Why data visualization?

As a society, we have agreed to translate our thoughts, actions, needs and desires into data, and we have submitted that data for algorithmic inspection and processing.

In our healthcare system, data, code and algorithms now drive diagnosis, costs, coverage and outcomes.

In our public square, data, code and algorithms drive civil discourse.

Can you get credit to start a business? A loan to better yourself through education? Financial decisions are now determined by data, code, and algorithms.

Job applications are turned to data, and run through cohorts of similarities, determining who gets hired, and who ultimately ends up leaving the workforce.

When it comes to connecting to other humans – we’ve turned our desires and our hopes to data, swapping centuries of cultural norms for faith in the governance of code and algorithms built – in necessary secrecy – by private corporations.

What happens when decisions are taken by algorithms of governance that no one understands?

We need visibility on the data that increasingly is running our lives.

That’s why data visualization.

Posted in: Infographic of the day, Opinion