Better World Flux (recovered draft, 2012.07.13)

The Better World Flux site provides an interface that creates graphic representations of world population trends in just a few easy steps:

• 0. Reset the display.
• 1. Drag and drop population trend indicators, or combinations of them, that you want to include in the display; 
• 2. Click to add countries whose relative status vis-a-vis those indicators you want to highlight;
• 3. Explore the results: 
• a) either by playing an animation or moving the slider with your cursor to see changes over time, and 
• b) by clicking on colorful data bands to display the names of other countries in the same bands.

The indicators correspond to UN Millennium Development Goals. Clicking on the About tab on the Better World Flux site reveals a Glossary of indicators with cross-links to sources of data, some dating back up to six decades.

For example, the life-expectancy indicator (1960–2010), which when animated looks a bit like a garden slug crawling in general towards a better world, shows:

a. Japan's human life-expectancy rose to the level of those of Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden, tops in the world in 1972;

b. Japan then became the sole country at the top in 1981, and was joined by Sweden again in 1983; 

c. Switzerland joined those two at the top in 1984, along with a variety of other countries – between 1985 and 1993, including: Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, Cyprus, France, Greece, Hong Kong, Iceland, Italy, Israel, Macao, Malta, Spain, and the UK;

d. Rwanda became a separate node on the long-tail in the 1990's.

e. Japan topped the list solo again in 1994, rejoined by Hong Kong from 1996 to 1998, and Switzerland in 1999.

f. Italy and Australia were next to regain the top band, in 2000 and 2001, respectively, followed by Canada, joined by Liechtenstein in 2002, and then Iceland and Israel again in 2003.

Thanks to Larry Ferlazzo for pointing out Better World Flux (The Best Resources For Creating Infographics, 2011.01.11), and to Richard Byrne, as well (Better World Flux - Create Animated Data Displays, 2011.02.04).

Massive open online c... ?

Curiosity consumed me, and Google provided some intriguing results today (2012.09.11):

• "massive open online course" – over 400,000 hits;
• "massive open online conference" – eight (8) hits, all from 2011; 
• "massive open online community" – six (6) hits, all from 2012; and
• "massive multiplayer online games" – over two million hits, for sake of comparison.

Though the middle two searches above for "... conference" and "... community" include a few redundancies, the recency of those few hits may indicate avenues for if not of innovation. 

Import from WordPress

Using an export file that WordPress generated in XML format (Dashboard: Tools: Export), and an online, WordPress-to-Blogger converter, I successfully imported a small number of posts from a WordPress blog to this one. Directions for importing posts and comments to Blogger are available here:

• How do I import and export blogs on Blogger? (answer=97416)

Since the number of posts I had on that other blog was small, and around half of them were notes about getting up to speed in a WordPress MU installation; rather than to republish them all automatically on this blog, I opted to republish only a select few by hand.

Though user content in the Blogger Help Forum indicated numerous problems (see, for example: query=import+data+Blogger), I encountered no glitches. The crux of the conversion may be file size; according to a warning on the Wordpress2Blogger conversion utility:

• NOTE: This hosted application [that utility] will only allow downloads smaller than 1MB. 

Mendeley sync's ... [from] CiteULike

I've accepted an invitation to adopt Mendeley desktop and online bibliographic reference management applications, whose features Mendeley Research Networks summarize here. They work with Linux, Mac OSX, and Windows, as well as online, so you can use Mendeley just about anywhere. It was quick and easy to sign-up, and start a profile.

The Import to Mendeley bookmarklet, found through a dismiss-able feature link in the profile sidebar, dragged and dropped sweetly into a biblio. folder in my Xmarks synchronized Firefox Bookmarks toolbar. The CiteULike Importer (Account Settings) set up was almost as dreamy.

I wonder how long it takes to get CiteULike references flowing [in-]to Mendeley, and how seamless sharing references with collaborators will be.

Addenda: Although adding spot-on articles highlighted by Mendeley at login was a piece of cake (shown first by field, perhaps filtered through new research interests), I've found no trace of previous CiteULike citations coming through to Mendeley over the past hour or so. I checked to make sure the CiteULike Importer connection was hot. Anyone know a way to release the backlog?