Jon Udell - Data analysis as performance art

Check out the article on GapMinder as presented by Hans Rosling at the TED conference

The article starts out with a data analysis provided by Hans Rosling at TED Talks entitled:

"Hans Rosling: Debunking third-world myths with the best stats you've ever seen"

Jon Udell's feeling is this is narrative of data he's seen. And it's not just the tool he uses (GapMinder) it's how he presents it. But screencasts are no different than Hans Rosling using GapMinder live in front of an audience. He's narrating the work of the UN department of statistics on World Health. He's using the tool to tell us what you really can see when the data is used to visualize trends. Screencasting should attempt to reach the same level of communicating things clearly. I watched the video and went to Google to try GapMinder myself. It is in a word mind-boggling the different combinations you can come up with to look at all the data.

Jon goes on to talk about his own attempt at collecting and analyzing public data. His interest lies very close to home where he is attempting to collect statistics on crime. By allowing the 'public' to analyze public data there may be people who are able to discover trends or patterns using different visualization tools than those used by those in the local government. I have to agree after watching the video of Hans Rosling using GapMinder. With tools like GapMinder and free data from the local government, who knows what the net effect will be? Will it be citizen action, or a great debate about the interpretation and visualization of data within the local government?