This repository comprises examples I have forked and modified that utilize Mike Bostock's d3.js (Data Driven Documents) library to support data visualization. Where his examples use the bl.ocks pastebin, I am storing these to GitHub, routed through jsFiddle, to make them easy to fork.
Contents include:
My premise here is that Open Data projects will benefit most from:
- Data Visualization
- Data Enrichment
- Smart Adaptation
Data Visualization
Client-side libraries like d3.js provide superior Data Visualization. When access to open data is combined with tools for making these data more meaningful, the quality of the data is improved.
Click "Result" or "Edit in jsFiddle" to view demonstrator.
While I appreciate the flexibility d3.js and jsFiddle provide together, I would like to see a "data" tab in addition to "result", "js", "html" and "css". What jsFiddle lacks is an adaptation layer, which would allow a sample to connect with actual data, either in an online spreadsheet or JSON feed.
Click "Result" or "Edit in jsFiddle" to view demonstrator.
Setting up a data warehouse to perform business analytics is costly. Connecting a public data source to a visualization library in order to share and better understand data need not be.
Data Enrichment
Projects like the Yosemite Project suggest that RDF can be used as a universal language for representation of information. Mapping various information standards into RDF has the benefit of facilitating both standardization and transformation; but there is another benefit of mapping industry-specific information into a more generic format like RDF, as this will allow clinical documents and messages containing lab results or prescriptions to non-clinical assets, like product brochures and other ancillary services.
Smart Adaptation
Smart adaptation is a term I have started using to refer to any adaptation into a JSON format, especially when the JSON format is Atom-based. I am borrowing the idea of "JSON Bundles" from HL7 FHIR, but essentially, these are just Atom syndication (similar to RSS), implemented using JSON instead of XML.
Smart adaptation is smart because JSON is more useful on the client-side than XML; but XML, which can be thoroughly validated, is more useful on the server-side. So they both have their charms.