I delivered this shorter version of my Gov. Transformation Through Public Data presentation at the Personal Democracy Forum 2008 in June.
(watch in full screen mode to read the narration). While this version concentrates on government, IMHO the same tools are valid for corporations, with similar benefits, as part of an Enterprise 2.0 strategy.
A combination of automatic, real-time data feeds from government agencies and new Web 2.0 "data visualization" tools can both increase cooperation and operating efficiency within government, and improve the quality of policy debate and encourage people to become actively involved in offering ideas to improve government. NOTE: best viewed in full-screen mode to read notes.
speech delivered during height of US fiscal crisis (10/02/08) to the SustainCommWorld conference on data feeds and visualization as a means to improving management and achieving the "triple bottom line"
Big data, democratized analytics and deep context, CIDPNSI
Paper analyzes how big data, democratized analytics, deep context are changing how we think and do development. Outlines key new technologies, analysis techniques and tools that will have a major impact on development research. Classifies into data, analytics and feedback layer.
A combination of automatic, real-time data feeds from government agencies and new Web 2.0 "data visualization" tools can both increase cooperation and operating efficiency within government, and improve the quality of policy debate and encourage people to become actively involved in offering ideas to improve government. NOTE: best viewed in full-screen mode to read notes.
speech delivered during height of US fiscal crisis (10/02/08) to the SustainCommWorld conference on data feeds and visualization as a means to improving management and achieving the "triple bottom line"
Big data, democratized analytics and deep context, CIDPNSI
Paper analyzes how big data, democratized analytics, deep context are changing how we think and do development. Outlines key new technologies, analysis techniques and tools that will have a major impact on development research. Classifies into data, analytics and feedback layer.
My presentation to "Transparency Camp 09", about how to go beyond transparency to an integrated strategy based on "democratizing data" (structuring and syndicating it and providing social media analysis tools to share it). This integrated strategy will provide transparency, give workers the real-time information they need, reform government regulation, cut corporate paperwork, and crowdsource innovation. It may, or may not, cure the common cold under certain conditions.
Presented at TechTonic Tuesday hosted by NCTechConnection.
The promise of Blockchain : This sessions will cover important aspects of Blockchain technology that underlies Bitcoin and how this will impact the world we live in.
Rajiv Bio:
Rajiv is an educator, entrepreneur, risk manager and a technology management executive. He has co-founded and worked at startup companies in the Sacramento area. At present he is President of Laru Technologies, which leverages Business Intelligence methodologies to help Financial Institutions monitor payment risk. He is also an adjunct professor at Sacramento State University where he teaches Technology Management for Executives as part of the EMBA curriculum.
Introduction to open data for state and local US government. Describes open data activities in Chicago in 2012 leading up to Apps for Metro Chicago contest. Introduces groups working on open data.
Blockchain insider | Chapter 3 : Smart MoneyKoh How Tze
What we have now is truly borderless, programmable money
backed by immutable computer systems based on pure logic & mathematics.
3.1 ABCDs That Are Changing The World
3.2 A Century of Technology Innovation
3.3 Two Monetary Worlds
3.4 Three Phases of Cryptocurrencies
Corporate Currency
CBDC, Central Bank-issued Digital Currency
The Money Flower
Money Trees
3.5 The Creation of Capital In Its Simplest Form
3.6 Incentivizing Good Behaviour
Smart Mobility - Ethical Driving and Data Sharing
Resilient City - Impactful Positive Behaviors
Social Contributions - Datanomics
3.7 Bringing Down Borders
Assets Backed Tokens
Security Token Offering
Do We Need A Nation-State Backed Crypto Exchange?
Blockchaining Sukuk
3.8 Summary
Programmable Money for Effective Resources Distribution
It’s time for Cross Metaverse communitiesNext Earth
NextEarth.io. Learn how Next Earth empowers metaverse communities to operate in a way much similar to the real-world scenario.
Transparent Digital Land Purchasing Platform.
Join NextEarth.io.
BUY LAND BEFORE OTHERS!
Imagining and Empowering: Rethinking and Retooling for the Digital Future(s)Gigi Johnson
Enjoy my keynote presentation slides from the Friends of the National Library of Medicine on "Post-Pandemic Libraries: The Upcoming Era of Change". My session, which started the day, was about "Imagining and Empowering: Rethinking and Retooling for the Digital Future(s)". Add'l info: linktr.ee/gigijohnson
Computing for Human Experience: Sensors, Perception, Semantics, Social Comput...Amit Sheth
Keynote at the 3rd Asian Semantic Web Conference (ASWC2008), Bangkok, Thailand, Feb 2-5, 2009. http://aswc2008.ait.ac.th/invitedspeaker2.html
More details: http://wiki.knoesis.org/index.php/Computing_For_Human_Experience
Like marketers, eGovernment agencies seek to
connect with their audiences online to serve
them better and build strong relationships.
From blogs to social networks to Twitter,
governments are testing social media channels to encourage participation. But will tactics that work for consumers succeed with citizens?
The New Who and the myth of customer empowermentMoxie Insight
This presentation by Naumi Haque and Jeff DeChambeau explores how the enterprise needs to reevaluate its understanding of "who" its customers are to take into account today's data-rich consumer lifestyle.
My presentation to "Transparency Camp 09", about how to go beyond transparency to an integrated strategy based on "democratizing data" (structuring and syndicating it and providing social media analysis tools to share it). This integrated strategy will provide transparency, give workers the real-time information they need, reform government regulation, cut corporate paperwork, and crowdsource innovation. It may, or may not, cure the common cold under certain conditions.
Presented at TechTonic Tuesday hosted by NCTechConnection.
The promise of Blockchain : This sessions will cover important aspects of Blockchain technology that underlies Bitcoin and how this will impact the world we live in.
Rajiv Bio:
Rajiv is an educator, entrepreneur, risk manager and a technology management executive. He has co-founded and worked at startup companies in the Sacramento area. At present he is President of Laru Technologies, which leverages Business Intelligence methodologies to help Financial Institutions monitor payment risk. He is also an adjunct professor at Sacramento State University where he teaches Technology Management for Executives as part of the EMBA curriculum.
Introduction to open data for state and local US government. Describes open data activities in Chicago in 2012 leading up to Apps for Metro Chicago contest. Introduces groups working on open data.
Blockchain insider | Chapter 3 : Smart MoneyKoh How Tze
What we have now is truly borderless, programmable money
backed by immutable computer systems based on pure logic & mathematics.
3.1 ABCDs That Are Changing The World
3.2 A Century of Technology Innovation
3.3 Two Monetary Worlds
3.4 Three Phases of Cryptocurrencies
Corporate Currency
CBDC, Central Bank-issued Digital Currency
The Money Flower
Money Trees
3.5 The Creation of Capital In Its Simplest Form
3.6 Incentivizing Good Behaviour
Smart Mobility - Ethical Driving and Data Sharing
Resilient City - Impactful Positive Behaviors
Social Contributions - Datanomics
3.7 Bringing Down Borders
Assets Backed Tokens
Security Token Offering
Do We Need A Nation-State Backed Crypto Exchange?
Blockchaining Sukuk
3.8 Summary
Programmable Money for Effective Resources Distribution
It’s time for Cross Metaverse communitiesNext Earth
NextEarth.io. Learn how Next Earth empowers metaverse communities to operate in a way much similar to the real-world scenario.
Transparent Digital Land Purchasing Platform.
Join NextEarth.io.
BUY LAND BEFORE OTHERS!
Imagining and Empowering: Rethinking and Retooling for the Digital Future(s)Gigi Johnson
Enjoy my keynote presentation slides from the Friends of the National Library of Medicine on "Post-Pandemic Libraries: The Upcoming Era of Change". My session, which started the day, was about "Imagining and Empowering: Rethinking and Retooling for the Digital Future(s)". Add'l info: linktr.ee/gigijohnson
Computing for Human Experience: Sensors, Perception, Semantics, Social Comput...Amit Sheth
Keynote at the 3rd Asian Semantic Web Conference (ASWC2008), Bangkok, Thailand, Feb 2-5, 2009. http://aswc2008.ait.ac.th/invitedspeaker2.html
More details: http://wiki.knoesis.org/index.php/Computing_For_Human_Experience
Like marketers, eGovernment agencies seek to
connect with their audiences online to serve
them better and build strong relationships.
From blogs to social networks to Twitter,
governments are testing social media channels to encourage participation. But will tactics that work for consumers succeed with citizens?
The New Who and the myth of customer empowermentMoxie Insight
This presentation by Naumi Haque and Jeff DeChambeau explores how the enterprise needs to reevaluate its understanding of "who" its customers are to take into account today's data-rich consumer lifestyle.
Generations and Geography - White PaperMoxie Insight
Many of our most powerful and lasting beliefs are formed when we are teenagers, when we first shift our focus from tangible objects and begin to wrestle with the values and ideas in the world around us. What we see and hear—and the conclusions we draw—influence for our lifetimes what we value, how we measure success, whom we trust, and the priorities we set for our own lives, including the role work will play within it.
Geography significantly influences the formation of generational beliefs and behavior. Each country’s unique social, political, and economic events shape specific views and attitudes among today’s adults. Understanding these country-to-country differences is critical to creating employment deals that attract and retain the best employees in each geographic area. Western generational models cannot be applied broadly to a global workforce.
Understanding individuals’ backgrounds and resultant perspectives or mental models both within generations and across geographies helps leaders grapple with the diversity, challenges, and potential of a global workforce. Better understanding leads to greater empathy for the “other guy’s” point of view and, ultimately, provides the foundation for more effective and efficient talent management practices.
By Tammy Erickson & Tim Bevins
my talk to 2/12/09 O'Reilly IgniteBoston, emphasizing that passage of economic stimulus package, combined with current economy, is perfect time to introduce data-centric "democratizing data" approach, giving workers, regulators, public, watchdogs real-time access to critical information! Video version: http://tinyurl.com/c9vkjy
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Statistics: Visualizing Data
Introductory Essay from the Locks
The Reality Today
All of us now are being blasted by information design. It's being poured into our eyes
through the Web, and we're all visualizers now; we're all demanding a visual aspect to
our information… And if you're navigating a dense information jungle, coming across
a beautiful graphic or a lovely data visualization, it's a relief, it's like coming across a
clearing in the jungle. –David McCandless
In today’s complex ‘information jungle,’ David McCandless observes that “Data is the new soil.”
McCandless, a data journalist and information designer, celebrates data as a ubiquitous resource
providing a fertile and creative medium from which new ideas and understanding can grow.
McCandless’s inspiration, statistician Hans Rosling, builds on this idea in his own TEDTalk with his
compelling image of flowers growing out of data/soil. These ‘flowers’ represent the many insights that
can be gleaned from effective visualization of data.
We’re just learning how to till this soil and make sense of the mountains of data constantly being
generated. As Gary King, Director of Harvard’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science says in his New
York Times article “The Age of Big Data”:
“It’s a revolution. We’re really just getting under way. But the march of quantification,
made possible by enormous new sources of data, will sweep through academia,
business and government. There is no area that is going to be untouched.”
How do we deal with all this data without getting information overload? How do we use data
to gain real insight into the world? Finding ways to pull interesting information out of data can
be very rewarding, both personally and professionally. The managing editor of Financial Times
observed on CNN’s Your Money: “The people who are able to in a sophisticated and practical
way analyze that data are going to have terrific jobs." Those who learn how to present data in
effective ways will be valuable in every field.
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Many people, when they think of data, think of tables filled with numbers. But this long-held notion is
eroding. Today, we’re generating streams of data that are often too complex to be presented in a
simple “table.” In his TEDTalk, Blaise Aguera y Arcas explores images as data, while Deb Roy uses
audio, video, and the text messages in social media as data.
Some may also think that only a few specialized professionals can draw insights from data. When we
look at data in the right way, however, the results can be fun, insightful, even whimsical--and accessible
to everyone! Who knew, for example, that there are more relationship break-ups on Monday than on
any other day of the week, or that ...
Deling av data: ”Tenke det, ønske det, ville det med, men gjøre det...?”Stian Danenbarger
Presentation on sharing of open data held for the Norwegian government's "Forum for Large Public Web Sites", early in June 2009, soon after Data.gov went live. The talk was in Norwegian, but the PPT actually contains more English than Norwegian text...
Decision Support Systems (DSS) are evolving to become Learning Support Systems (LSS), in this presentation I share my views on this topic and an approach on how the current DSS can be re-purposed by implementing a technology-agnostic, yet adaptable Knowledge Engineering Value Chain (KEVC).
Big Data make us with superpowers: keep it in mind when thinking how to use itSkender Kollcaku
We will be producing more data every year than in the previous 100,000 years (faster and faster). Data will be mostly processed by machines, a lot of machines.
Data will generate more data (think about engines, self-driving cars, sensors, wearables, unstructured data). New types of data require new interdisciplinary approach (how do you index
a personal mood or humor?)
A introductory lecture on how international media is using data visualization to tell stories. Some live demonstrations in the class are not reflected in the slides. Also the in-class exercises are not included.
The IoT Can Spark Total Management Revolution: the Circular CompanyW. David Stephenson
My address to PTC's LiveWorx '17 conference on how the IoT can spark a total management revolution, away from linear and hierarchical organization, to the "circular company," in which departments (and even trusted outsiders) collaborate in real-time around a shared IoT data base
Speech to first year graduate students at Babson College on the attitudinal shifts that will allow the IoT to transform business away from hierarchy to innovative circular organizations
My speech to the Hong Kong IoT Association about how instantly shared real-time IoT data can transform companies and allow highly efficient and creative circular organizations
My presentation to the 2015 IoT Global Summit about keeping seniors healthier and happier, in their homes, through a combination of Internet of Things devices
My presentation @ the Wearables + Things conference about "Smart Aging," my paradigm shift about improving the quality of seniors' lives and reducing the cost by combining Quantified Self health devices and smart home devices.
"Smart Aging" combines two aspects of the Internet of Things, Quantified Self devices to record your health and fitness data and smart home technologies, specifically to allow seniors to "age in place" and improve their health, while simultaneously reducing their living costs.
A presentation I gave to the Boston/New England Internet of Things Meetup on June 17, 2013 about the overlooked human communications aspects of the IoT that must be dealt with if its full potential is to be realized! In particular, I argued we will need new management styles and thinking for an era in which every worker can have shared, real-time access to data that would help them do their jobs more effectively and make better decisions. Finally, I suggested we need a new kind of organizational chart -- Buckyball Management -- modeled on the buckyball molecule, in which there's no vertical hierarchy, but every person is a value-creating "node," capable of collaborating with every other person.
Presentation to National Academy of Science workshop on Public Response to Alerts and Warnings Using Social Media. I argued that the citizen science model, in which volunteers contribute to substantive scientific research, is a great model for how to involve the general public in making accurate, actionable social media posts (Twitter, Twitvid, Facebook) that first responders can use to direct their efforts in a disaster.
My presentation to the XBRL 23 conference, in which I outlined my vision of the "One Report," in which companies would manage internal reporting on a real-time basis using XBRL Global Ledger, then seamlessly compile government & other external reports.
This summarizes my concept of a transformation in which data is only entered once (by government, businesses or the public), automatically tagged with metadata, and then flows, preferably on a real-time basis, to anyone who needs it (limited only by their roles), plus tools to use and interpret the data. The results will be new goods & services, transparency, and economical operations!
Making public true partners in H1N1 preparation & response through creative use of social media tools such as Twitter and wikis. My presentation for a 10/29/09 webinar also involving presos by Google, Microsoft & CDC.
Democratizing Data to transform gov., business & daily lifeW. David Stephenson
A speech to the Tableau Customer Conference 2009 based on the author's forthcoming "Democratizing Data" book, arguing that a combination of real-time structured data feeds and tools such as the Tableau visualization software can empower entire workforces, cut operating costs, encourage coooperation, and foster crowdsourcing.
My keynote @ the GOVIS conference in New Zealand, in which I outlined a comprehensive "democratizing data" strategy, its benefits given the current global economic/political crisis, & challenged New Zealand to take the world lead in making the concept a reality
Personal Brand Statement:
As an Army veteran dedicated to lifelong learning, I bring a disciplined, strategic mindset to my pursuits. I am constantly expanding my knowledge to innovate and lead effectively. My journey is driven by a commitment to excellence, and to make a meaningful impact in the world.
Cracking the Workplace Discipline Code Main.pptxWorkforce Group
Cultivating and maintaining discipline within teams is a critical differentiator for successful organisations.
Forward-thinking leaders and business managers understand the impact that discipline has on organisational success. A disciplined workforce operates with clarity, focus, and a shared understanding of expectations, ultimately driving better results, optimising productivity, and facilitating seamless collaboration.
Although discipline is not a one-size-fits-all approach, it can help create a work environment that encourages personal growth and accountability rather than solely relying on punitive measures.
In this deck, you will learn the significance of workplace discipline for organisational success. You’ll also learn
• Four (4) workplace discipline methods you should consider
• The best and most practical approach to implementing workplace discipline.
• Three (3) key tips to maintain a disciplined workplace.
Company Valuation webinar series - Tuesday, 4 June 2024FelixPerez547899
This session provided an update as to the latest valuation data in the UK and then delved into a discussion on the upcoming election and the impacts on valuation. We finished, as always with a Q&A
[Note: This is a partial preview. To download this presentation, visit:
https://www.oeconsulting.com.sg/training-presentations]
Sustainability has become an increasingly critical topic as the world recognizes the need to protect our planet and its resources for future generations. Sustainability means meeting our current needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs. It involves long-term planning and consideration of the consequences of our actions. The goal is to create strategies that ensure the long-term viability of People, Planet, and Profit.
Leading companies such as Nike, Toyota, and Siemens are prioritizing sustainable innovation in their business models, setting an example for others to follow. In this Sustainability training presentation, you will learn key concepts, principles, and practices of sustainability applicable across industries. This training aims to create awareness and educate employees, senior executives, consultants, and other key stakeholders, including investors, policymakers, and supply chain partners, on the importance and implementation of sustainability.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Develop a comprehensive understanding of the fundamental principles and concepts that form the foundation of sustainability within corporate environments.
2. Explore the sustainability implementation model, focusing on effective measures and reporting strategies to track and communicate sustainability efforts.
3. Identify and define best practices and critical success factors essential for achieving sustainability goals within organizations.
CONTENTS
1. Introduction and Key Concepts of Sustainability
2. Principles and Practices of Sustainability
3. Measures and Reporting in Sustainability
4. Sustainability Implementation & Best Practices
To download the complete presentation, visit: https://www.oeconsulting.com.sg/training-presentations
3.0 Project 2_ Developing My Brand Identity Kit.pptxtanyjahb
A personal brand exploration presentation summarizes an individual's unique qualities and goals, covering strengths, values, passions, and target audience. It helps individuals understand what makes them stand out, their desired image, and how they aim to achieve it.
Improving profitability for small businessBen Wann
In this comprehensive presentation, we will explore strategies and practical tips for enhancing profitability in small businesses. Tailored to meet the unique challenges faced by small enterprises, this session covers various aspects that directly impact the bottom line. Attendees will learn how to optimize operational efficiency, manage expenses, and increase revenue through innovative marketing and customer engagement techniques.
Kseniya Leshchenko: Shared development support service model as the way to ma...Lviv Startup Club
Kseniya Leshchenko: Shared development support service model as the way to make small projects with small budgets profitable for the company (UA)
Kyiv PMDay 2024 Summer
Website – www.pmday.org
Youtube – https://www.youtube.com/startuplviv
FB – https://www.facebook.com/pmdayconference
1. Gimme back my data!
government transformation
by data visualization
Personal Democracy Forum 2008
June 24, 2008
W. David Stephenson
Stephenson Strategies
1
Remember the end of “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” when the Ark of the Covenant was moved to a government warehouse? You knew it would never be
seen again.
That’s what seems to happen with a lot of government data. We pay taxes to collect them. Our activities and lives are their raw material. They determine
whether many of us get more government benefits and which states and communities get grants.
But once they’re collected, most citizens -- and a lot of government employees for that matter -- don’t have a clue where government data are stored or how
they’re used. Even worse, that robs us of important tools that could improve government’s performance and cut its operating costs.
2. 2
Fast forward to 2008. Lo and behold, in the latest Indiana Jones sequel, Indy retrieves the Ark!
In my book, that’s an omen that you can’t keep things hidden forever!
Similarly, closely-controlled and long-lost government data are being liberated by the growing demand for transparency by watchdog groups, the media --
and us.
3. 3
Beyond shedding light on how government operates, far-reaching and unprecedented change can result when we make reams of data available, plus tools to
portray them visually.
Generally acknowledged as the leading thinker on data graphics, Edward Tufte says that even the most skilled statisticians often find representing data
visually is the most insightful way of making sense of them:
quot;Modern data graphics can do much more than simply substitute for small statistical tables. At their best, graphics are instruments
for reasoning about quantitative information. Often the most effective way to describe, explore and summarize a set of numbers -- even a
very large set -- is to look at pictures of those numbers. Furthermore, of all methods for analyzing and communicating statistical
information, well-designed data graphics are usually the simplest and at the same time the most powerful.”
This example is a Google mashup Jon Udell whipped up quickly to highlight pothole complaints to the DC Department of Public Works, and track -- on a
real-time basis (because the city releases that data automatically) -- the repairs’ status.
Sure, you might find that information in a chart, but who’d sift through pages of records in hopes of possibly finding the one or two that applied to their
neighborhood? By contrast, if you saw this map, and lived near one of the pointers, wouldn’t curiosity compel you to click on it? Wouldn’t the fact that it includes
not only information about where the pothole is and when the complaint was made, but also the repair status TODAY, both fascinate you -- and provoke you to call
the DPW if it’s now 3 months later and the map shows the repair still hasn’t been made?
Thus, a simple map can be the impetus for citizen awareness – and greater agency accountability.
Incidentally, this example also illustrates an important aspect of data visualizations: while many are done by organizations, many are done by individuals
with a passion for a specific issue, such as..
4. 4
… Rami Tabello’s illegalsigns.ca, documenting illegal billboards in Toronto ….
6. 6
…. and Jacqueline DuPree’s documentation of neighborhood issues in Southeast D.C.
7. 7
Some visualizations combine various data bases to illustrate convergence, contrasts or possible causality.
This example is Neighborhood Knowledge Los Angeles, a collaboration between UCLA and community activists. Their motto: “neighborhood improvement
and recovery is not just for the experts.”
This is an great example of data visualization’s impact, because it combines and maps data on 7 “problem indicators” (including code violations, property tax
delinquencies, and fire records, etc.) that might have otherwise remained isolated within city government. When you see so many danger signs are repeated on a
map of a single block, that’s a red flag to city officials to intervene NOW with coordinated services to halt the decline.
8. 8
Still other data graphics give context to global issues, which can seem so massive and complex that many of us shy away from trying to understand, let alone
to influence them.
None are as eye-catching, and informative as the visualizations on issues facing developing nations created by the Gapminder Foundation using its
innovative, animated Trendalyzer software. Goggle now offers Trendalyzer for general use under the Motion Chart name, so perhaps they will become
commonplace.
This static screengrab can't do justice to the powerful additional understanding gained when you view one of Gapminder’s animated trend diagrams!
9. “
… put together big enough and diverse
enough groups of people & ask them to
make decisions affecting [the] general
interest, [and] that group's decisions will,
over time, be intellectually superior to the
isolated individual, no matter how smart or
well-informed he is.
”
-- The Wisdom of Crowds
9
Equally important, web-based data visualization sites often include a variety of community-building Web 2.0 such as topic hubs, tags, and discussion areas.
They make it easy to focus many individuals’ and groups’ attention on a policy issue, increasing the chance that new insights will emerge precisely because of the
interplay of so many perspectives.
As James Surowiecki wrote in “The Wisdom of Crowds,” “… put together big enough and diverse enough groups of people & ask them to make decisions
affecting matters of general interest, [and] that group's decisions will, over time, be intellectually superior to the isolated individual, no matter how smart or well-
informed he is.quot;
10. Text
Text
Text
Text
1 st: release the data
10
Successful governmental data visualization projects include two components.
The first is to release data -- plenty of it -- in easy-to use, easy-to-find, ways.
Sure, some motivated, technologically- sophisticated individuals can create informative data visualizations the hard way, by “scrapping” data from
governmental web sites.
However, now that it is so simple to create data feeds such as RSS that are generated automatically as new data are added, there’s little rationale not to do so.
In fact, Princeton researchers recently released a paper making a startling assertion:
“Rather than struggling, as it currently does, to design sites that meet each end-user’s need, we argue that the executive branch should focus on creating a
simple, reliable and publicly accessible infrastructure that exposes the underlying data”
11. 11
Several federal and state agencies now publish a variety of data feeds.
The most exciting model is the District of Columbia’s Citywide Data Warehouse. It provides real-time numerical and geospatial feeds, drawn from more than
150 data sets, ranging from crime reports to to building permits to those pothole complaints.
12. 2 nd: visualize data
12
The second major component of a public data project is to help people find simple-to-use ways to portray the data visually. A growing range of new Web
2.0-based visualization tools are readily available. Several of the commercial sites now offer secure versions making it simple for agencies to also add internal
visualization sites.
The creators of IBM’s Many Eyes say:
“Our goal is to ‘democratize’ visualization and to enable a new social kind of data analysis …. All of us ... are passionate about the potential of data
visualization to spark insight. It is that magical moment we live for: an unwieldy, unyielding data set is transformed into an image on the screen, and
suddenly the user can perceive an unexpected pattern.
“As visualization designers we have witnessed and experienced many of those wondrous sparks. But in recent years, we have become acutely aware that
the visualizations and the sparks they generate, take on new value in a social setting. Visualization is a catalyst for discussion and collective insight about
data .... When we share it and discuss it, we understand it in new ways.”
This particular visualization was the first one that I personally created, to help understand patterns in DHS's disbursement of funds for one of its programs.
The simple-to-understand directions allowed me to upload the data and create the visualization in a matter of minutes.
14. Transparency begins at home
14
Here’s a great way for government agencies to ease into public data feeds and data visualization: follow the District of Columbia's lead, and apply the same
strategy behind the firewall first.
After all, agencies’ employees may be struggling with incompatible data bases, may need to reach across agency “silos” to see if there might be synergies
between programs, and employees from another agency may be able to provide new insights simply because of their differing life experiences and expertise.
Also, as more young workers, who have never known life without the Web, join governmental workforces, they’ll naturally ask why tools they’ve used can’t be
used in government. A data graphics project can empower them and tap their expertise.
15. Let 1,000 mashups bloom!
15
Once an agency has done this behind-the-scenes work and realized value from an internal data visualization program, the prospect of a parallel set of public
data feeds and a data visualization site is less worrisome.
As the public becomes more at ease with readily-available data visualization tools and sees the benefits of ad hoc projects such as illegalsigns.ca, they will do
more and more data visualizations whether or not agencies facilitate them. If that’s the case, why shouldn’t government also reap the benefits of growing public
understanding and insight?
16. The payoff: transformation!
16
The potential benefits are many, and varied:
• more informed policy debate, grounded in fact, rather than rhetoric
• consensus building
• better legislation
• greater transparency and less corruption: greater accountability
• optimizing program efficiency and reducing costs:
• new perspectives, especially when “the wisdom of crowds” emerges.
Who would have believed that dry data -- with a healthy doses of Web 2.0 magic -- could become the engine to involve the public
in governmental transformation!
17. Stephenson Strategies
335 Main Street, Medfield, MA 02052
(617) 314-7858
17
To learn more about transparent government and how to create the processes and policies to make it a reality, contact:
Stephenson Strategies 335 Main Street, Medfield, MA 02052 (617) 314-7858 D.Stephenson@stephensonstrategies.com