In a naming move that will surprise very few people that have seen generations of Microsoft naming conventions come and go (Numbers .. no random letters … no names … ah no wait, the numbers were better …), Microsoft Live Labs have just announced Microsoft Live Labs Pivot. Not to be confused with PowerPivot. Which is more .. erm … powerful.
So, what is Live Labs Pivot?
Currently it’s invitation only, but it’s essentially a consumer oriented data visualisation experiment for exploring large amounts of web based data (so called Collections).
Can we call it BI if it’s really intended for consumers to go exploring? Perhaps which should coin the term CI for Consumer Intelligence. You heard it here first.
Technology wise, it’s a WPF client using Microsoft’s SeaDragon DeepZoom technology and the visualisations are primarily collections of images to represent data points. So it’s pretty, but is it useful?
Looking at the introductory video (and you really should, static images don’t so it justice), you can see that actually, Microsoft have used their flash whizz bang WPF and SeaDragon UI to create a genuinely immersive experience for exploring large amounts of data in an engaging way. I dare say even Stephen Few would be pleased to see that the elements which comprise the volumes on individual bars on a bar chart are actually expressed as small visual representation of the individual component:
When you filter and sort the elements smoothly fly in and out and really give the user a sense of how they contribute to the whole.
It seems fast, it looks good – it’s something that I would want to use. This is about making information from huge public data sources more discoverable. It’s clean, it’s simple – someone has been paying attention to usability amidst the eye candy too.
Bing recently tied up with Wolfram Alpha, combining the benefits of traditional search with the brave new world of the Answer Engine.
With the recent announcement of Microsoft PinPoint (Dallas), Microsoft’s Information Services business – billed as “enabling developer and information workers to instantly find, purchase, and manage dataset to power the next set of applications – powered by premium content”, they’ve also got the capability to provide some more serious content to plug into here too. I wonder if they’ll be adding “Pivot enriched” options with those Dallas datafeeds which include the necessary image collections to fulfil that rich Pivot experience?
As BI consultants we know the power of information – Microsoft are leading the next generation of internet consumers into an age when this kind of data visualisation and intelligent data discovery is the standard, not the exception, and consumers will start demanding ever more open and cleanly defined data from providers to enable these kinds of ad hoc query experiences.
Consumer Intelligence – Shiny tools for the masses. I like it!
I await my invitation with interest Live Labs team 