Apparently now acquired by Google, GapMinder does a 3D animation across time of some world “statistics”, probably using some client side javascript (to drive the slider) and maybe some AJAX .. see for example the plot of “life expectancy” vs “income per capita”.

Very pretty. You can select countries and move the slider around to see the progress over the years, using trails (like mouse trails).. some are somewhat linear, others not so (for instance Papua New Guinea).

Very pretty.

But is the underlying data correct?

Life expectancy seems to be a bit of a curious beast, if one means life expectancy at birth, involving as it does some imputation from historical records. And Government statistics may not always record births and deaths scrupulously : what about the impact of wars? (for example, Japan has the highest “life expectancy” of 81 years .. hmm, how did Hiroshima and Nagasaki get factored into the calculations?) . I wonder too if, 50 or 80 years ago, early childhod deaths were recorded accurately and if deaths from natural causes also were counted - this is a society that has seen a massive shift from urban to rural living. China? Same problems, magnified.

So, it’s pretty .. but should one use such a tool for anything other than entertainment?

Gapminder says

Make sense of the world by having fun with statistics

Gapminder and Google share an enthusiasm for technology that makes data easily accessible and understandable to the world. Gapminder’s Trendalyzer software unveils the beauty of statistics by converting boring numbers into enjoyable interactive animations.

We believe that Google’s acquisition of Trendalyzer will speed up the achievement of this noble goal. Trendalyzer’s developers have left Gapminder to join Google in Mountain View, where Google intends to improve and scale up Trendalyzer, and make it freely available to those who seek access to statistics.

The Stockholm-based Gapminder Foundation will continue to spearhead the use of new technology for data animations. The goal is to promote a fact-based worldview by bringing statistical story-telling to new levels. In collaboration with producers of accurate statistics that are eager to give the public free access to databases, Gapminder hopes to recruit and inspire many users of public statistics.

Personally I would rather see the fostering of some health scepticism about the quality of trans-national “public statistics” than a simple minded attempt to “make statistics fun”

There are some pointers to visualization techniques here, some plots and examination of life expectancy relationships here, and for those interested in issues about official statistics (death count estimation), albeit survey based, have a look at Death Count Estimation in Iraq