Geographical data visualization for CapitalOne Engineering Summit using Google Chrome Experiments's WebGL Globe.
For my geographic data visualization using the Chrome Experiments WebGL Globe, I decided to create a globe that manifests the vast quantity of Internet users of 201 countries across the world. My reasoning behind selecting this data set is that in my humble opinion, there is no doubt that the Internet and online tools and technologies are becoming more essential, powerful, and innovative in this day and age. I sincerely believe it is important to understand how technologies like the Internet have an immense impact on not just ourselves or even those around us, but everyone around the globe. Moreover, by visually displaying the extent to which humans use the Internet worldwide, this globe provides the user with a (nearly) complete view of how the Internet affects us all as an entire human race. In building this fun project, my first task was to find a website or database which contains comprehensive statistics concerning current and past Internet user numbers and figures, which I thankfully found in www.internetlivestats.com. I used varying amounts of the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript languages; I also used the provided libraries of TweenJS, a remarkably robust JS library for animating graphics in HTML(5) and JS, as well as Three.js, another powerful JS library used to create and display graphics in 3D using WebGL; additionally, I did small amounts of image editing in Adobe Photoshop to tweak the world image to my liking. Although I do not believe that I built the most complex, novel, or ingenious WebGL Globe, I had an amazing and fun time learning more about programming, scripting, and markup languages as well as exploring new libraries, frameworks, and technologies that I may not have otherwise utilized. I can say with the utmost certainty that I learned a lot of new knowledge, and I definitely built on my current programming knowledge and ability. I simply want to thank CapitalOne and Google Chrome Experiments for creating this compelling project and building such an inventive open platform for data visualization, respectively. I hope you enjoy my WebGL Globe, and I appreciate your taking the time to view it!
Check it out at http://www.webglglobe.matthewmuccio.com