U.S. Obesity Viz Wins Tableau and ReadWriteWeb Contest for Interactive Graphing

SEATTLE, April 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Tableau Software, the global leader in rapid-fire business intelligence software, and ReadWriteWeb today announced that Rina Bongsu-Petersen from Chicago has won the first Tableau Public interactive graph contest for bloggers and websites. Bongsu-Petersen's winning graphic, available at http://tinyurl.com/winner-tableau, has earned her more than $3,500 in prizes including a free trip to Web 2.0/San Francisco in May.

(Photo:  http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20100426/SF93690)

(Logo:  http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20071106/CLTU012LOGO)

Judged by ReadWriteWeb co-editor Marshall Kilpatrick, leading data visualization expert Stephen Few and Tableau's director of visual analysis Jock Mackinlay, Bongsu-Petersen's winning entry captivated the judges because of its strong multi-dimensional storytelling. It combined data from obesity rates, diabetes rates and other factors that correlated positively with obesity, such as Fast Food expenditure per capita and the price of low fat milk. Bongsu-Petersen showed how the percentage of active adults and consumption of fruits negatively affected obesity too.

"This entry was able to provide strong analysis with a view of the data that fits the subject, and the result is an incredible story anyone can discover," said Mackinlay. "People will look at it, immediately select their state and see relevant results."

Rina Bongsu-Petersen is an Enrollment & Marketing Research Associate and Adjunct Faculty at DePaul University in Chicago, IL. Originally from Indonesia, Rina has always had a knack for data research and a deep interest in Human Computer Interactions/Usability. "I am thrilled to win the Tableau Public ReadWriteWeb contest. When I saw the contest, I thought that it would be nice to have experts analyze my viz, but I didn't think I'd win. Of all the topics, I thought I was most familiar with 'healthy living' and the dataset proved me wrong. Finding the right nuggets and visualizing them in the most meaningful way was a challenge but great fun," said Rina Bongsu-Petersen, Research Associate at DePaul University.

More than 40 other entries reached semi-finalist status, with just 11 making it to finalist status. Each entry used Tableau Public, a new free tool for creating and publishing interactive graphs on the web using public data. Honorable mentions went to:

• David Shakhnazaryan for "Team Batting Statistics" http://tableaufan.blogspot.com/
• Mike Kennedy for "Obesity Plagues the Poor" http://mikepkennedy.com/post/474168274/obesityplaguesthepoor

"We were amazed at the level of interest this contest generated," said Elissa Fink, Vice President of Marketing for Tableau Software. "We had a difficult time selecting the winner from the many submissions we received. The variety of entries submitted reflects the high level of interest people have in telling stories with data."

About Tableau Software

Tableau Software is the leading provider of fast analytics and rapid-fire business intelligence software. Ranked by Inc. Magazine as one of the 500 fastest growing companies, it was also recognized as one of the nation's 25 fastest growing software companies. Its award-winning applications can be downloaded at http://www.tableausoftware.com/trial. They enable anyone to easily create and share interactive data visualizations, business dashboards and analytics, and can scale to organizations of virtually any size or reach.

About ReadWriteWeb

ReadWriteWeb is one of the most popular technology blogs in the world. ReadWriteWeb provides analysis of Web products and trends to an intelligent audience of engaged technology decision makers, Web enthusiasts and innovators and is syndicated by the New York Times. ReadWriteWeb was founded on April 20, 2003 by Richard MacManus. Still grounded in MacManus' thoughtful exploration of emerging trends, ReadWriteWeb is known for offering some of the most insightful commentary available about each day's Internet industry news.

SOURCE Tableau Software