1. Empowering People with Data
UN Word Data Form
1/17/2017
Rahul Bhargava
Research Scientist
@rahulbot
2
Empowering People with Data
Rahul Bhargava
rahulb@mit.edu
@rahulbot
Tips and Tricks for Creative Data Literacy
Research Scientist
Civic Media Group - MIT Media Lab
www.datatherapy.org
www.databasic.io
2. Empowering People with Data
UN Word Data Form
1/17/2017
Rahul Bhargava
Research Scientist
@rahulbot
3
Research Scientist
MIT Center for Civic Media
Civic Media Group, MIT Media Lab
Participants sketching a
data story
Painting a data mural
About Me
3. Empowering People with Data
UN Word Data Form
1/17/2017
Rahul Bhargava
Research Scientist
@rahulbot
4
This Workshop
1. Introduction
2. A fun “data sculpture” activity
3. Opportunities for engagement around data
4. A “story sketching” activity
5. Conclusion
4. Empowering People with Data
UN Word Data Form
1/17/2017
Rahul Bhargava
Research Scientist
@rahulbot
5
Data is an asset…
improve
operations
spread the
message
bring people
together
5. Empowering People with Data
UN Word Data Form
1/17/2017
Rahul Bhargava
Research Scientist
@rahulbot
6
…but is it empowering?
• Lack of transparency
• Extractive collection practices
• Technological complexity
• Control of impact
no awareness for subject
no agency for subject
no understanding for subject
no participation by subject
D’Ignazio, C., & Bhargava, R. (2015). Approaches to Building Big Data Literacy. In Bloomberg Data for Good Exchange 2015. New York, NY, USA.
6. Empowering People with Data
UN Word Data Form
1/17/2017
Rahul Bhargava
Research Scientist
@rahulbot
7
How do we empower
people with data?
7. Empowering People with Data
UN Word Data Form
1/17/2017
Rahul Bhargava
Research Scientist
@rahulbot
8
Let’s Make Data Sculptures!
• Read your data handout
• Find a partner
• Grab some craft materials
• Make a sculpture that shows something you see in the data
Be creative - don’t just make a bar chart out of blocks!
8. Empowering People with Data
UN Word Data Form
1/17/2017
Rahul Bhargava
Research Scientist
@rahulbot
9
Let’s Make Data Sculptures! you have 8 minutes
9. Empowering People with Data
UN Word Data Form
1/17/2017
Rahul Bhargava
Research Scientist
@rahulbot
10
A Creative Approach to
Data Literacy
10. Empowering People with Data
UN Word Data Form
1/17/2017
Rahul Bhargava
Research Scientist
@rahulbot
11
Data-dense, visually complex, representations
of complex data-driven stories are held up as
inspirations.
Visual Explanations
Edward R. Tufte
Tableau Software
The Usual Guiding Lights
11. Empowering People with Data
UN Word Data Form
1/17/2017
Rahul Bhargava
Research Scientist
@rahulbot
12
Low-tech, arts-based presentations of
data-driven stories can be more
appropriate for engaging and
empowering many types of audiences.
A Chronological History of the United States
Elizabeth Peabody
1856
A hand-made data visualization
A Richer Set of Inspirations
12. Empowering People with Data
UN Word Data Form
1/17/2017
Rahul Bhargava
Research Scientist
@rahulbot
13
Opportunities for Engagement
Asking
questions
Gathering
data
Finding a
story
Telling
your story
Trying it
out
brainstorming
hypothesis forming
participatory collection
analysis
collaborative creation
evaluation
13. Empowering People with Data
UN Word Data Form
1/17/2017
Rahul Bhargava
Research Scientist
@rahulbot
14
Charting crop production and rainfall trends over time
Praxis India
#1 – Rural Data Analysis
Making a radar-cart on the floor
Praxis India
Praxis India
14. Empowering People with Data
UN Word Data Form
1/17/2017
Rahul Bhargava
Research Scientist
@rahulbot
15
Mobile data collection around the city
@GoBoston2030 on Twitter
#2 – Participatory Analysis in GoBoston2030
Participatory analysis at an Imagine Boston community workshop
@ImagineBoston on Twitter
Interaction Institute for Social Change
15. Empowering People with Data
UN Word Data Form
1/17/2017
Rahul Bhargava
Research Scientist
@rahulbot
16
Participants sketching mural design ideas
#3 – A Data Mural in Brazil
Painting the mural
Rahul and Emily Bhargava, Secretary of Minas Gerais, Brazil
Bhargava, R., Kadouaki, R., Bhargava, E., Castro, G., & D’Ignazio, C. (2016). Data Murals:
Using the Arts to Build Data Literacy. The Journal of Community Informatics, 12(3).
16. Empowering People with Data
UN Word Data Form
1/17/2017
Rahul Bhargava
Research Scientist
@rahulbot
17
A Chronological History of the United States
Elizabeth Peabody - 1856
#4 – The Fabric of History
Elizabeth Peabody
Library of Congress
Elizabeth Peabody
17. Empowering People with Data
UN Word Data Form
1/17/2017
Rahul Bhargava
Research Scientist
@rahulbot
18
Sketching a Story
18. Empowering People with Data
UN Word Data Form
1/17/2017
Rahul Bhargava
Research Scientist
@rahulbot
19
DataBasic.io
A suite of tools and activities for learning to work with data
19. Empowering People with Data
UN Word Data Form
1/17/2017
Rahul Bhargava
Research Scientist
@rahulbot
20
wordcounter.databasic.io
20. Empowering People with Data
UN Word Data Form
1/17/2017
Rahul Bhargava
Research Scientist
@rahulbot
21
A word cloud of results
Word Counter Results
Downloadable lists of the most common word and phrases
21. Empowering People with Data
UN Word Data Form
1/17/2017
Rahul Bhargava
Research Scientist
@rahulbot
22
Let’s Sketch a Story!
• Make a team of 3 or 4 people
• Visit wordcounter.databasic.io & pick a sample dataset
• Find a quick story to you think is interesting
• Grab paper, markers, and sketch out your story visually
you have 15 minutes
Be creative and have fun!
22. Empowering People with Data
UN Word Data Form
1/17/2017
Rahul Bhargava
Research Scientist
@rahulbot
23
We Can Use Data To Empower
23. Empowering People with Data
UN Word Data Form
1/17/2017
Rahul Bhargava
Research Scientist
@rahulbot
24
Fun > Sexy
Self-defined
Self-motivated
Substantive
Fake-able
Fun
✔
✔
✔
❌
Sexy
?
❌
❌
✔
24. Empowering People with Data
UN Word Data Form
1/17/2017
Rahul Bhargava
Research Scientist
@rahulbot
25
Opportunities for Engagement
Asking
questions
Gathering
data
Finding a
story
Telling
your story
Trying it
out
brainstorming
hypothesis forming
participatory collection
analysis
collaborative creation
evaluation
This builds cross-sector trust!
25. Empowering People with Data
UN Word Data Form
1/17/2017
Rahul Bhargava
Research Scientist
@rahulbot
26
datatherapy.org
Quick summaries available
Still looking for funding to develop a
toolkit
More Activities on datatherapy.org
26. Empowering People with Data
UN Word Data Form
1/17/2017
Rahul Bhargava
Research Scientist
@rahulbot
27
Use Your Data Assets Wisely
improve
operations
spread the
message
bring people
together
27. Empowering People with Data
UN Word Data Form
1/17/2017
Rahul Bhargava
Research Scientist
@rahulbot
28
Empowering People with Data
Rahul Bhargava
rahulb@mit.edu
@rahulbot
Tips and Tricks for Creative Data Literacy
Research Scientist
Civic Media Group - MIT Media Lab
www.datatherapy.org
www.databasic.io
Hinweis der Redaktion
I'm Rahul Bhargava, I run Data Therapy and created DataBasic with Catherine D'Ignazio
I'm a researcher (Center for Civic Media and teach at MIT - data storytelling studio)
I run workshops like this one all over the world - we’ll get hands-on today with these ideas
Goals:
- Shared agreement that data driven processes should be more participatory
- Inspirational examples of how to make data more participatory
- Experience with activities to include people in a data process
We all probably agree that data is an asset
can be used to spread the message, optimize operations, and bring people together
1) Token approval from subject, = no awareness for subject
2) Collected by 3rd parties, for their own purposes= no agency for subject
3) Analyzed with jargon-heavy digital tools = no understanding for subject
4) Decisions made by collector or analyzer = no participation for subject
With these challenges in mind, how do we do this better?
That’s the subject of this workshop
Fun is intrinsic, sexy is extrinsic
Lets try a quick activity to see
Check your handouts for this data
Find a partner, grab some materials,
With these challenges in mind, how do we do this better?
That’s the subject of this workshop
The inspiratinos we look to matter
Colored dots on black lines are not accessible
There is a richer history that we can pull from, if we look across disciplines, and it uses the power of the arts to engage people
One version of a process for going from data to story
Other people use circles, triangles, etc.
All these are opportunities to engage people
rely on physical mappings to represent the data
Might recognize this from Hans Rosling’s famous videos with rocks, but this is participatory
Inspiring because it shows even traditional charts and graphs can work with rural audiences
Boston wanted a participatory approach to longer term strategic planning as it pertains to transit
Collected qualitative data for a few months
Brought together community to analyze it
Educator, innovator, feminist
Included these visualizations of history in her books
Grid was a year, color was country, sub-rectangle was type of event
Drew them on giant fabrics, toured with them, and stood around them and talked about history
We created a quite of tools to help bring these inspirations to the digital age
Share back afterwards
We created a quite of tools to help bring these inspirations to the digital age
Hopefully with these inspirations I’ve demonstrate a different approach to including people in data analysis, aligned with bringing people together and spreading the message
each point is an opportunity
We do have some funding coming in to build a NGO-specific entry point to DataBasic,
In addition to DataBasic, my activities are all online on datatherapy.org
Hoping for funding to turn these offline activities into a toolkit, or at least write them up better
We all probably agree that data is an asset
can be used to spread the message, optimize operations, and bring people together
Checkout datatherapy.org, and databasic.io for more of this type of thing