The document outlines the fundamentals of data and content design, highlighting the significance of data as individual units of information which transform into meaningful information through analysis. It covers historical perspectives on data gathering and visualization spanning from ancient tools to modern statistical practices, illustrating developments from tally sticks to contemporary data journalism. Key figures in the evolution of data representation, such as Florence Nightingale and John Snow, are discussed, showcasing their contributions to understanding and presenting data effectively.

1. data & content design
Frieda Brioschi - frieda.brioschi@gmail.com
Emma Tracanella - emma.tracanella@gmail.com
WHAT ARE DATA AND INFORMATION,
WHY THEY MATTER
LESSON 1 - 2020/21

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HERE WE ARE
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EMMA TRACANELLA FRIEDA BRIOSCHI

3. A QUICK INTRO
LET’S START

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LESSON 1
THE MATERIAL
‣ progettareidee.wordpress.com
‣ slideshare
‣ Links
‣ Your minds!
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LESSON 1
THE EXAM
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AND YOU?
SHARE YOUR DATA!
▸ https://forms.gle/dQSRQdf4YJifMVpJ6
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7. TOUR
QUICK

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LESSON 1
L1
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LESSON 1
L2
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LESSON 1
L3
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LESSON 1
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LESSON 1
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LESSON 1
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LESSON 1
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LESSON 1
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LESSON 1
L12
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20. APPROACH
OUR

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LESSON 1
3 AREAS, 1 VISION
▸ Data gathering
▸ Data storage, organization and analysis
▸ Data visualization and presentation
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LESSON 1
WHAT ARE DATA
Data are individual units of information.
A datum describes a single quality or quantity of some object or phenomenon.
Data are measured, collected and reported, and analyzed, whereupon they can
be visualized using graphs, images or other analysis tools.
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LESSON 1
WHAT IS INFORMATION
Information is associated with data: is data in context and with meaning attached.
Data are collected and analyzed and only becomes information once they have
been analyzed in some fashion.
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KNOWLEDGE IS POWER
sir Francis Bacon
LESSON 1
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25. PERSPECTIVE
A HISTORICAL

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LESSON 1
WHEN DATA BEGAN
Data gathering has been happening since the days of handwritten graphs.
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LESSON 1
TALLY STICKS
▸ A tally stick was an ancient memory aid device
used to record and document numbers,
quantities, or even messages. Tally sticks first
appear as animal bones carved with notches
during the Upper Palaeolithic
▸ Tallies have been used for numerous purposes
such as messaging and scheduling, and
especially in financial and legal transactions, to
the point of being currency
▸ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tally_stick
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LESSON 1
ABACUS
▸ It’s a calculating tool that was in use in the
ancient Near East, Europe, China, and Russia,
centuries before the adoption of the written
Hindu–Arabic numeral system
▸ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abacus
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LESSON 1
LIBRARY OF ALEXANDRIA
▸ The Great Library of Alexandria in Alexandria,
Egypt, was one of the largest and most significant
libraries of the ancient world.
▸ It is unknown precisely how many papyrus scrolls
were housed at any given time, but estimates
range from 40,000 to 400,000.
▸ Despite the modern belief that the Library was
burned once and then destroyed, it actually
declined gradually over the course of several
centuries
▸ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Alexandria
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LESSON 1
JOHN GRAUNT (1620–1674)
▸ Along with William Petty, developed early human
statistical and census methods that later
provided a framework for modern demography
▸ In 1663, in his book Natural and Political
Observations Made upon the Bills of Mortality he
used analysis of the weekly statistics of deaths in
early modern London to create a system to warn
of the onset and spread of bubonic plague in
the city. Though the system was never truly
created, Graunt's work in studying the rolls
resulted in the first statistically based estimation
of the population of London.
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LESSON 1
HERMAN HOLLERITH (1860–1929)
▸ He was an American inventor who developed an
electromechanical punched card tabulator to
assist in summarizing information
▸ There were so many more inquiries of all kinds
in the census of 1880 that almost a full decade
was needed to publish all the results
▸ He developed a mechanism using electrical
connections to increment a counter, recording
information. A key idea was that a datum could
be recorded by the presence or absence of a
hole at a specific location on a card
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LESSON 1
FRITZ PFLEUMER (1860–1929)
▸ He was a German-Austrian engineer who
invented magnetic tape for recording data
▸ The principles he develops are still in use
today, with the vast majority of digital data
being stored magnetically on computer hard
disks.
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LESSON 1
THE HISTORY OF DATA VISUALIZATION
▸ The term “Data Visualization” may have firm roots in the 20th Century, but the
concept of data storytelling is as old as time.
▸ The earliest data table in known existence was created during the 2nd century
in Egypt, cataloging astrological information to aide navigation practices of the
day.
▸ A table is a textual representation of data: a way to arrange information into
columns and rows for easier visualization.
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LESSON 1
THE HISTORY OF DATA VISUALIZATION
▸ It’s a long story.
▸ A journey of all of history’s
best graphs, charts, maps, and diagrams
▸ https://infowetrust.com/scroll/
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LESSON 1
RENE DESCARTES (1596 - 1650)
▸ Rene Descartes invents the Cartesian
coordinate system, the X and Y axes graph.
This french philosopher and mathematician
gave us the X and Y axes, and perhaps the
first truly visual representation of quantitative
data.
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LESSON 1
WILLIAM PLAYFAIR (1759–1823)
▸ Playfair was a Scottish engineer and political
economist who published The Commercial and
Political Atlas in 1786.
▸ He is considered the father of statistical
graphics, having invented the line and bar
chart we use so often today. He is also credited
with having created the area and pie chart.
▸ Here he compares exports from England with
imports into England from Denmark and
Norway from 1700 to 1780.
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LESSON 1
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE (1820–1910)
▸ Florence Nightingale is famous for her work as
a nurse during the Crimean War, but she was
also a data journalist.
▸ She realized soldiers were dying from poor
sanitation and malnutrition, so she kept
meticulous records of the death tolls in the
hospitals and visualized the data.
▸ Here we have an example of her coxcomb or
rose diagrams that helped her fight for better
hospital conditions and ultimately save lives.
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LESSON 1
TABLE, BAR CHARTS AND COXCOMBS
▸ Coxcombs, just like bar charts or pie charts, are
graphical systems of representing data. They are
sometimes called polar area charts or roses.
(Despite many claims to the contrary, Nightingale
did not originally refer to the graphs as coxcombs).
▸ https://understandinguncertainty.org/coxcombs
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Category Value
A 1
B 3
C 2

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LESSON 1
JOHN SNOW (1813–1858)
▸ In 1854, a cholera epidemic spread quickly through
Soho in London. The Broad Street area had seen over
600 dead, and the remaining residents and business
owners had largely fled the terrible disease.
▸ Physician John Snow plotted the locations of
cholera deaths on a map. The surviving maps of his
work show a method of tallying the death counts,
drawn as lines parallel to the street, at the
appropriate addresses. Snow’s research revealed a
pattern. He saw a clear concentration around the
water pump on Broad Street, helping to find the
cause of the infection.
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LESSON 1
CHARLES JOSEPH MINARD (1781–1870)
▸ Charles Joseph Minard was a French civil
engineer famous for his representation of
numerical data on maps. His most famous work is
the map of Napoleon’s Russian campaign of
1812 displaying the dramatic loss of his army
over the advance on Moscow and the following
retreat.
▸ You can see how many soldiers are still marching
and how many died. Drawn in 1869, it is
described by many as the best statistical
graphic ever drawn. It represents the earliest
beginnings of data journalism.
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LESSON 1
EDMOND HALLEY (1656–1742)
▸ Edmond Halley was an English astronomer,
geophysicist, mathematician, meteorologist,
and physicist who is best known for computing
the orbit of Halley’s Comet.
▸ Halley developed the use of contour lines on
maps to connect and describe areas that
display differences in atmospheric conditions
from place to place. These lines are now
commonly used to describe meteorological
variation common to us from weather reports.
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LESSON 1
CHARLES DE FOURCROY (1766–1824)
▸ Charles de Fourcroy was a French
mathematician and scholar. He produced a
visual analysis of the work of French civil
engineers and a comparison of the
demographics of European cities.
▸ In 1782 he published Tableau Poléometrique, a
treatise on engineering and civil construction.
His use of geometric shapes predates the
modern treemap, which is widely used today to
display hierarchical data.
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LESSON 1
LUIGI PEROZZO (1856–1916)
▸ Luigi Perozzo was an Italian mathematician and
statistician who stood out for being the first to
introduce 3D graphical representations,
showing the relationships between three
variables on the same graph.
▸ Perozzo published one of the first 3D
representations of data showing the age group
of the Swedish population between the 18th
and 19th centuries.
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44. EXAMPLES
SOME MODERN

49. https://www.franzrusso.it/condividere-comunicare/social-media-italia-dati-2020/
https://wearesocial.com/it/digital-2020-italia

50. CORONAVIRUS
REAL DATA

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LESSON 1
LA PRIMA DASHBOARD SUL COVID-19
▸ è stata realizzata da Johns Hopkins CSSE
▸ https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6
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LESSON 1
UN MODO DIVERSO DI PRESENTARE I DATI
▸ Lab24 del Sole24Ore
▸ https://lab24.ilsole24ore.com/coronavirus/
▸
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LESSON 1
EFFETTI DELLA COMUNICAZIONE
▸ https://vincos.it/2020/03/04/corona-virus-gli-effetti-di-una-comunicazione-incoerente/
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LESSON 1
PER APPROFONDIRE
▸ https://multimedia.scmp.com/infographics/news/china/article/3047038/wuhan-virus/index.html?src=article-launcher
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