Holy crap. The Gapminder World beta is one of the most amazing visualization tools I’ve ever seen. Web-enabled (ie, it’s grabbing it’s data via Google Subscribed Links), allows linear, semi-log, log-log axes, a moving time dimension, two sets of attributes on plot points (via size and color)…this thing kicks SERIOUS ass. Just click the play button on the default plot, and watch income per capita (log) plotted against life expectancy move over time, from 1975 to 2004. THIS is the future of data visualization. (data from Gapminder, a non-profit venture for development and provision of free software that visualise human development).

link from Peter Van Dijck’s Guide to Ease