Data visualization: BBKA stats on bee colony loss rates June 2, 2010

I recently found some stats from the British Beekeeping Association whilst searching for contacts. So I’ve had a play with Many Eyes to see what the stats look like in visual form – I have to say not that exciting but I think the tool would be great for bigger and more complex date sets. I’m sure there’s probably a way of embedding them here but since I can’t find it at the moment, try clicking here…. and here…

You know that volcano….you know the one…… April 23, 2010

Yep, that’s right – the one in Iceland that’s brought misery to thousands of stranded air passengers across Europe and caused UK airspace to close for 6 whole days. Well, the team at BRInvestigates have seen through the misery and thought GREAT! (well we didn’t exactly say that) What are we interested in? The environment. And what does the airspace closure mean for the environment? Less aviation emissions.

So what? Well as the winding path of Online Journalism continues to weave its complex web – we suddenly come face-to-face with another daunting and mind-boggling concept…….INTERACTIVITY….which I will tackle in another post.

So, in our quest to make our online journalism more interactive, we thought about creating some elements which represented data about the emissions saved during the airspace ban in other ways to writing an article. Mapping the flights that would normally have left the UK to Europe and showing the CO2 emissions that have been saved as a result of the ban would be one way of doing that.

Cue the pitiful efforts so far…..

Better late than never: a quick update….

To cut a long story short (sorry for the old cliché there) – my general absence here and elsewhere across the social media ‘waves’ over the last few weeks was because I was on work placement at a well-known Black Country radio station. But I will eventually blog about that whole experience – it is on the to-do list.

So I’m back – if not in mind but in general physical presence – and I’m trying to get back into the swing of things, especially on the Online Journalism front now we have the Birmingham Recycled Investigates team up and running. I did blog here before the Easter break about what we were up to but here’s a quick note about where I’m at:

• Birmingham allotments and bees – published initial story about BCC changing their rules (updates to follow once council agrees new terms)
• Trying to figure out and experiment with interactive tools to help support online work and offer alternatives for presenting data in text form (blog post on this to follow shortly)
• Initial team idea to experiment with interactive tools such as Wordle, audio slideshows and mapping to represent how the recent airspace closure has impacted on the environment (focusing on Birmingham Airport’s CO2 emissions saved)

That last point is still something we’re working on, but obviously now the ban has passed, we’re conscious that it’s becoming less relevant. Hopefully, we’ll use the data we’ve got so far to do something even if it’s not what we originally wanted (again I will blog about this). So, that’s where I’m at and maybe by the end of the week – I’ll be back to normal…….whatever that is…..