Pivot - Turning Information Into Insights

Today, information is readily available at the tip of our fingers. And, probably too much. The internet was not as enriched with information before as it is today, most of which I believe have been fostered through the growth of social media.

If you step back to think about it, a lot of the information we use are supplied to us through blogs, Wikipedia, Slideshare, Flickr, etc. by the global online community. In some ways or another, we're all information overloaded. We have more information than we know and it's all scattered across the Web.

A new tool to help people make better use of digital information is a data visualization technology called Pivot. Created by Microsoft Live Labs, it's still in its experimental stages. "Pivot allows people to visualize data [see video how this is done] and then sort, organize and categorize it dynamically. The result is that correlations, exceptions and trends become immediately apparent in ways they can’t when information is stuck in rows and columns." (Microsoft)

Having applications such as this can help us in making better choices and decisions. By allowing users to interact with data, the process becomes less intimidating and lets people truely see how powerful and informative putting information together can be. Those who can make sense of the mountains of data obtains intelligence and competitive advantage over those who don't.

Watch Microsoft Live Labs Director Gary Flake demonstrate how an insight can be drawn with Pivot. Perhaps, consider experimenting the tool as well. Free at the moment. http://www.getpivot.com/download/