The Visualization 2004 Contest was a new event in 2004 created to foster comparison of novel and established techniques, provide benchmarks for the community, and create an exciting venue for discussion at the conference.
The contest was open to everyone (excluding the contest organizers and judges)—individuals or teams from academia, industry, or elsewhere. Students and student teams were highly encouraged to participate. Existing tools and research prototypes could have been used, and different tools could be combined where desired. The entries were judged upon the completeness of the solution (with regards to the given tasks) and the effectiveness of the solution. Partial answers focusing on a particular dataset, aspect of a task, etc. were acceptable.