In this article we presented an introduction to Visual Analytics and its relevance for the
Future Internet.We considered the two facets content and infrastructure. Both facets are
characterized by a vast and growing amount of data.
With respect to content in the Future Internet, we have shown that emerging data
visualization platforms for the web derive their value from the relevance of the data that
is analysed with them. Since more and more open and public data becomes available every
day, it is only a matter of time before existing visualization platforms hit scalability
limits – due to the data overload problems at hand – and need to include automated data
analysis functionality. While the analysis of the abundance of text and news available in
modern media like Twitter imposes significant challenges, working on these problems
can have drastic effects on the development of countries, regions and smart cities. We
are thus convinced that targeted research in Visual Analytics can revolutionize the way
in which we interact with content in the Future Internet.
Besides its potential for content, Visual Analytics can play an important role in the
network infrastructure of the Future Internet. Due to the amount of data available from
networking devices, the inherent complexity of the network and the need to immediately
react to failures or attacks, visual and computational support for tasks in this domain can
significantly improve infrastructure planning and testing, as well as network monitoring
and security. We conclude that strengthening the connection between Visual Analytics
and the Future Internet will enable us to build a more secure, reliable and scalable
network.
Since the examples presented show how Visual Analytics is already contributing
solutions to the data overload problem in the Future Internet, we are convinced that the
confluence of both technologies has an enormous potential for being effectively used
for many applications in business, administration and for private use.