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Other than getting settled and watching Josh and Rachel present, I only had time for a quick run through the exhibit hall. I will have to take a more detailed look tomorrow but one thing caught my eye -- The Uppsala Conflict Data Program. Developed by Uppsala University out of Sweden, their database is free, online and very complete. I had a chance to talk to the very kind and knowledgeable booth attendants and get a tour (see the grainy picture below) and was quite impressed with their collection methodology and the completeness of the product. Most of the data is currently in text or chart form (much of it is downloadable, by the way...) but I was told that they were working on some visualization initiatives for the future. As it is right now, though, it is still a very valuable resource.
Between Uppsala's database, SIPRI's FIRST database and Hans Rosling's Trendalyzer, it seems that there are a number of great open source resources coming out of Sweden. If anyone knows of any more, leave a comment.
Related Posts:
Five Sites To Help You Think, Two Sites To Make You Think
The UN has recently compiled much of its data into a single fairly easy to use web-based interface called UNData. They are apparently working with Hans Rosling (If you have not seen him speak, check out the video below and be inspired) and the brilliant people at Gapminder which means, eventually, I hope, that all this lovely data will be available through Trendalyzer (another tool you have to see to believe).
