IBM Creates Interactive Map/Infographic Of CIA World Factbook (IBM.com)

IBM, in order to demonstrate some of their latest web based technologies, has taken the data from the CIA's World Factbook and re-mixed it in the form of a stunning, interactive infographic.  

The final product allows the user to much more quickly engage and compare the data for the various countries in the world.  The screenshot to the right does not (as usual) do the product justice.  I have zoomed in on central Africa to show some of the detail but you can just as easily take a look at the whole world and can instantly get a sense of where various regions lie with respect to any of the data the World Factbook contains.  

I strongly recommend you go here to see the full product.  Play around with it; I think you will be impressed.

If you are interested in additional information about IBM's initiative, you can go to the cryptically named IBM ILOG Elixir Blog or to Information Aesthetics, where I first picked up on this product.

Note:  This has been a very good week for maps (See also here and here) ...