fathom - Network

While browsing the NYC Open Data project, we found a contender for all-time favorite dataset in the form of a 2018 census of Central Park...

While browsing the NYC Open Data project, we found a contender for all-time favorite dataset in the form of a 2018 census of Central Park squirrels — compiled by the team over at https://www.thesquirrelcensus.com/.

There’s a lot to unpack about 3,000 squirrels, so Katherine wrote up a lovely piece walking through some quick ways to start making sense of all the tail-twitching antics with Rowboat — a tool we built for diving into new datasets.

Check out Katherine’s blog post here: https://fathom.info/notebook/250303/

And explore the Squirrel Census for yourself here: https://rowboat.xyz/f/29waez6w

And this fascinating diagram to accompany the original, by Ken Shirriff (@kenshirriff) at righto.com, which contains a wealth of information...

And this fascinating diagram to accompany the original, by Ken Shirriff (@kenshirriff) at righto.com, which contains a wealth of information about this piece and about many other tidbits of computer history.

Lately, we've been thinking a lot about this piece for inspiration: Marilou Schultz's "Replica of a Chip" is a woven rug...

Lately, we've been thinking a lot about this piece for inspiration: Marilou Schultz's "Replica of a Chip" is a woven rug that uses Navajo weaving techniques to recreate the patterns found on computer chips, specifically the Intel Pentium processor.

Fathom has a newsletter! If you want to keep up to date on the latest from our studio, you can subscribe to our mailing list here:...

Fathom has a newsletter!

If you want to keep up to date on the latest from our studio, you can subscribe to our mailing list here: https://buttondown.com/fathominfo

We couldn't ask for a more perfectly snowy day in Boston as we head off into our winter break! Between launching a product of our own...

We couldn't ask for a more perfectly snowy day in Boston as we head off into our winter break! 

Between launching a product of our own (Rowboat!) and continuing collaborations with our partners in pandemic preparedness, our team has had an incredibly exciting 2024.

To hear more about what we've been up to this year, check out our 2024 recap up on our blog: https://fathom.info/notebook/241219/

Wishing you all a joyful holiday season and a happy new year ❄

To close out the year, we introduced stacked bar charts to our roster of header charts! We've been having a blast exploring a dataset of...

To close out the year, we introduced stacked bar charts to our roster of header charts! We've been having a blast exploring a dataset of ok cupid profiles from the early 2010's with this new feature.

See some of our favorite findings below. 🥗 🐾 💉

To make a stacked bar chart - just link two text columns together and enjoy.

You can explore this dataset for yourself at https://rowboat.xyz/f/5f444u4e

Mark recently put together a thoughtful piece on how we designed Delphy (a new tool for rapidly generating and exploring phylogenetic trees)...

Mark recently put together a thoughtful piece on how we designed Delphy (a new tool for rapidly generating and exploring phylogenetic trees) to be able to lower technical barriers to phylogenetic research.

You can find his full blog post here: https://fathom.info/notebook/241213/

https://delphy.fathom.info

We've been lucky to host a few special guests in the Fathom office over the last few weeks!Thank you to Jonathan Zong for presenting his...

We've been lucky to host a few special guests in the Fathom office over the last few weeks!

Thank you to Jonathan Zong for presenting his work on designing accessible data representations for blind and low-vision individuals, and to Aleks Jakulin for talking us through his efforts to establish the Sledilnik project at the height of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in Slovenia.

And, of course, we're always thrilled to have longtime friend of Fathom Andrés Colubri over to the studio for a chance to catch up.

To learn more about Sledilnik, visit https://covid-19.sledilnik.org/en/stats

We've looked at datasets for mushroom classification, UFO sightings around the world, book reviews, and 1920s women's voter...

We've looked at datasets for mushroom classification, UFO sightings around the world, book reviews, and 1920s women's voter registration (to name a few). Now, we'd love to hear what you're exploring in Rowboat!

Please send us your discoveries or any fun/obscure/colorful datasets we should take a look at and feature!

Comment here or reach out to us at hello@rowboat.xyz

Rowboat lets you quickly try out new ways of looking at your data.Rotate through different chart types (including donuts, treemaps, bars,...

Rowboat lets you quickly try out new ways of looking at your data.

Rotate through different chart types (including donuts, treemaps, bars, histograms, choropleth maps, timelines, and time series charts) right in the header as you explore your files.

We would love to hear from you!
Drop us your questions, comments, and feedback at hello@rowboat.xyz.

Fathom Offline: Paul recently took part in a book arts workshop where he learned a variety of binding techniques. Here are the three unique...

Fathom Offline: Paul recently took part in a book arts workshop where he learned a variety of binding techniques. Here are the three unique books he crafted:

• A Japanese stab book combining the traditional, noble and hemp leaf binding patterns and decorated with mulberry paper.

• A leather soft cover folio book bound with a long cross stitch.

• A miniature book bound with a dragonfly link stitch and covered with marbled mulberry paper.

Download Open in Rowboat here: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/open-in-rowboat/injppghgfcmocpondoaeppohnolebali

Download Open in Rowboat here: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/open-in-rowboat/injppghgfcmocpondoaeppohnolebali

Rowboat is now available as a Chrome browser extension! 🚣 Download the Open in Rowboat extension on chromewebstore.google.com to start...

Rowboat is now available as a Chrome browser extension! 🚣

Download the Open in Rowboat extension on chromewebstore.google.com to start viewing your Google Sheets files in Rowboat.

Every few Fridays, we like to have a member of our team teach us about a topic they're passionate about outside of the office.Chase (our...

Every few Fridays, we like to have a member of our team teach us about a topic they're passionate about outside of the office.

Chase (our newest hire!) recently gave us a thrilling presentation on research he conducted in Kenya last summer. From LiDAR scanners to shifting terrain in remote landscapes, we never knew how much we didn't know about ANTS!

🐜🐜🐜

Interacting with your data lets you quickly uncover the trends you care about most while you explore. Looking at the most streamed Spotify...

Interacting with your data lets you quickly uncover the trends you care about most while you explore. Looking at the most streamed Spotify songs of 2023:

Why are January and May the top months for song releases?

What does ‘seasonality’ look like in the music industry?

How much does recency of release date impact a song's streaming numbers compared to beloved classics?

Explore this file (and more) at https://rowbo.at/j4cwtsr7. 🎧

Latest on the blog— our reflections on navigating a fractured social media landscape and how we share what we care...

Latest on the blog— our reflections on navigating a fractured social media landscape and how we share what we care about.
https://fathom.info/notebook/241118/

(Don’t worry, we’re still excited to be connecting and sharing on Instagram, Bluesky, and Mastodon!)

Which three historical figures rank highest on the Pantheon Project's popularity index? Where are they geographically clustered? What is...

Which three historical figures rank highest on the Pantheon Project's popularity index?

Where are they geographically clustered?

What is the mean number of languages their wikipedia pages have been translated into?

See the video below to discover these answers and visit https://rowbo.at/jsjtv4sz to take a look at Pantheon's exploration of popularity metrics inside Rowboat.

Hey all — we are now also on Bluesky! https://bsky.app/profile/fathom.info

Hey all — we are now also on Bluesky! https://bsky.app/profile/fathom.info

“The work of accessibility ties in beautifully with the work of information design. We can chase technical implementations forever, but in...

“The work of accessibility ties in beautifully with the work of information design. We can chase technical implementations forever, but in many cases, it’s often helpful to revisit the problem we’re addressing and the story we’re trying to tell.”

In our latest blog post, Katherine talks us through her personal approach to understanding and implementing accessibility.

https://fathom.info/notebook/241107/

#accessibility

As we slowly but surely settle into the rhythm of 2024, we’re also celebrating our 15th year as a studio.Pulled directly from the archives...

As we slowly but surely settle into the rhythm of 2024, we’re also celebrating our 15th year as a studio.

Pulled directly from the archives of our blog, here are a dizzying number of questions we’ve asked over the years, from big questions like “In a very dense city with a housing crisis, what does this mean for those who are pushed out?” all the way to small questions about earning the right to use the office aux cord.

We hope to continue pushing this curiosity in our 15th year — and we hope you’ll stick along for the ride.