Universal visualization platform

A computer program product having encoded thereon computer program tangibly embodied in a machine readable storage device, for implementing a framework system for connecting a plurality of tools, said program including instructions for causing the execution of:

• a plug-in mechanism configured to dynamically load the plurality of tools;
• a data pool having storage space configured to store data sets associated with the plurality of tools, the data set comprising at least one record with data corresponding to a plurality of dimensions associated with the at least one record;
• a linking mechanism configured to establish communications links between the loaded plurality of tools to enable coordinated operation of the loaded plurality of tools, wherein the coordinated operation generates a visual representation in which a position of the at least one record is computed based on a user-configurable spatial distribution of at least a subset of the plurality of dimensions within the visual representation, wherein the user-configurable spatial distribution is configured by dynamically manipulating the position of one or more dimensions within the visual representation;
• a session component configured to record the process history of the operations of the loaded plurality of tool and the system states corresponding to the process history of the operations;
• and
• an annotation module configured to associate user-provided data corresponding to one or more of the stored data sets.