Motion Chart is a free gadget in Google Spreadsheet (an online spreadsheet similar to excel). In motion chart you can convert your data-series into a Gapminder-like graph and put it on your web-page or blog. All you need is a free Google-account.
Here is a quick guide:
1. Go to docs.google.com and log in to your google account.
2. Decide what you want to show as bubbles (e.g. Countries) put those in column A
3. The second column is for time (e.g. Years)*
4. Following columns are for your data (e.g. Life expectancy, GDP, Population) The value in these columns can be numbers or texts. If you use only numbers, this column will appear on x- and y-axis as well as bubble-size and the meny for color. If you have a text-string it will only appear in the drop down menu for color.
5. Click Insert > Gadget (Choose Motion Chart)
6. Select the columns you want as range and click Apply.
The finished Gadget can then be added to any web-page or blog by clicking the little arrow on right corner (choose publish gadget). This would be the result (feel free to click around):
* The Time-value can be in different formats:
◦ Year – Example: 2008.
◦ Month, day and year – 08152008
◦ Week number – Example: ‘2008W03′.
◦ Quarter – Example: ‘2008Q3′.
I study children’s Growth and Development from 6.0-18.0yrs of age. I would like to compare these children with children from WHO, NCHS, UK, urban and rural African children from 1986 to date. I have data of longitudinal nature where children were measured for four years measuring, height, weight, sitting height, head circumference, relaxed upper arm circumference, biacromial(shoulder) diameter, biiliac(waist) diameter and skinfolds from biceps, triceps, supraiiliac and sub-scapular areas.
Selecting just height and weight, it would be interesting to see how the bubbles “move” over time. firstly bubbles from the same children’s data over four years( separating boys and girls) and then comparing these to “well off” and relatively “poor” countries.
Please advice
Can you show data from within regions.within countries?
I live in the South West of England and I think the stats I’m looking for will be comparable with other coutries and other areas of Britain.Thank You
Dear Sharon, it’s absolutely possible to show sub-national data in Googles Motion chart, as long as you have that data in the first place. We have included sub-national data from India, US and China in the graph we call Gaps Within: http://graphs.gapminder.org/world/four_big.php.
We do not however have data on regions or areas from within Great Britain at the moment, so that is something you have to add your self in a graph you make on Googles Motion chart.
/Staffan, Gapminder
One measure of environmental impact would be population density and erosion rates. Population density for arable land and overall would be useful.
I would like to see data relating to breast feeding and breast cancers in the world, has anyone got the data?
ADMIN: Comment moved to “Breast Cancer Statistics”
http://www.gapminder.org/videos/breast-cancer-statistics/
It would be good if the second column was not restrained to time but made arbitrary. Say I have a spreadsheet where i want to visualize change in demand of some consumables as i linearly increase the availability of some item X.
Thank you for a very useful tool.
I would like to map the destinations of a network of Katrina evacuees over time (N=60). Does gapminder have the ability to graph on a map? If not, what might you suggest?
I am sorry but Gapminder’s tools do not generate maps and cannot be used in a good way to show information geographically.
I am afraid I cannot guide you to such a tool. Maybe someone else reading this post.
/Staffan, Gapminder
I wonder whether the data uploaded can be written in Chinese. besides,please tell me the format of month and year
Hi!
I’m trying to use this excellent piece of software, and am doing so with a very simple google spreadsheet file. But, never the less I always end up with an error saying “First and second columns must be entity and time.” as I try to generate the gadget. I suggest this is a matter of formatting the cells, right?, but that didn’t help me much either… May I perhaps send you the file for some simple guidance?
Many thanks,
/Mikael Gustafsson, http://www.mdh.se
I have question hope answer me
1- I went to use sub menu for indicator like sector then indicator under this sector How do that ?
2- I went to use the scond level for geographica like
the country then Governs How do that ?
Thanks with my BestRegardes
Naglaa zain el_deen
Egypt
To althea on June 29th, 2009
Try Tableau Software available with free 30-day trial at
tableausoftware.com.
Excellent software and easy to use.
I have 16 data points per country and 234 countries. However, google spreadsheets limits the amount of data I can have in a single column. Is there any way to increase the total number of rows of data? (I am pasting in the values from a Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet)
Below is the error message I received:
Oops
We’re sorry, we were unable to process the operation because it contains too much data.
To the person asking about representing data with maps.
You might find the network-mapping software Princeton develops useful: http://www.princeton.edu/~ina/interactive_maps/index.html
Just google “non geographic maps” and it should come up in the top 1-2.
I would like to see this software able to generate cartograms (maps based on polygons, where the size of a region is distorted to represent a particular data set, rather than land area). Dynamic cartograms (with the size changing year to year for example) would be an excellent addition to this software.
I’d also like to be able to use it off line, although that may already be possible.
What I find really enlightening from Hans Roslings demonstrations (apart from the most impressive overall visualisation of course) are the vast difference WITHIN a country.
He clicks on a bubble (=country), the country splits up into different regions.
Does Google docs support this feature (yet?) If so, how to I activate it?
Any hints would be much appreciated.
To althea on June 29th, 2009
Althea you could look for GeoAccess software for mapping if the other recommendation doesn’t work for you. Good luck.
I would like to include motion chart in PPT, how can I do this?
I am sorry but I don’t know if that is possible to do, check att google. On this link there is more information about teh Motion Chart API: http://code.google.com/apis/visualization/documentation/gallery/motionchart.html
Thats kind of advanced though. One easier way to add a moving graph into a PPT would be to make a screen capture software of some kind and record the motion you create with Motion Chart and then import that movie-file into Power Point.
However it seems much easier to just have two presentations open next to each other, one PPT and then in another window your Motion Chart or Gapminder-graph and then just switch between the two. Thats how I do it when I lecture.
/Staffan, Gapminder
We have used the Google motion chart for some time now on our website, but unfortunately it sometimes does not work. It seems to be a Google-problem.
At the moment, it does work with Mozilla, but not with IE. It is unfortunate, since the application is excellent, but (at the moment) really not stable enough to be taken seriously….
Kind regards,
Bart Loman, CIDIN
Dear Bart, as you maybe can see from the example on this page, we have encountered a similar problem. The embedded graph doesn’t load in several browsers at the moment. We are investigating it.
Have you thought of adding emi- and immigrations to your gapminder world chart?