“Instagram for data”: Grafiti wants to make it easier to create and share data visualizations on smartphones

▤ Summary

The app, one of 11 ventures to emerge out of startup accelerator Matter’s latest class, is a suite of tools designed to make it easier for smartphone users to explore verified datasets, create and tweak charts, and share their findings with others via texting or any of the big social networks — all while on-the-go. While other journalists were able to use their smartphones to tell stories in the moment via text, photos, and video, it was nearly impossible to do the same with charts and data, which required more sophisticated software on his laptop. During his demonstration at Matter’s demo day in October, Mustafa used a hypothetical feud between two friends over the YouTube popularity of the songs “Despacito” and “Gangnam Style” to show how Grafiti’s charts can be the basis for conversations. These days, we have all these conversations about policy and immigration where data comes up, and it’s amazing how much plain text is still used to explain these ideas.” Grafiti is also trying to make its way into newsrooms. Simplifying the process will also help make it easier for reporters who lack intensive data skills to incorporate data in their reporting, which is particularly vital for smaller newsrooms “We want to help make it so that this a normal thing that anyone can use, not limited to teams at places like The Upshot that spend lots of money hiring a great team with interactive developers,” said Mustafa.”We want to figure out how to make all of this more accessible to local newsrooms, which can just plug and play the visualizations.” Grafiti is in different stages of pilot projects or has had conversations with news organizations including The Economist and Thomson Reuters, which are looking for ways to integrate the app in their news production and presentation.

▦ Linked Companies

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$100M to $250M