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
[...] http://www.gapminder.org/upload-data/motion-chart/ – Gapminder/Google motion charts [...]
One measure of environmental impact would be population density and erosion rates. Population density for arable land and overall would be useful.
[...] una (potentissima) scatola vuota, che per quanto sia divisa in scomparti (Analytics, Feedburner, Motion Chart, Health, Flu Trends e Google stesso, con 23andMe a distanza di bacio) fa sempre parte dello stesso [...]
[...] Read more including comments… [...]
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/
[...] charts yourself. The easiest way to convert your data into a Gapminder-like bubble graph is to use Motion Chart from Google. Motion Chart is a free ‘gadget’ for Google [...]
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
[...] also provide an excellent tutorial explaining how to use the motion chart [...]
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.
[...] Hover your mouse over each individual bubble to see the country that it belongs to (I used a google doc app to make the scatterplot). Which brings me to the topic of the first gathering in the Tech4Society [...]
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.
Philipp – did you ever figure out how to get the motion chart to support splitting one bubble into its component bubbles like Hans does in his presentations? I would like to be able to do this as well.
Dear Jamie and Phillipp,
Unfortunately that is not possible to do in Motion Chart. The split that Hans has used in some of his presentations is made “by hand” in a standalone flash-presentation. Those exact splits can be found in the flash-presentations in the download section, to do them your self with your own data, so far you will have to create that in flash or similar design software.
/Staffan, Gapminder
[...] of use, flexibility, and sheer gimmickry, Motion Chart wins. After I had the data set and a helpful link from the folks at Gapminder I was up and running in about 20 [...]
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 used the Google Motion gadget to create the chart below. Note: I had technical issues embedding the working chart, so I just inserted a screen shot instead. The chart actually moves, unfortunately my picture of it does not. [...]
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.
[...] is in on the fun too as they acquired Gapminder.org’s Trendalyzer in 2007 and turned it into a Motion Chart Gadget for Google [...]
Have you thought of adding emi- and immigrations to your gapminder world chart?
[...] Quick guide to the Motion Chart Gadget – Gapminder.org (tags: visualization google statistics data charts graph analysis) [...]
Is it possible for me to download the motion chart (in video clip) so I can play with it afterwards by myself? What are possible ways to do this? Thanks.
[...] The software tool is developed by him and his colleagues at his non-profit organization “Gapminder“. It was initially called Trendalyzer. Then google later bought this tool when the google founder saw this TED talk and was impressed by the software. Now, this software is available as a free gadget in spreadsheet in online google docs. Here is a tutorial on how to use this tool in google spreadsheet. Here is one more tutorial. [...]
Is there any way to expand the Y axis when using GDP per capita with projections? When I choose the time option for that variable, time axis ends at 2010. I would like to expand the time axis to go to 2300. Is there any way to do that?
Thank you
Hi!
For those who have asked about geographic visualization, you may want to check out Simile Exhibit or other semantic web visualization tools. It’s not as simple as motion chart, but seems cool enough:
http://www.simile-widgets.org/exhibit/
[...] To create this type of chart, your data does need to be organized in a certain manner. Click here for step-by-step directions on using the motion chart gadget. [...]
Hi
Wonderful way to view data, really appreciate the efforts
Is it possible to group data not as a country, but as a region – like OECD, ASEAN, South America..
regards
Tony
Sir,
I’m rafi , from wayanad district , of Kerala state in India. i holds a mphil deree in public health from JNU new delhi (center for socia medicine and community health ), i work here with the Integrated Disease surveillance Porject as district epidemiologist.. the youtube videos of your presentations pulled me to have a look at this web site, which i found is highly capable of supporting younger public health professionals like me. i was trying to load some of my data in the spreads sheet especialy the daily data which we receives at our office through the insitutions. i got some time correct path and some times worng.. like the month wiase data analysis seems to be not showing the month…i will very thankful if you could guide me out to use it at its best..
will it be possible to store this presentation as offline if so in which format and how can i inclucate in the ppt format also…
i’m happy to forward you some of the data by which you may be able to showcase how to use this energetic platform..
thank you
faithfully
rafi
Dear Rafi, this particular tool, Google Motion Chart, is a Google-tool, we at Gapminder are not experts in it and unfortunately not able to give support on it. We put up this simple quick guide as a short help.
A motion chart is today not possible to store off-line. To include it in a powerpoint you would have to record the movement you want, using a screen capture tool of some sort, save that as a movie-file and import it into your PPT. It won’t be very interactive you can’t change anything in it except for starting and stopping the exact movement you recorded.
It’s hard for me to give any advice not having seen the data or your chart. But we would love to see the data and if you could send that and a link to your chart I will see what I can do. staffan.landin (at) gapminder.org
[...] 자신의 데이터를 이용해서 가젯을 완성할 수가 있습니다. 자세한 방법은 다음 을 클릭하시면 안내 받을 수 있습니다또한 제가 가진 데이터(1994년부터 [...]
[...] Quick guide to the Motion Chart Gadget – Gapminder.org [...]
Dear Gapminder team,
I’m experiencing some trouble lately, because the Google Motion chart doesn’t seem to recognize columns, that include empty cells. Instead of setting an empty cell as “0″, the whole column is considered “non-numeric” and can’t be displayed in the animation. I wonder if this problem could be solved in the code, before I have to manually replace every empty cell with a 0….
Thanks,
Nick
[...] al 2008. Ho importato il file csv in uno spreadsheet di Google Docs e ho creato un gadget con i motion chart. Il risultato è quello che vedete di seguito. Vi consiglio di cambiare un paio di settaggi [...]
[...] http://www.gapminder.org/upload-data/motion-chart/ [...]
[...] data then export it through Motion Chart – L -a Google gadget . More information about it here [...]
I am very interested in improving the graphical presentation of data to strengthen the message. I ran by coincidence into information on gapminder. I will use gapminder technology [hopefully] with disease surveilance data set and with crimes data sets. I am a Professor Statistics, and I would like to contact Professor Hans Rosling. Maybe his work could be linked with the work of Professor Martin Kulldorff (Harvard).
Thanks.
Hi Gapminder, it is a incrdible program, really good. But Im trying to view the IDH (UNDP indicator) and as it is appear in Gapminder im trying to construct by myself. The problem is in google docs, when I click to apply in the 6th step…
5. Click Insert > Gadget (Choose Motion Chart)
6. Select the columns you want as range and click Apply.
then appear the next comment:
“There should be at least three columns in the data”
I try to sign all the colums, now I have 6, but always the same message.
Thank you, Dani from Lima (Perú)
we’re trying to replicate Gapminder with social and health data from Spanish regions and provinces. (Have you heard about anyone else?)
Using the Google Docs Motion Chart Gadget, I have a problem with data exporting, the script does not seem to work, the chart appears empty with this error : “Missing required parameter : container Error 404″
Any hint?
Many thanks and congratulations
Does the Motion Chart gadget have the power to disaggregate a large entity (e.g., a continent) and show the smaller entities that comprise it (e.g., countries)?
I am jealous of Hans Rosling! He has presented lovely displays of variation by leading his audience into comparisons of large things, and then showing that the smaller things they contain vary enormously. I would love to be able to do that, too.
Any and all advice is welcome.
Hi
Excelent gadget. Congratulations!
How can I integrate my own data with the data that is already available in your program? Is there a way to add from google doc my columns of data from countries to your data? As I probably have countries in a different order, is it possible to combine this?
Thanks
Ludovic
Unfortunately you can’t add your own data to Gapminder World. But what you can do is to copy data from Gapminder World to your gadget. Try finding the data set of your interest from the data page where we link back to the data provider and to the actual spreadsheet.
Best regards.
Daniel, IT Developer