The InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) is a peer-to-peer distributed file system that seeks to connect all computing devices with the same system of files. In some ways, IPFS is similar to the Web, but IPFS could be seen as a single BitTorrent swarm, exchanging objects within one Git repository. In other words, IPFS provides a high throughput content-addressed block storage model, with content-addressed hyperlinks. This forms a generalized Merkle DAG, a data structure upon which one can build versioned file systems, blockchains, and even a Permanent Web.

Some servers, like Firebase, Parse and CouchDB already define strict communication protocols for clients, and were good fits for Ember Data. In contrast, servers written in Rails, Node, and Django tend to be written in a "REST-style" but lack the precision necessary for drop-in client code. The REST Adapter in Ember Data implicitly defined a protocol that custom servers could implement to get a drop-in client for all of their resources.

Keep testing different models and learn something new from your dataset. There is a way of thinking that treats visualization as a magical process that prettifies the output, yet the only way we can make a meaningful graph is when we discover something meaningful during our research. People are relying on us to see the world. Out of everyone, we are the ones who need to have these interesting tests / models / questions / hypotheses at hand because if we don't know the color “red,” our story will never have “red” in it.

This monthly vodcast series gives you an opportunity to participate in an open conversation with industry experts about the latest strategies and tools for developing visualizations and interactive experiences! Our first vodcast, on February 20th, will be co-hosted by NASA’s visualization expert, Robert Simmon who will discuss best practices for creating visualizations for NASA’s Earth Observatory. From use of color, to image choice, to use of symbols in mapping, Rob will take us through his tried and tested process for visually communicating data about our world.

Visualization is a module for Drupal 7.x that provides a solid and easy accessible way to visualize data. It provides a theme hook that takes a data array and some options and will then render a chart in-place. It also provides a Views Display plugin so that users can easily visualize data retrieved through Views. The different charting libraries are pluggable through the CTools Plugin system; the module provides an implementation for the Google Visualization API and Highcharts.