Visualising and Understanding

Visualisation of infections, normalised.

Inspiration

I want to fundamentally explore the data as its happening, to corroborate the news I hear and also to be able to explore the data and not be dependant on others doing it for me. I also want to enable others to do that. I am extremely vulnerable to the virus, and so I want to understand what is happening as it gives me a feeling of more control. I am sure others want the same and I am want to empower them as well.

I believe that visualisation is the best way to understand data. A picture is worth a 1000 words. And there is nothing better than knowledge to hold governments and scientists to account.

I want to support and strengthen democracy during this crisis by enabling citizens through knowledge. Furthermore the ability to understand and gain knowledge for oneself through visualisation of data is good for mental and emotional health.

The Website relies upon publicly available data from multiple sources, that do not always agree. Any and all representations and warranties with respect to the Website, including accuracy, fitness for use, and merchantability are hereby disclaimed. Reliance on the Website for medical guidance or use of the Website in commerce is strictly prohibited.

The website is strictly for educational and academic research purposes only.

What it does

deployed website

https://schmooze.chevrutah.com/corona

Live visualisations of data direct from John Hopkins data sources of the covid-19 pandemic, and in the future visualisations of modelling, predictions etc.

Ability to change parameters of the graphs and interact with them.

How I built it

provider used for infrastructure

Digital Ocean

kubernetes flux gitops repository

https://github.com/chevrutah/flux

Sources

John Hopkins

This is the data repository for the 2019 Novel Coronavirus Visual Dashboard operated by the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering (JHU CSSE). Also, Supported by ESRI Living Atlas Team and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab (JHU APL).

John Hopkins https://github.com/CSSEGISandData/COVID-19

Please see John Hopkins Terms of Use to understand the limitations and warranties of the data.

NHS England

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/covid-19-daily-deaths/

Challenges I ran into

Access to more data and networks to link to potentially help gather dependable data that can be trusted.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

The website feels like its becoming more useful and easy to use then any other website available anywhere in the world that I can currently find for exploring and visualising the data, and this is just the beginning.

What I learned

I learnt about many more data sources I can use. I have had excellent UX feedback that I have incorporated.

What's next for Visualising and Understanding

I want to extend the visualisation of the progress to cater for provincial level in Africa. I have started extending more detailed analysis visualisations. I want to explore visualisations of more social topics such as the Oxford Stringency Index through visualisation. I want to start adding modelling tools and computational intelligence to the data.

Essentially I want to make it easy for anyone to be able to explore the data. Understand the crisis for themselves. Hold the authorities accountable and promote mental and emotional health.