Recently at the Responsible Visualization event put on the by the Responsible Data Forum I had a wonderful chance to sit down with the amazing Patrick Ball from the Human Rights Data Group and talk through how we help groups learn about working with incomplete data.
With my focus on capacity building, I’m trying to find fun ways for NGOs to learn about accuracy and data at a very basic level. Patrick agues that in fact you need rigorous statistical analysis to do this well, from his background in human rights data. I pushed a bit, asking him is there was a 80/20 shortcut. His response was to paint a great distinction between homogenous and heterogenous observability of data. For instance, there are many examples of questions that don’t require quantitative rigor – case existence, case history, etc. This sparked a fun conversation about visual techniques for conveying uncertainty.
Watch the video to see the short conversation, or just catch the audio below.
Data Therapy 