User:Elissafink/Tableau Software

Tableau Software

Put together an Academy-Award winning professor from Stanford University, a business person with a passion for data, and a young Ph.D. in computer science. Add in a challenging problem in software – making databases and spreadsheets understandable to non-programmers. These were the fundamental ingredients for Tableau.

The catalyst? A Department of Defense (DOD) project aimed at increasing people’s ability to analyze information and brought to Stanford professor Pat Hanrahan. A founding member of Pixar and later its chief architect for RenderMan, Pat invented the technology that changed animated film.

Pat and Chris Stolte, his Ph.D. student, realized that data visualization could produce large gains in people’s ability to understand information. Pat and Chris invented a technology called VizQL which enables database queries to be constructed visually and the results of those queries to be rendered in visual graphics.

While satisfying the DOD project, Pat and Chris met Christian Chabot, a former data analyst who liked what he saw in their invention. The three formed a company and spun out of Stanford. Their company produces three data visualization software applications: Tableau Desktop, Tableau Server and Tableau Reader.

Dr. Dave Waddington, Senior VP and Head of Research at The Information Difference, published an article July 30, 2008 reviewing Tableau Desktop version 4.0. http://www.it-director.com/enterprise/technology/content.php?cid=10645

Chris Kanaracus of IDG News Service wrote an article August 11, 2008 in PC World's online website titled "Tableau Emphasizes Usability, Mapping in 4.0 BI Release". He describes Tableau Software. http://www.pcworld.com/article/149659/article.html?tk=nl_dnxnws