OPEN

Not much time to blog today, but I have to show you this amazing Universe thing.

As soon as I have a moment I’m going to explore it more fully, but as it elegantly taps right into my love of visualising complex data and news I can already see I am going to love it.

Here it is in the words of Jonathan Harris, its creator, who unveiled it at the TED conference last week (wish, wish, wish I’d been there):

Universe presents an interactive night sky, composed of thousands of twinkling stars, which then connect to form constellations. Each of these constellations has a specific counterpart in the physical world — a story, a person, a quote, an image, a company, a nation, a mythic theme. Any constellation can be clicked, making it the center of the universe, and causing all other stars to enter its orbit. Universe is infinitely large, and each person’s path through it will be different. For an explanation of how it works, read “Stages“. For a longer discussion of the ideas behind the piece, read “Statement“.

Here’re some shots

You start with a mass of constellations…

Then you can refine by the last day, week, month, year or by people, stories and other categories (this is “statements”…

And a sort of keywords-in-stars view…

Fun, huh?