A Swedish researcher, Hans Rosling, has taking the data that governments have hidden in their password protected vaults and created some inspiring visualizations through a new non-profit called Gapminder.

I can fully appreciate the situation. When I was doing an internship at International Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture in Costa Rica I was having the hardest time finding free to use data. I ended up burning some copies of World Bank and UN CDs from the university’s library - which I’m sure is illegal even in Costa Rica - and getting some free data from some websites such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the US.

At least it was enough to convince me it was good enough information. I never did figure out what my bosses thought of me. Probably thought I was nuts.