Tag: Visual Analytics

#datamustread 2022 Essentials: How to Level Up In Your Data Journey

#datamustread 2022 Essentials

For some time now, I have been using the hashtag #datamustread on LinkedIn and Twitter to regularly recommend books that are essential for a data journey. At the end of this year, I would like to put together some absolute highlights that I consider to be absolute #datamustread books:

📖 True or False by Cindy L. Otis
📖 Info We Trust by RJ Andrew
📖 Tools and Weapons by Brad Smith
📖 Data Science for Business by Foster Provost and Tom Fawcett
📖 Decisively Digital by 24 thought leaders interviewed by me

True or False: A CIA Analyst’s Guide to Spotting Fake News

True or False by Cindy L. Otis covers the entire spectrum of misinformation and disinformation, why we fall for it, and what we can do about it. Even though some concepts are familiar to me, I still learned quite a lot. The book contains a wealth of unexpected examples, current and from history, and is more relevant than ever in today’s world.

Get True or False on Amazon.

Info We Trust: How to Inspire the World with Data

Info We Trust by RJ Andrews is an inspiring journey of data storytelling, but it’s also written in an extremely entertaining way, making this #datamustread the perfect companion for relaxing days. RJ’s enjoyable writing style, by the way, has been a guiding light for my own books.
Continue reading “#datamustread 2022 Essentials: How to Level Up In Your Data Journey”

Join the #bookaweekchallenge for a Chance to win a copy of Decisively Digital

Join the #bookaweekchallenge with 7 days of Decisively Digital
Join the #bookaweekchallenge with 7 days of Decisively Digital

My book Decisively Digital: From Creating a Culture to Designing Strategy (➡️Amazon) is guest at Christina Stathopoulos and her #bookaweekchallenge on LinkedIn. Join Christina as she reflects on her journey through the book with several LinkedIn posts.

Christina’s posts can be found further down this blog along with a variety of interesting comments and opinions. Feel free to join the discussion on LinkedIn! You also have the chance to participate in our raffle and win one of three copies of Decisively Digital! Good luck!

Now I’ll turn it over to Christina, who kicks off the challenge with the following introduction to Decisively Digital (day 1):

No one can argue that today’s business landscape is DIGITAL, you’ve got to stay ahead of the curve or you’ll quickly fall behind. It’s Digital or… Disappear.

Jam-packed with insights, this book includes 24 interviews with leaders of the digital revolution covering:

💻 Digital Culture & Modern Work (day 2)
📊 Data Democracy & Analytics (day 3)
☁️ Big Data Processing & Cloud Computing (day 4)
🤖 Artificial Intelligence (day 5)
📳 Process Automation, Blockchain & IoT (day 6)

Plus:

💡 Wrap-up and Raffle (day 7)
🎁 Announcement of Winners (day 8)

Day 1: 🚀 Introduction to Decisively Digital

Day 2: 💻 Digital Culture & Modern Work

Continue reading “Join the #bookaweekchallenge for a Chance to win a copy of Decisively Digital”

How to create a Skyscraper Map with Azure Maps in Power BI (Bar Chart Map)

Skyscraper Map in Power BI, aka. bar chart map, or bar chart on a map
Skyscraper Map in Power BI, aka. bar chart map, or bar chart on a map

Have you ever seen a bar chart on a map?

I prefer to call this visualization a skyscraper map because you can picture these bars on a map as skyscrapers.

You can use a skyscraper map for displaying geodata along values. The skyscraper map is a combination of a map with locations and a bar chart. The location can represent a city, a country, or some other type of place. As with a bar chart, the height or volume of each bar is proportional to the values it represents.

How to create a Skyscraper Map with Azure Maps in Power BI

First, you need to make sure that the Azure Maps preview feature is enabled in Power BI to create a skyscraper map. This tutorial is based on the Retail Analysis Sample dataset.

1    Click on the Azure Map icon of the Visualization pane.

2 Extend the filled map visual by dragging the lower right corner

3  Select PostalCode from the Fields Plane.

Power BI assigned Country to the Location field.

4  Select TotalSales from the Fields Plane.

Power BI assigned Sales to the Bubble size field.

5    Click on the Format your Visual section.

6          Disable the Bubble layer switch

7          Enable the Bar chart layer switch

8 Expand the Bar chart layer pane

9 Expand the Size pane

10  Select 4 px for Height

11  Select 3 px for Width

You created a skyscraper map that shows sales by zip codes in your data set. Download the PBIX file.

How to enable Power BI’s Preview Features, such as Azure Maps

Some exciting new features in Power BI are not enabled by default. These functions are so-called preview features whose development or testing is not yet completely finished. For certain use cases, such as creating Skyscraper Maps in Power BI, it may be worthwhile to activate them.

In the following blog posts, we will check out some capabilities of the Azure Maps feature. Therefore, let’s see how you can enable Azure Maps, and other preview features, in Power BI.

1    Click on File in Power BI’s menu bar.

2    Click on Options and settings

3    Click on Options

4  Select Preview Features from the lefthand list.

5          Enable Azure map visual

6          Confirm your changes with the OK button

Power BI might ask you to restart the application in order to change the preview features settings. Now you’re good to go to create your Skyscraper Map with the Azure Maps feature!

Which preview features is Power BI offering?

While the preview features change over time, currently you can enable the following preview features in Power BI:

  • Shape map visual
  • Spanish language support for Q&A
  • Q&A for live connected Analysis Services databases
  • Azure map visual
  • DirectQuery for PBI datasets and AS
  • Modern visual tooltips
  • Power Bl Desktop infrastructure update
  • Web page connector infrastructure
  • Modify visuals settings for mobile layout
  • Sparklines
  • Scorecard visual
  • Field parameters

 

Visual Tracert: How to use GeoTraceroute to analyze, visualize and embed internet traffic routes

Visual traceroute from Frankfurt to Ukraine shows redirection via Russia
Visual traceroute (aka. tracert) from Frankfurt to Ukraine shows redirection via Russia

Earlier today I read the news from NetBlocks (via Reuters) that since the weekend parts of the Ukrainian internet traffic are rerouted via Russia. To be precise, it’s about Ukrainian Kherson Oblast, which is occupied by Russia since March.

Now I wanted to trace the internet route myself and ideally visualize it. Here I came across the service of GeoTraceroute, which does a great job in visualizing traceroutes (aka. tracert). For the trace, I chose Frankfurt as starting point, and skynet.ua, the local internet provider in Kherson, as the endpoint.

Of course, you can also include the URL of GeoTraceroute as a web element in your Power BI report or Tableau dashboard and parameterize it for dynamic interactions. You can see the format as in my example:

https://geotraceroute.com/?node=2021&host=skynet.ua