This is Ellie Fields from Tableau. We're a for-profit company that provides Tableau Public for free as a public service, because we believe in the power of storytelling with data to enrich public conversations. Many journalists use it, and it is truly free. No hidden costs.

To use Tableau Public, you download the free desktop tool from www.tableaupublic.com and then publish visualizations to our cloud servers. You can then embed live data visualizations on your website or blog, just like a Youtube video.

You can find free training, videos and a discussion forum on tableaupublic.com, or tweet us @tableau.