Much to Think About

Data analytics is an exciting area, for the right people, with lots of room for diving into deep analyses of data, finding patterns and explanations, and communicating it all in words and data, visualized for easy and certain understanding by your audience.

And it is just as exciting when seen from the technology side, with many cleverly thought out software products to help, an occasional new type of diagram, and the power this all gives you to shape your storytelling and convey the exact expression you want.

However, in the midst of all that excitement, we need to remember that there are other people in the world – who may be affected by what we do. We owe them to take good care of their data, to protect their privacy, to be truthful in our storytelling, and to behave according to high standards of ethics and law fulfillment – for which legal and ethical frameworks have been developed, that we must do an honest effort to comply with.

We also need to consider what it is all about – it is not all about tools and techniques, or about nerding with data – we do it for a purpose, and bring some some thoughts and expectations with us into the work, and into a collaboration about it, and into both delivering the results and receiving them. Data literacy is a major element, as we described in an article, and purpose, value, and other aspects need to be brought into the equation as well.

On these pages, we gather some thoughts and information about these topics. They are meant to simply inspire you, but there may be some suggested specific procedures, best practices, etc., along the way, to help you fit the thoughts into your work processes – and your mindset.