On February 2006 Hans Rosling, a well known statistics guru, entered a stage at the TEDtalks and forever changed the way most of the people in the audience and around the world (as the video of his speech has been already seen by millions) looked at data.
Developed by Rosling software does more than simply display the data – it brings them to life! The animations transform provided statistics into moving bubbles and flowing curves that make development and global trends (or any other set of data you wish to visualize) clear, intuitive, and even playful. So make sure you get your copy, wow your co-workers/professors, and get inspired.
Hans Rosling is a great mind who started his career (or rather careers) as a physician working on tracking a rare paralytic disease in rural Africa. After co-founding Médecins sans Frontièrs (Doctors without Borders) in Sweden, writing a book, and continuing as a professor at the Karolinska Institut in Stockholm, he than co-founded (together with his son and daughter-in-law) a nonprofit called Gapminder.
Soon Gapminder became a venture – a modern “museum” on the Internet – promoting sustainable global development and achievement of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. It has been also working on a range of projects including some collaborations with universities, UN organizations, and public agencies.
Gapminder software in reality started under the name of Trendalyzer, which sought to unveil the beauty of statistical time series by converting boring numbers into enjoyable, animated and interactive graphics. However, the initial software was quickly purchased by Google after its founders met with Hans Rosling at TED in 2006.
Today Gapminder is giving us a chance to get inspired through fact-based world view – tonnes of data that before many of us would never even thought of looking at. The desktop application lets you use the graphs even when you are offline – perfect for all the presentations you might encounter in the future. So be sure to take a look at the video below, press that download button, and head to TED to see some inspiring talks by the founder.
Make sure to visit the website as well, as it is a great resource if you are an educator trying to find examples of how the software is used in classrooms, want to take a closer look at the available for download through the non-profit data-sets, or simply learn more about the project and it’s founders.
Related Links:
Gapminder Official Website
Hans Rosling on TED
Hans Rosling on Twitter
Hans Rosling on Wikipedia