real-time blog and feed tracking service Twingly brought his team over from Sweden for our last event (we had 10 international companies represented that day). "Last year we happened across one of Kaliya Hamlin's unconference events," he told us. "We spent a couple of hours there and it was an amazing experience. The unconference format is an amazing way for things to happen, it gets everyone to lower their defenses. By opening peoples' minds to 'this is about whatever we want it to be about', they look at how they can create value." Or, as Google's Brett Slatkin said in referencing the format of the elite FooCamp events to explain unconferences: "Foo-style [unconferencing is] always way better than talks." You will not want to miss this event. Our last event in October got rave reviews from participants and if your work is related to mobile - you should make sure you participate in the ReadWriteWeb Mobile Summit . If you're a company in the Mobile Internet market, you may be interested in becoming a sponsor for this event. Please contact our COO Sean Ammirati for more information about sponsor packages. And a big thank-you to our current event sponsors: CallFire , WorldMate , Alcatel-Lucent and Ipevo . Discuss

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Why You Should Come to the ReadWriteWeb Mobile Summit on May 7th

In early December a Supernova session entitled, How Startup Companies Can Change the World had presenters brainstorm ways to connect the technology industry with policy makers. Coupled with many of the discussions already taking place in the Gov. 2.0 movement, the session looked at how technologists can contribute to projects they might not normally be associated with. This morning we received news on how one initiative is taking this collaboration further by applying the labor-on-demand service model so common to startups and putting it to use for disaster relief. Sponsor Three months after the earthquake in Haiti, workforce-on-demand service Crowdflower issued the results of its latest initiative with Mission 4636 . Following the quake, Mission 4636 members - in association with open-source disaster technology provider Instedd , refugee microwork provider Samasource and real-time mapping and tracking service Ushahidi - issued a text message short code (4636) for Haitians requiring urgent help. From there, Crowdflower and Samasource's remote labor forces collected, translated and geocoded over 16,000 messages. The messages were then released as an RSS feed and groups like the Red Cross, charity:water, UNDP and FEMA tracked the feeds for messages that pertained to their work specifically. According to the group, at peak volume more than 5,000 Haitian distress messages were processed in one hour. This single stream of information helped ensure that duplicate efforts from these normally fragmented government and NGO groups were kept to a minimum. Said Crowdflower CEO Lukas Biewald, "Harnessing thousands of volunteers would normally create a logistical nightmare, but it is specifically this kind of amorphous virtual labor force that the CrowdFlower platform was built to accommodate." While it's certainly unconventional to see a remote labor force employed for disaster relief of this magnitude, it's not unrealistic to think that this practice might become common in a location where cell tower infrastructure remains intact. Perhaps the bigger question for the startup community is what other world-changing solutions are sitting right under our noses? If you've got examples of how startup processes can improve disaster relief and emergency services let us know in the comments below. Discuss

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Using the Startup Process to Change Disaster Relief

For a lot of us, the Internet has made it possible to work from anywhere and connect to work at any time. Without a doubt, this 24/7 connectivity is both a blessing and a curse. According to a new survey by web conferencing firm InterCall , 30% of workers in the U.S. who use technology to do their jobs feel the need to stay connected to work 24/7, even during weekends, breaks and holidays. One in two workers also say that taking time off is becoming increasingly challenging. Sponsor Clearly, the current economic climate isn't helping employees to relax. Almost 40% of all respondents noted that they are doing the job of two people because of the impact of the economic recession on their company. Today, 25% of workers think that their supervisors expect them to be online and connected to work after hours and that their job security depends on this. Almost 15% of respondents say that they plan to attend at least one work-related call or web meeting during their next vacation and 17% say that it is frowned upon if they don't connect to work during their vacations. Given all of these pressures, it would seem natural for most of these workers to feel at least some resentment towards technology in the workplace, but 72% of respondents argued that technology helps them to do their job better and 81% say that technology makes them more productive. Do You Stay Connected to Work During After Hours, on the Weekend and on Vacation? What about you? Do you feel the need to constantly check your work email while on vacation? Do you feel like you are expected to do so? Do you get anxious when you can't check your work email? Or do you just check out, head for the beach and sip Mai Tais ? Discuss

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Always On: One Third of Employees Feel the Need to Stay Connected 24/7