Making Data Meaningful
The following is a Ted talk where Hans Rosling debunks various myths about the third world with an astonishing display of data visualization and enthusiasm. I urge all to take some time to see a portion of it.
It’s no doubt that advertising and marketing today means understanding accountability.
One of the biggest challenges I’ve witnessed is data paralysis especially when it comes to interactive marketing. This perhaps stems from lack of experience in interactive but I think it also comes from uneasiness with the entire subject of accountability. A McKinsey report on where marketers are spending online shows data from executives on what perpetuates the digital divide has much to do with not having an understanding of what metrics would validate spend.
At the same time there are emerging impressive ways for us to visualize data in way that is meaningful.
The most powerful being where social media, interactive and new ways of thinking about data visualization converge. When this happens the result can be beautifully intriguing, and insightful.
A few examples:
We Feel Fine: A project capturing various emotions and displaying them in a way that ingratiates your repeated exposure to the site.
Flickr Time: A site where public images from Flickr are aggregated according to keywords you submit and then refreshed every minute.
Election Dashboard: An aggregation of tweets, posts, news and CNN polling on the election.
Digg Stack: A new way to follow what stories are being submitted and which ones are most popular through the Digg network.
What does it All Mean
I can think of clients for each of the applications above, and I can see how it might alleviate data paralysis or advance the account’s ability to understand the impact of their message.
For even further fun visit this list of modern approach to data visualization.
