Journal

Posted by: Nick Vitale

14 August 2012

What We Learned From Data In The 2012 Olympics

The Guardian’s Data Blog delivered a series of interesting truths from the 2012 Olympic games in an article entitled “London 2012 and data journalism: what did we learn at the Olympics?” The article goes on to list a series of points using visualised data to help us look at the event in a new way. Here is small sample of the learned points:

  • When including factors such as a country’s GDP, population or team size in relation to medals won, Russia, is the top winner.
  • In the final analysis of each countries performance compared to the 2008 Olympics “Team GB, Russia and Germany all did better than they did in 2008, Australia and China did worse. Team USA got more golds but fewer medals overall.”
  • In looking at the physical attributes of the Olympians the Guardian found that “there are 187 athletes over 40 at this year’s games, including the eldest, Hiroshi Hoketsu, 71 years old, who competed in the dressage for Japan.”
  • If Michael Phelps were a country then he would be ahead of about a dozen other countries.

The real story here is the use of data in communications. In the digital industry we spend a lot of time looking at analytics to find highlights and insights that help bring the greatest value to a client.

In the past this type of data has been limited to those with the financial or technical means to access it but as visualising data becomes more accessible to others it’s no surprise that its impact is affecting the way we look at events of all kinds.

Data will play a greater role in communications and our ability to understand an event or audience.

Unfortunately, having access to data and the tools needed to process it isn’t the same as being able to look for insights, influences and opportunities in it. That is where experts in analysis will continue to prove their worth and help organisations best reach their audiences.

To find out what data is available on your audience and how you can best use it to communicate and engage then email us directly at [email protected] or on Twitter @studioskylab.

Source

radioskylab

What we're listening to in the studio.

Waiting On The World To Change

John Mayer

View more at our Last FM page

Teamskylab

The latest feeds from the studio powered by Yahoo Pipes.

  • Highly interesting article on a new tool for business owners to measure sentiment #sentiment #business #measure - http://t.co/bh9RGou9

  • The Skylab team getting a safety briefing on how to ride a Segway: Plot spoiler, it didn't work

  • India is using mobile phones hoping to trigger an economic boom #mobile #india #poor - http://t.co/sifLbFxn

  • Here's a great collection of Olympics focused infographics- very cool #olympics #infographics - http://t.co/QfvpTn7h

  • Jonty was kind enough to bake these lovely little sausage rolls w/ a special dipping sauce- what do you think, yum? http://t.co/UU6rzQKX

  • The Leap by Leap Motion is Microsoft Kinect for your computer on steriods- it's truly unbelievable http://t.co/j3VJ5vqo #kinect #3d #motion

  • Brilliant comparison of various Olympics websites, which one won the gold? #olympics - http://t.co/5JnIVQ2j

  • Good article on how social networks are adapting to help manage cyber bullying #cyberbullying #facebook - http://t.co/1eP9ZDqL

  • We found this great video on the story of how LEGO toys came to be http://t.co/NH7eb4Ca

  • With the end of the Skylab #Bakeoff Season One it's time to vote for your favourite, here's the poll http://t.co/I6b4Onk5 #GBBO #Baking

  • Fast food and semi-fast food restaurants go mobile typically trialing various recipes #mobile #fastfood - http://t.co/rRbzf1Gc

  • Interesting, http://t.co/cN5gD8aQ is a real-time social feed without ads focused on users and developers. http://t.co/YocTpzKM

  • From the Day4 blog: "How we screwed (almost) the whole Apple community" http://t.co/ux9ruwwf

  • How access to data is changing reporting and it's role in communications and the 2012 Olympics http://t.co/EtbWQiW3 #bigdata #journalism

  • The United Nations have a social media blog where they post photos, videos and recent news #UN #socialmedia #photos - http://t.co/bDBcVgIS

  • We just released PoolFinder for British Swimming, it finds the best pools nearest to you. Read more here: http://t.co/y349Q6aa #swimming

  • Adidas makes trainers that accept incoming tweets #sneakers #socialmedia #twitter - http://t.co/vCrSXTE9

  • New work

    British Swimming Points You To The Pool With PoolFinder

  • Skylab is hiring a Digital Account Manager - Senior / Exec #jobs #digitaljobs #ndjobs http://t.co/dcmfmrqa PlsRT

  • Say goodbye to Google Video & hello to MediaTank. Did you know they shut down Google Video? #video #mediatank - http://t.co/9JHcP1rZ

  • The FA is issuing more social media warnings to clubs #football #socialmedia #warnings - http://t.co/1HgglAKL

  • New work

    Yonex All England Badminton Championships Bring The Heat

  • New work

    Careers In Aquatics

  • New work

    sk:n Switch-on To Mobile Audience

  • MediaCity.ws

    The new UNOFFICIAL interactive and open social network site for all things Media City.

  • SocialEngine PHP Social Network Script

  • Facebook | Studio Skylab

  • Skylab on Flickr

  • Studio Skylab (studioskylab) on Twitter

  • Studio Skylab Company Profile | LinkedIn

  • Skylab on SlideShare

  • Easy Web Form Builder for Online Forms | FormSpring

    Hosted forms - looks very nice!

  • Universal Internet Explorer 6 CSS | For A Beautiful Web

  • Twitter Clients

    Shows Twitter client usage for all accounts tracked by @twitstat.

  • Symfony Components - Standalone libraries for PHP

    One to keep an eye on. Standalone reusable PHP classes from Symfony.

  • 10 Cool Things We’ll Be Able To Do Once IE6 Is Dead

  • Beachball

    Various Artists

  • Warrior's Dance

    The Prodigy

  • Voodoo People (Pendulum remix)

    The Prodigy

  • Papua New Guinea (7inch Origin

    The Future Sound of London

  • Boogie 2nite - Seamus Haji Big Love Edit

    Booty Luv

  • Teardrop

    Massive Attack

  • Pacific 707

    808 State

  • Love Story

    Layo & Bushwacka!

  • At Night

    Shakedown

  • /* whobuilt.it */

    Lay claim to the sites you build.

  • Paper Planes

    M.I.A.

  • 10 useful ExpressionEngine extensions | 3 Roads Media Blog

  • SEOmoz | Canonical URL Tag - The Most Important Advancement in SEO Practices Since Sitemaps

  • When can I use...

  • LL Cool J/Cavemen - Two Bit Rhythm (M.I.A.)

    M.I.A.

  • iPhone PSD Vector Kit | Freebies | Smashing Magazine

  • 2009 Tips for Big Web Companies - ReadWriteWeb

  • Rocket Soul

    Plump DJs

  • Lost In Space

    Plump DJs

  • Popcorn

    The Upsetters

  • Timeless

    Goldie

  • Belfast

    Orbital

  • All That You Give (feat. Fonte

    The Cinematic Orchestra

  • As a Soul

    Petter & The Pix

  • The Funk Hits The Fan

    Plump DJs

  • Broken Train

    Beck

  • Anyway You Choose to Give It

    The Black Ghosts

  • Applying Turing's Ideas to Search - Boxes and Arrows: The design behind the design

  • lessrain blog » Papervision 3D

  • Papervision3D

  • Single-Page Portfolio Sites

  • Y Design Awards

  • Dailymotion - NAIVE NEW BEATERS "LIVE GOOD", a video from djtoncar. naivenewbeaters, nnbs, naive, new, discograph

  • Dos Anjos / Se Voce Pensa

    Sydney Miller & Moraes Moreira