Gapminder: Tracking the Global Development Gap

This is one of the coolest graphic tools I have seen in a while. Created by a non-profit group in Stockholm, Gapminder interfaces with Google to permit downloads of active graphical interfaces that display various development indicators. The project is described as follows:

It all started in 1998 from an idea to enhance the understanding of world health. We developed prototype software showing time series of health statistics as moving graphics and varying life conditions as 360° photo panoramas from homes, schools and health facilities. From the prototype emerged the Dollar Street project with Save the Children Fund in Sweden and the World Health Chart project with WHO. Within the later project Gapminder developed the free software Trendalyzer that turns boring time series of development statistics into attractive moving graphics. The software import data from excel and showing moving graphics on the screen, as exported Flash files or as images in PowerPoint and in other formats. Collaboration with United Nations Division of Statistic and UNDP, started in 2003 with the aim to visualize the fulfillment of millennium development goals with a World Development Chart 2003 powered by a Trendalyzer version that written in Director and required download and instalartion. In the last two years Trendelyzer has been rewritten in Flash to enable the use of moving graphics ´directly on WebPages. The main project during the coming three years is a coolaboration with UN Statistic Division with the aim to visualize UN common database with Trendalyzer on a testsite and hence to improve the software for wider use.