The Obama White House staff salaries are shown in this live data graphic visulization. If you updates the figures, the graphic will be updated instantly for the next Web reader.
The White House is uploading all kinds of public data to Socrata. I downloaded this set of numbers and built a Many Eyes graphic in about five minutes.
Source: SOCRATA: 2009 Report to Congress
This is an example of the kind of reporter-driven visualizations that I was teaching France24 journalists in my Web reporting seminars.
This graphic, while a great interactive and visual piece, lacks practicality. If I want to scroll around looking at various salaries, that’s all well and good, but what if I’m searching for something specific; the press secretary; staff administrator; dog walker, etc.
I just think the graphic should lend itself to application as well as entertainment.
While I think this visual depiction is entertaining, it isnt as functional since I feel what one would want to know from the data is
1) Who’s getting paid the most?
2) Who’s getting paid the least?
3) What kind of staff positions pay the most?
I would personally have preferred a simple bar chart where I could see who’s making the most money, least and play around with the data a little more to gain some insights.
I’ve made a bar chart using IBM Many Eyes too and it can be found at
http://manyeyes.alphaworks.ibm.com/manyeyes/visualizations/bar-chart-visualization-of-white-h
Click on ‘values’ below the graph to sort the data according to salary.
-Alark