Social Explorer, is a digital sociology tool, used for visualizing large data sets, such as the US census.

1. The Development of a System to Unlock
and Visualize
220 Years of Census and Other Data
Andrew A. Beveridge
Ahmed Lacevic

2. What Is Social Explorer?

4. What Is Social Explorer?
• A comprehensive data resource

5. What Is Social Explorer?
• A comprehensive data resource
• A suite of tools to support education,
research, and curiosity

6. Social Explorer Data
• Census data: 1790 to 2010
• American Community Survey: from 2005-2014
• InfoGroup data on religion
• Religious Congregations and Membership
Study
• Vulcan Project Carbon Emissions Data

7. Recently Added Datasets
• Census of Ireland data
• 2011 UK Census
• County Election data
– Presidential/Congressional/Senatorial/Gubernator
ial
• Uniformed Crime Report data

8. Future Datasets
• Health data
• World data
• Your own data…

9. Social Explorer Tools
• Custom reports

11. Social Explorer Tools
• Dynamic, interactive maps

15. Social Explorer Tools
• Chart and graphs

17. Social Explorer Tools
• Presentation maker

19. Social Explorer Tools
• Sharing and collaboration

20. Social Explorer Technology
• Client-based map rendering
• Cloud-based
• Fast, interactive user interface
• Built on Flash with HTML 5 in development
• Mobile version

21. Census Explorer and the ACS and
the Census
• Since late 2013 Social Explorer worked with the Census Bureau to
develop interactive visualizations using the ACS Available at
www.census.gov/censusexplorer
• Worked with Center for New Media and Promotion, Public Affair, ACS
Office, Social and Economic, Population, Center for Economic Studies,
and Minnesota Population Center, Statistical Standards and others.
• Working with Census Bureau we chose to highlight the changing
situation of adults from the Baby Boomer Generation to the Millennials
• Special tabulations done from the ACS 2009-13 and conforming tabs for
1980 through 2000 based on data for 18-34 year old
• https://census.socialexplorer.com/young-adults/#/ (Demo or back up
slides)
• Pushed in a new direction.

40. Social Explorer Users
• 750,000 users created 14 million maps
(in the last 12 months)

41. Social Explorer Partners & Projects
 Course, Curriculum, and Laboratory Improvement
 National Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology Education Digital Library
 Economics, Sociology, Method, Measure & Stats, Geography and Spatial Sciences
 INSPIRE

42. Social Explorer Partners & Projects

43. Social Explorer Partners & Projects

44. Social Explorer Partners & Projects

45. Social Explorer Partners & Projects

46. Social Explorer Partners & Projects

47. Social Explorer Partners & Projects

48. Social Explorer Partners & Projects

49. Ellis Island Museum
• Part of an interactive exhibit on ancestry
• 12 million visitors each year

53. www.SocialExplorer.com
Andrew Beveridge andy@socialexplorer.com
Ahmed Lacevic alacevic@socialexplorer.com
Sydney Beveridge sydney@socialexplorer.com
Follow us on Twitter @socialexplorer
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