If you are interested in beautiful data visualizations, you can’t get much better than this one from Geneva that shows you the ebb and flow of people in that wonderful city. I am not sure how it was created, but the soft lines that swirl around and across the lake will leave you entranced and you’ll probably want to replay it a few times just to catch all the movements.
As the site states, the visualization will “allow you to explore these streams of connected people around the city, in their everyday life.”
Interestingly, the site’s name means “city living” in French. Here is the animated video done by Interactive Things that is posted on the site.
Switzerland had more cell phones than people, around 10 million. During one day Swisscom subscribers in Geneva generate approximately 15 million connections from 2 million phone calls. As most of us know, carrying your phone around without making any calls still leaves a digital record as we get handed off from cell tower to cell tower.
Swisscom’s visualization shows us the way Genevans interact with their city, how they move about the region, go from one side of the lake to the other, and work and play in their city.
On the site there are other visualizations worth examining, such as our opening image which shows nighttime activities.
