Mozilla Labs and the Metrics Team, together with the growing Mozilla Research initiative, are hosting a Open Data Visualization Competition based on Test Pilot data, from Nov. 17th to Dec. 17th.
For this competition we'd like to explore creative visual answers to the question: "How do people use Firefox?" For example, visualizations that investigate general usage patterns, reveal interesting user behavior, or explore browser performance.
Please note that the submission deadline has been extended from the original Dec. 5th date to encourage more participation. Follow @moztestpilot on Twitter for further news and updates.
This competition is based on Mozilla's own open data program, Test Pilot. Test Pilot is a user research platform that collects structured user data through Firefox. All data is gathered through pre-defined Test Pilot studies, which aim to explore how people use their web browser and the Internet.
Currently, over 1 million Firefox users from all over the world participate in Test Pilot studies. The goal for this platform is to encourage everyone from all skill levels to improve the Web experience by conducting and participating in these studies. Test Pilot study results are made available under open licenses, with the data being anonymized before release. (For more information about the Test Pilot data policy, please check Privacy Policy)
For this challenge, we will use data from two recent Test Pilot studies. These data samples have now been made available - check the links below to download the data!
These two studies collected a wealth of interesting information. The Firefox 4 Beta Interface Study captured user interactions with the main Firefox UI, from the Back and Forward buttons, to smaller controls like the Web Feed icon. The Week in the Life of Browser Study collects a variety of general browsing data, such as: startup/shutdown events, session restore information, memory usage statistics, profile age, history size, and more. Both studies can also be associated with user demographic data, e.g. gender, age, self-reported technical level, etc. Check the data sample pages above for a thorough description of the data sets.
We are looking for compelling visualizations that tell detailed, meaningful and yet easy-to-interpret stories about interesting user activities. While we want to encourage a broad array of analyses, here are some potential questions one can answer from these data to get you started
And here are some example stories and data visualizations for your inspiration:
After downloading the data, go here to submit your results and enter the competition. Please be sure to select "Open Data Visualization Competition - Fall 2010" from the Testcase drop down menu. You may also upload the original content to your own website or any other forum if you wish, but this is not required for the competition. A valid submission only requires:
To facilitate the free exchange of ideas, all visualizations and other contributions you make to this challenge must be contributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license.
You may choose any tool (or set of tools) you like, including but not limited to: R, Matlab, Protovis, Processing or IBM many eyes.
You may participate individually or team up with other people. You are also welcome to enter as many times as you like.
To recognize the awesome work from participants, some great prizes are at stake:
We'll also present all submissions on the Test Pilot website and Mozilla Metrics blog in a special post to highlight your work.
During the event, discuss your ideas with fellow data analysts and visualization experts on our discussion forum.
Copyright © 2005-2010 Mozilla. All rights reserved.
