Data Journalism Unconference

We were thrilled to unveil the Flourish prototype at the Data Journalism Unconference last week.

Exciting to be at the GEN #ddjunconf in NYC. Votes are in for the sessions. pic.twitter.com/U97APNtPBW

— Kiln (@k_i_l_n) May 10, 2016

Here’s an extract from the write-up by the organizer Marianne Bouchart of the Global Editors Network:

Data journalism teams can work months — sometimes a whole year — on an investigation, creating some of the most mind-boggling interactive data visualizations. But how sustainable are these graphics over time? Does the code behind them get reused for other projects? Most of the time, the answer is no. So the team at Kiln, an award-winning studio based in London, is set to change this by launching a new platform called Flourish.

Flourish creates stunning data visualizations, interactive stories and presentations.

It also allows media organizations, agencies and developers to turn their bespoke interactive projects into reusable templates that non-coders can easily use with their own data, text, colors, etc. It provides a simple and structured way to tell a story from one or more graphics, enabling users to create interactive walkthroughs, social media videos or offline presentations.

Duncan Clark, co-founder of Kiln, came to the Data Journalism Unconference in New York and showcased Flourish. He explained how templates can be kept private, released to the public or even sold to other Flourish users. And because there is no restrictions on what can be in a template, non-coders can create genuinely stunning professional-quality interactive visuals — such as the evolving WebGL globe shown in the image below, created as a template for Flourish development partner Google News Lab.