Datawrapper in the News

We launched the beta version of Datawrapper roughly a year ago. The key idea was to show that a simple, four step process could enable everyone to create correct and embeddable charts.

Seems that we filled a need. From day one we had active users who created charts and published them. In November 2012 version 1.0 was published, based on a complete rebuild of the core, added features and more. One result is increasing traffic: In 2012, it took us about six months to reach the milestone of a million visits in total (measured by visits to charts published on multiple sites). As of early March 2013, we we are now up to 1,5 million visits – per month that is.

We are indebted to a number of early adopters in newsrooms and elsewhere. Our biggest and most important users are the people working for the The Guardian Data Blog. Simon Rogers, who started the Data Blog and Data Store, mentions Datawrapper regularly. A big “thanks” goes out to Ruhrnachrichten, Le Monde, Liberation, L’Avenir, Der Standard. The list is growing, week by week.

For us this is like getting a positive boost to keep on working. We wanted to create a simple to use tool for a complex task. Datawrapper, quite simply, does not stand in your way once you have found, checked and questioned data that is relevant.

What do others says about Datawrapper?

But how did others perceive Datawrapper? How was the tool presented in articles and blogs? The list below is the most recent, at least of all articles in languages we were able to read and understand.
It is sorted chronologically, starting in February 2012 and lists both articles in English and in German.

February 2012

• Andy Kirk, Datawrapper: Open Source data visualisation creator (Visualizing Data)
• Liliana Bounegru, Always walk before you run: Datawrapper breaks down barriers in visualising and publishing data (Datadrivenjournalism.net)
• Michael Wenzl, Datawrapper hilft Daten anschaulich zu machen (Singold Bote)
• Ulrike Langer, Datawrapper – Datenverpacken leicht(er) gemacht (Medial Digital)

April 2012

• Sonja Kaute, Man muss Ängste überwinden und nicht gleich aufgeben (Stift & Blog)

June 2012

• Sarah Marschall, Tool of the week for journalists: Datawrapper, for quick data visualisations (Journalism.co.uk)
• Simon Hurtz, Datenjournalismus für Anfänger (Torial)

November 2012

• Liliana Bounegru, Datawrapper 1.0 Is Released (Datadrivenjournalism.net)
• Steffen Leidel, Datawrapper: Making data-driven journalism fast and easy (Deutsche Welle)
• Sharon Machlis, Create simple, free charts with Datawrapper (Computerworld)

December 2012

• Ron Miller, Data journalism- From eccentric to mainstream in five years (O’Reilly Strata Blog)

January 2013

• Thomas Strothjohann, Techniktipp – Datenjournalismus mit Datawrapper (Medium Magazin)
• Simon Rogers, Data journalism: 22 key links (SimonRogers.net)

February 2013

• Moran Barkai, Data Visualizations Tools Trends: Interview with Datavisualization.ch (Datadrivenjournalism.net)
• Lorenz Matzat, Datenjournalismus unterrichten (Datenjournalist.de)

Finally:

Datawrapper was mentioned as a notable entry-level tool in two recent books about data-visualizations. In this particular phase of development we are in we value the view of experts and peers a lot.

• Scott Murray, Interactive Data Visualization for the Web, O’Reilly 2013
• Andy Kirk, Data Visualization: A Successful Design Process, Packt Publishing 2012

That’s it so far. If you have articles reviewing Datawrapper in other languages we ignored, please let us know.

Plus, don’t forget to follow @Datawrapper on Twitter for updates, discussions and useful links about data-driven journalism.