Friday open thread: data visualisation
May. 20th, 2022 11:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
It is one day before the Australian election, and my thoughts on the matter can basically be summed up as: aarrrrgggh. I have a bad feeling about the result, but honestly, who knows?
I bring up the Australian election because it relates to the subject of today's open thread prompt: what is a cool data visualisation that you have seen recently?
Mine is this deep dive into the Australian electoral map, put out by the ABC (the state broadcaster). It does a wonderful job of explaining not only our electoral system (in particular, the fact that, due to having an independent electoral commission responsible for drawing electoral boundaries, each electorate is roughly equal in terms of the number of people, leading to a situation where, like, half of Western Australia is a single electorate, and a tiny 32-square kilometre part of inner-city Sydney is also a single electorate), but also the current state of play, where each party has its weaknesses, and where likely changes of representation are predicted to happen. It's really informative!
What about you? Any similarly cool data visualisation that you've encountered in recent times?
I bring up the Australian election because it relates to the subject of today's open thread prompt: what is a cool data visualisation that you have seen recently?
Mine is this deep dive into the Australian electoral map, put out by the ABC (the state broadcaster). It does a wonderful job of explaining not only our electoral system (in particular, the fact that, due to having an independent electoral commission responsible for drawing electoral boundaries, each electorate is roughly equal in terms of the number of people, leading to a situation where, like, half of Western Australia is a single electorate, and a tiny 32-square kilometre part of inner-city Sydney is also a single electorate), but also the current state of play, where each party has its weaknesses, and where likely changes of representation are predicted to happen. It's really informative!
What about you? Any similarly cool data visualisation that you've encountered in recent times?
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Date: 2022-05-20 08:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-05-22 03:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-05-20 11:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-05-21 08:47 am (UTC)I knew about the NT and Canberra because I grew up in Canberra and was well aware that we only had a tiny number of seats, all of which almost invariably go to Labor. What this map really emphasised to me is that most Australian elections are decided on the basis of a handful of electorates in suburban Sydney, Brisbane, and to a lesser extent, Melbourne. And I was really surprised to note that something like a sixth of all electorates in Australia are in greater Sydney — I kind of vaguely understood that that's where a huge amount of the Australian population is concentrated, but I didn't realise it was that extreme!
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Date: 2022-05-24 03:32 pm (UTC)(Also somebody reblogged the post talking about this from me and was like, "So y'all just have to take buses everywhere?" And I laughed and laughed because no. No, sweet summer child, we have to take cars everywhere.)
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Date: 2022-05-26 06:01 pm (UTC)The car thing makes me laugh as well — I assume that person was from Europe or Asia, where functional public transport is assumed to be the norm!
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Date: 2022-05-26 07:13 pm (UTC)I assume that person was from Europe or Asia, where functional public transport is assumed to be the norm!
I am so jealous of people who can take if for granted!