The UncleLar web empire has grown once again. The latest is an addition to my Happy Valley brand of Penn State sports related sites. You might remember Happy Valley Hoops, my basketball site that I told you about back in January. As a compliment to that I’ve created Happy Valley Hardball, a site devoted to the Penn State baseball team.
That interactive chart you have up is pretty cool. How’s it done? I followed a link to stats, does it flow from there into a java applet? Your design?
The chart is generated through an internet service offering called “Many Eyes” out of an IBM research lab.
I download the raw data into a spreadsheet using an Excel function called Web Query. I then crank the numbers through various calculations in the spreadsheet and copy/paste the result into the Many Eyes application. You have some flexibility in the type of charts that you generate but the data usually determines what chart form is the most appropriate. The website then generates a java applet that’s embeddable on your website.
It is pretty neat.