Many Eyes: A New Kind of Collaborative Software

I'm beginning to think that IBM is serious about all this collaboration stuff. First it was IBM Rational with its Jazz.net, then it was IBM Lotus with its Quickr team collaboration tools. Now it's Many Eyes.

Created by the Visual Communication Lab at IBM Research, Many Eyes is a new social kind of data analysis that's based on the collective power of human visual intelligence to find patterns in large data sets.

Many Eyes lets users upload and view large amounts of complex data. Communities of people can then explore, discuss, and collaborate on visual content. Current data sets and visualizations reflect a diverse range of interests, including scientific (temperature and CO2 levels over time), political (U.S. political party affiliation over time), global (fertility rates around the world), and financial (venture capital investment in Europe).

For example, users are currently uploading to the Many Eyes site publicly available or personally gathered data regarding local or global issues -- tax rates, crime statistics, global warming, water safety, healthcare, and the like. The information is displayed in dynamic visualizations that allow for real-time knowledge sharing.

What's also interesting is that IBM has contributed Many Eyes for use during the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development World Forum (OECD) on Measuring and Fostering the Progress of Societies. The technology allows for the democratization of complex data by enabling users to upload any type of data and collaborate on the analysis of that information.

IBM and OECD representatives are of the mind that social computing software like Many Eyes will help people from all over the world make more informed decisions and create a new level of civic dialogue about the issues affecting them in their communities, their countries and at a global level.

"Nations, institutions and enterprises must work together to create a climate and culture for innovation; one that embraces cross-border, cross-organizational and cross-disciplinary collaboration," says IBM's Nick Donofrio. "Innovation is more than just the availability and accessibility of information technology; it is fostered when information technology combines with deep insight to create new value for business, government, academia and our global society."

Posted by Jon Erickson at 01:43 PM  Permalink