The “On…” series is a collection of short blog posts relating to data visualization, economics, presentation skills, or data communication. In each, I discuss an issue, concept, or idea that I have not fully developed, a work in progress, or just some thoughts about a topic or issue I’d like to share.
Since late March, I have been conducting one hour video conversations with experts in the fields data, data visualization, economics, and presentation skills. I started them here on PolicyViz, calling them COVIDeo Chats, but quickly moved them over to the Urban Institute under the better title of Data@Urban Digital Discussions. Doing so helped connect the series with the Data@Urban blog, which has been publishing a behind-the-scenes look at the data science structure at Urban for the last 18+ months or so.
In a moment when we were all suddenly working from home, one of my goals for these sessions was to connect with people and talk about current data- and data visualization-related challenges and tools. Personally, it was great to talk with friends and colleagues, and interact with attendees interested in improving how they communicate their data. My other goal was to facilitate direct communication between attendees and guests. I’m guessing not everyone has an opportunity to directly ask Mike Bostock about D3 or Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic about her work at Storytelling with Data.
By early June, when I decided to end the series, we had conducted 33 separate chats with more than 1,000 attendees. Aside from those few sessions about teaching data to kids, each was recorded and published to the Urban Institute YouTube page and the list of all episodes are captured on the Urban events page.
Thanks to all the guests who took time out of their day to chat with me and others. And thanks to all the attendees who tuned in and helped make it a successful series!
