I ran across this report this cool report by Pew Internet last week, and it inspired me to play around with the key findings to create a infographic with them. Here it is: (Click the image to view larger version.)

To view the full report: Real Time Charitable Giving Report

“In an effort to more fully understand the world of mobile giving, the Pew Internet Project, in partnership with the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University and the mGive Foundation, and supported by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, conducted the first in-depth study of mobile donors. This report on those who gave to the “Text for Haiti” campaign is based on telephone surveys with 863 individuals who contributed money to the Haiti earthquake efforts using the text messaging feature on their cell phones, and who consented to further communications at the telephone number they used to make their donation.” -Pew Research Center, Real Time Charitable Giving Report

After signing up to participate in this year’s event, I did a little research into the topic, and came across some startling facts about the number of hungry children (even in America – the land of plenty). As a mom, the thought of not having enough food to feed my child is heartbreaking. So for this blog action day I created an info-poster that highlights some of the key facts about childhood hunger in America and potential solutions. Please pass the message along. Thanks! -Elissa

To learn more please visit the Feeding America website.

Combining a little creativity, design sense and PowerPoint knowledge, you can create your own short animated video clips without being a Flash expert. Now, I wouldn’t recommend using this approach for video clips over a few minutes, but till you might want to use this technique for short clips to help explain complex data or information, provide educational information, engage stakeholders, or for a variety of other reasons.

Below is an example of a video I created using this technique for the Minnesota Youth in Transition Database. It is a short clip explaining the benefits of participating in an upcoming survey.

Here’s the two minute overview of how you can make it happen:

1. Develop your idea. This may be the most challenging step.

2. Create your PowerPoint. Combine the content, graphics and animation you’d like to include in your presentation. Make sure you have the animation set to run automatically. If you want to add audio or music, place it in your PowerPoint and set it to run for the appropriate portions of your presentation.

3. Convert your PowerPoint presentation to video. Once you’ve got your presentation set and running smoothly in PowerPoint, use one of the free or relatively free PowerPoint to video converter softwares to generate your clip. I used Wondershare in my example above.

4. Lastly, share your video. Either upload your video to your website, YouTube, Facebook, etc, or use during a presentation.

One tool that I have recently used is Wordle. It is a free online application that allows you to quickly analyze word themes within your data.  All you have to do is copy your text and paste it onto the Wordle website. Hit create. It will generate a word cloud for you, giving the most prominence to words that show up most frequently in your text. From there you can change colors and styles.

It is a fun and quick way to get an overview of themes, wording choice, and content in your data before digging into the detail. It might also be a tool that you can use to help facilitate additional discussion around your topic.

Below is an example I pulled from the Wordle website:

Tools for visualizing public data:

Google Public Data Explorer makes large datasets easy to explore, visualize and communicate. As the charts and maps animate over time, the changes in the world become easier to understand. You don’t have to be a data expert to navigate between different views, make your own comparisons, and share your findings.

PolicyMap is a fully web-based Geographic Information System. It captures data in visually powerful ways through custom demographic maps, tables, reports and our analysis tool, Analytics. You can even use our GIS mapping services to easily incorporate your own data and leverage it against the thousands of indicators already available in PolicyMap.

2010 Census Interactive Population Map can be used to explore 2010 Census Demographic Profile data.

Gapminder is a non-profit venture promoting sustainable global development and achievement of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals by increased use and understanding of statistics and other information about social, economic and environmental development at local, national and global levels.

More Data visualization tools for the DIYer:

Stat Planet is a map making software for creating fully customizable interactive flash maps. StatPlanet also comes with over 250 world development indicators.

Many Eyes is a data visualisation tools from IBM. This site allows users to upload data and then produce graphic representations for others to view and comment upon.

Google Docs helps you create and share your work, maps, graphs and charts online, and manage documents, spreadsheets, presentations, surveys, and more all in one easy tool.

Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.

Open Heat Map turns your spreadsheet into a map. 1 – Upload your spreadsheet 2 – Get an interactive online map in seconds. Create your map. Gallery Documentation.

Do you have any other free data visualization tools you’d recommend checking out?

A great infographic…

Can stand on its own. If your infographic needs a supporting explanation to be understood it, it is not working successfully.

Engages its audience. Now I am not suggesting you create the flashiest most colorful infographic to capture your audience’s attention, but I do believe presentation is an important component to consider.

Makes complex information digestible without losing its meaning. This task can be a true balancing act. But if done successfully, I believe, a great infographic can not only make complex information digestible without losing its meaning, but can actually enhance understanding by allowing your audience to see connections within the data that weren’t obvious before.

1. Focus your energy on communicating what you hope to accomplish, not so much on format. Be prepared to describe your audience, how you hope the piece will be used, and what actions you hope it will inspire. When it comes to format, focus mostly on communicating any design constraints you might have for your project, rather than specifics. By taking this approach you will most likely end up with the most innovative solutions.

2. Once you’ve discussed the primary objectives of the piece, provide examples to help communicate your design preferences. Why this is this so important? Well, just imagine the color green. How many different greens might you come up with? Or imagine if someone asked you to pick out a “happy” font, what would that look like? As you can see, this could quickly lead to frustration because you and your designer aren’t on the same page. To avoid this problem, provide examples of projects with design styles you like or ask your designer to provide examples of previous projects.   Be prepared to also explain what you like and don’t like about each example. This will help communicate your preference easier, rather than just talking in the abstract.