The eyes have it!

@random

Statisticians and musicians struggle with the same problem Net junkies have faced ever since the www began: how do you explain an abstract concept to someone who doesn't know what you're talking about?

For years, I've grappled with the problem of explaining the Wikipedia, for instance, to non-Net users. "It's an encyclopaedia edited by the world, always updated, which contains some incorrect information "" but because it's edited by everybody, over time, Wiki pages seem to lean towards accuracy rather than not, and there's a superstructure of informal editors and contributors..." You can almost see the numbness and incomprehension settle over your victim's face.

In early 2007, IBM kicked off a gigantic research project called Many Eyes (http://services.alphaworks.ibm.com/manyeyes/app). The idea behind Many Eyes is almost ridiculously simple. How do you visualise data "" any kind of data? The best speakers use pie charts, graphs, images, maps, graphics "" knowing that a "picture" will get their point across more effectively than, say, a paper. (This has led to the alarming corporate side effect known as PowerPointism, where the slideshow replaces normal human speech.)

What Many Eyes does is offer a space, the tools and an easy conversion platform. All you have to do to use it is upload your data and pick the way you want it to look. That's such a simple idea that you don't get the brilliance of this first off "" until you've spent some time on the site. By providing a one-stop shop, what Many Eyes does is provide a fascinating range of data "" it's like discovering a smorgasbord of what the human race is interested in.

One of their most beautiful projects is at: http://www.research.ibm.com/visual/projects/history_flow/index.htm. It's a visualisation of the editing history of Wiki pages, and the last time I tried to explain the world of Wiki to anyone, all I had to do was call up the page. "See?" I said, and watched as comprehension dawned on my friend's face. "Oh," he said, "It looks alive "" as if the way in which people edit the Wiki evolves over time." He got it right away.

Or for students of literature, you could create, as Tonya Howe has done, a "map" of Moliere's Tartuffe, which allows you to see what any character is doing at various points of the play. Sometimes, it's the idea behind the visualisation that gets your attention: a mapping of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech reveals that he used the word "negro" 13 times, the word "freedom" 20 times "" and the word "dream" only 11 times. Sometimes, it's the power of the data ""Thinking Machine shows you the network of moves a machine considers, trying to beat a human at chess.

The best Internet ideas have had two things in common""they're simple, and they bring people together. I can see Many Eyes becoming the Flickr of visualisation. A year down the line, we won't be talking about it so much as wondering how we ever did without it.