ReadWriteWeb and Tableau Public Announce Data Visualization Contest for Bloggers and Websites

SEATTLE, March 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Today marks the opening of a new blog-based data visualization competition using Tableau Public, a new free tool for creating and publishing interactive graphs on the web using public data of interest to bloggers and their readers. The competition encourages bloggers to develop interactive data visualizations. More than $3,500 in prizes will be awarded to the winner. Sponsoring the contest are Tableau Software, creator of Tableau Public and the global leader in data visualization, and ReadWriteWeb, one of the world's most popular technology blogs. To enter, people should go to http://bit.ly/viz-contest.

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"Tableau Public was created to help bloggers use data to tell interactive stories. It lets their readers engage with blog content in a new way," said Christian Chabot, CEO Tableau Software. "This contest is a way for bloggers to showcase their creative abilities and win attention and eyeballs with their efforts."

ReadWriteWeb provides analysis of Web products and trends to an intelligent audience of engaged technology decision makers, Web enthusiasts and innovators. Being the key media sponsor of the Tableau Public contest aligns made perfect sense.

"Our readers including bloggers are always looking to learn about new Web technologies and tools, particularly ones that make Websites more engaging. And by learning to tell stories with data and create powerful interactive graphs through the Tableau Public contest, they can create more useful and more interesting content," said Richard MacManus, Founder and Editor in Chief at ReadWriteWeb.

Making Data Social

Current alternatives for sharing data online are clumsy. Typically, data is pasted into tables and lists, or posted as files or catalogs that are difficult to use. Available at www.Tableaupublic.com, Tableau Public is helping to solve this challenge – bringing data to life on the web for ordinary people. With its interactive visualizations and dashboards, Tableau Public helps people start conversations based on data that is useful, beautiful and shareable. All that's needed to see and use the data is a web browser - no special plug-ins are required.

Contest Details

The contest is open to U.S. residents who have registered Tableau Public. Entrants compete by downloading one of four different datasets, creating an interactive visualization, publishing it on their blog or website and then submitting an application to enter the contest. The contest closes March 23.

The winner will receive a conference registration to the 2010 Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco, California with travel expenses covered.

Judges include Stephen Few, a preeminent educator and innovator in data visualization and information design; Marshall Kirkpatrick, Lead Writer for ReadWriteWeb; and Jock Mackinlay, Tableau Software's Director of Visual Analysis and a leading researcher in the world of data visualization.

For further information on the competition please go to: http://bit.ly/viz-contest. To get Twitter updates on the contest, follow @tableau or search for #tableauRWW.

About Tableau Software

Tableau Software is the leading provider of fast analytics and data visualization software. Ranked by Inc. Magazine as one of the 500 fastest growing U.S. companies and one of the 25 fastest-growing software companies, its award-winning business intelligence applications can be downloaded at http://www.tableausoftware.com/trial. They enable anyone to easily create and share interactive data visualizations, dashboards and analytics, and can scale to organizations of any size or reach. For more information, please visit http://www.tableausoftware.com.

About ReadWriteWeb

ReadWriteWeb is one of the most popular technology blogs in the world. ReadWriteWeb provides analysis of Web products and trends to an intelligent audience of engaged technology decision makers, Web enthusiasts and innovators and is syndicated by the New York Times. ReadWriteWeb was founded on April 20, 2003 by Richard MacManus. Still grounded in MacManus' thoughtful exploration of emerging trends, ReadWriteWeb is known for offering some of the most insightful commentary available about each day's Internet industry news.

SOURCE Tableau Software