Question: Why is a train map like an electrical wiring diagram?
Answer: Because they’re both tubemaps!
Tubemap is a web app that draws a nifty schematic diagram based on data the user enters. In the example above, the user is entering pairs of letters: A leads to B, B leads to C etc. Tubemap views these as links in a chain, which it then draws.
Tubemap is unique. It’s amazing to think it is possible to invent something on the web, but here it is. An open-sourced interactive web-based schematic. And it could do much, much more than join up letters. That is, if it gets funded on Kickstarter.
Once tubemap is open sourced, it can be used for all sorts of data visualization. It can model supply chain data. Or information flowing through an organisation. Or processes, as in the wireframe below.
In this example, the risk process system is hosted on a company’s intranet, so all staff can see it. The traffic light colours of the tubemap nodes (circles) show at a glance what the organisation has done, and has yet to do, on this risk. Grey nodes indicate some tasks or events were not relevant for this particular risk, ID 10465.
There are five horizontal sections, indicating different participants, from senior management down to the risk system. The diagram should be read from left to right. So this risk has already been identified and estimated. The next steps are for someone to check for duplicate risks, and to enter the risk into the risk system.
Our user has completed the check for duplicates. She clicks on the yellow (“in progress”) node, and changes the status to completed. This makes the node go green, which can now be seen by all staff.
Lots of information could be stored along with the pairs, and then displayed on the webpage. Users could interact with the nodes, or indeed the lines, by hovering or clicking. All this becomes possible if tubemap is open sourced.
There are many possible applications for this data visualization. It could be used to create electrical wiring diagrams automatically. Clicking on two nodes could reveal the relationship between descendants of Great Grandma Ethel. Audit data could be spruced up with an automated, visual timeline. Or paths could be tracked through a decision tree.
Tubemap is only a prototype at the moment. It is built in html5, css3 and javascript with d3.
I need £1,000 funding to test it thoroughly, make a few improvements, and open source the code. Then anyone can use the code. And more importantly, anyone can improve the code. Who knows how useful this little visualization could become, if we allow all the world’s talent and ingenuity to make it better.
I’m only asking for £1 – one pound – support. Supporters’ names will forever be associated with the project in a file on github. Those who give more gain the right to suggest improvements, and be featured in a visualization themselves. But £1 is quite enough and very appreciated.
Please support this campaign! www.kickstarter.com
