[Psudo]

I've been researching the institutional structure of the US federal government and playing with some new tricks that browsers are starting to do (namely, canvas tags). The result is this (which doesn't work in IE, and looks best in Chrome):
http://psudo.us/civics_graph.html

It's not interactive or anything, but I'm interested in people's reactions. Is it a useful, informative chart? Is the layout helpful and clear? Should I make more stuff in this style? If so, what?

[JJ]

It's cool! But it seems to be begging to be interactive. I like the idea of something you can click on to keep opening more and more sub-sections. Like, it starts off with just three slices for the three branches, then each slice can sub-divide and sub-divide further and further into all the sub-branches of each department. I'd be very curious how far you could go, since each department of government is divided into so many sub-"offices" these days (ie, media relations, communications, human resources, etc).

[martin14]

nice thingee !

Can you make another thingee, where instead of giving each dept the same size,
thus making the executive too big, to try and make
each dept in relation to its actual size ?

by budget,
by number of people working in it,
etc etc



That would be a cool thingee too

[Psudo]

I'm delighted with the positive feedback. I'll keep you posted as I figure out and implement these ideas. I have some math stuff to figure out first, then I'll start hooking it up to a database. That's a necessary step toward making it navigable, and it'll also let me make different charts for different governments; states, big cities, foreign nations. Maybe conglomerates and the companies and brands they own.

Fair warning: It's GOING to be slow going.

Incidentally, I got the idea from a bit of Mac backup software that uses a big wheel to tell you how much disk space everything is using.

JJ: Just imagine how far the Department of Defense would subdivide! Nothing says "subdivisions" like the military.

Martin14 wrote:

Can you make [...] each dept in relation to its actual size

That was my original idea, but it makes some things invisible and others take up WAY too much room. DoD employs more than 3 million people, or 3/4ths of the whole government, for example. Little else would even be visible.

Once there's navigation, that'll be less of a problem. There will be lots of "Other" sections, though.

martin14 wrote:

[...] the executive too big [...]

Everyone's worried about the Executive wielding too much power these days. ha ha!

[JJ]

Have you ever seen the budget poster? It is a sort of similar idea:
http://www.wallstats.com/deathandtaxes/

[Psudo]

Wow! No, I haven't seen it. Looks like a good source!

[Psudo]

I prettied up my thingie a little (and solved a related math problem). I'll be hooking it up to a database next.

[Psudo]

A little progress. I separated the data from the processing in preparation for loading data from a database and added some modularity flexibility. Now it'll use a longer name for things if there's more room available and a shorter name or acronym if there's less. Also, when you resize the window the wheel turns. Just for fun.