Make Data More Human (Jer Thorp)

In the TED video, “Make Data More Human”, Jer Thorp, a NY Times Data Artist, outlines the importance of fitting data into a human context to give it meaning. 

Reading pure data is boring to most people.  Seeing tables of information laid out in series after series often makes seeing relationships and trends near impossible.  By taking that information and laying it out graphically we make better sense of the information.  Since we think in pictures it only makes sense that the graphical representation of information is more pleasing than the information itself. 

Two innovative ideas stemmed from this concepts of making data more human.  The first was a project called Cascade, which is an exploratory tool created for social networking.  The basic premise was to track the initial release of a piece of information and follow it through its sharing with social networking tools such as Twitter.  Comparing the number of people involved and the time taken to share, a better view of how social networking happens emerges. 

The second project was called OpenPaths.cc, which used iPhone data from participating users to map their locations.  The iPhone tracks the cell tower being used and what time it was in use.  From this information, vendors can gather your location data, should you grant it to them.  From this data, this particular application can map out where you have gone visually overlaid on a map of the world.  So rather than seeing lat/long coordinates, you can visually see where and when you were at specific places. 

Jer makes a very interesting case for the intelligent use of data for understanding.  Through these techniques, we can continue to visualize, construct and share meaningful information about the data we rely on. 

Thorp, J. (2012, March).  TED Talks. Make Data More Human.  Podcast retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/jer_thorp_make_data_more_human.html.