Visualising data, experts give views at Big Data SIG

Visualisation techniques such as graphics and maps can help to extract more value from data, but these technologies are not widely used by agricultural data service providers.

For example the introduction of new sensors and monitors are enabling farmers to collect large volumes of data but Matthew Smith, a computational ecologist at Microsoft and one of the co-chairs of the Big Data in Agriculture SIG, comments that the industry often lacks the tools to be able to extract meaningful information from these data sets.

He gives the example that many farmers are using Excel to help create graphs but there are some next-generation tools that visualise data in a more beneficial manner. For example the new Powermap tool allows data to be visualised on a map, making it much more useful to a producer and their advisors.

Eric Hannell, Senior Product Consultant,, Tableau and Simon Ward, Founder and MD, Increment Ltd will be discussing how to use data visualisation tools effectively at the next Big Data in Agriculture SIG meeting on the 29th September.

This event will explore the most useful way of presenting data to farmers and growers and the opportunities for modellers and software technologists to add value to this growing sector.