Data Visualisation & Data Management - Experiences & Lessons

Edited version of a presentation given to the BuSK (Building Shared Knowledge) project partners at NUI Galway, May, 2017.

The presentation outlines, with examples, experiences and lessons learned in the development of research projects from the social sciences that focus on data collection, management and visualisation.

Transcript

1. Data Visualisation & Management David Kelly – Digital Humanities Manager May, 2017 – Experiences & Lessons
2. Overview • Data Visualisation – Selected examples from Whitaker Institute projects • Data collection & management – Experiences & Lessons
3. GalwayDashboard.ie Includes data from: CSO Galway City Council Galway County Council Enterprise Ireland IDA Údarás WDC PRTB EPA Póbal Economic Baseline Assessment for Galway City & County Prof. James Cunningham, Galway City Council, Galway County Council
4. Galway2020
5. Galway2020: Audience data in context (interactive)
6. Cultural Networks Data from interviews with cultural practitioners: • Demographic • Funding • Relationship types • Geographic data Dr. Patrick Collins - Geography
8. • Data structure • Merge existing data with data extracted from web sources • Data cleaning • Data enhancement through geo-coding • Web / storage infrastructure • Visualisation outputs http://mapping.creative-edge.eu Dr. Patrick Collins - Geography Data oriented project example
9. Experiences & Lessons
10. Planning & input
11. “Crucially, plan ahead and get technical input early on. Raise awareness among partners of the importance of planning and structure so there’s a will to cooperate” !
12. Talk to developers / designers as early as possible – preferably prior to data collection "
13. Standards & structures
14. “Because we collected the data in Excel it…left quite a bit of room for inconsistences in structure across the data collected” !
16. • Agree standards for data structure before any collection – Data collection forms / templates – Various measurement units • date formats • levels of geo-data (city / county / local area / province…) • Abbreviations – Pre-defined categories / vocabularies "
18. Pilot
19. “Piloting could help too – taking a small portion of data and seeing how things work in practice. We collected data…that we didn’t do anything with because it was so patchy in places.” “Piloting could help to understand where to focus data gathering, what’s feasible to collect and help test the data gathering format/structure” !
20. • Pilot collection of same data in more than one region – Identify potential inconsistencies early • Experiment with output formats for different stakeholders – User test with stakeholders "
21. Dr Patrick Collins & Dr Aisling Murtagh - Geography
22. Consider outputs
23. “Having a structure around data collection linked to outputs and visualisation is key.” “The exact nature of the desired end-product might not be clear from the start. The structure could need to be re-visited at different stages of development.” “If this kind of process was built in it could also help to establish a clearer idea about the end output and how to achieve it” !
24. • Think about outputs for different audiences – Presentation format – static / interactive, narrative, video, animation, raw data. (Or mixed?) – Formats for open data; are visual outputs downloadable / shareable? – Meta-data associated with various outputs (original sources, years, etc) • Work forward from research plan and backwards from desired outputs – Will you have the data you need, in the format you need, to produce the outputs you want? "
26. Display the high-level overview Allow user to explore based on their interests http://mapping.creative-edge.eu/business
28. Galway’s Cultural Infrastructure
30. Intellectual Property
31. “Thinking about intellectual property within this process is key…when project proposals are put together this doesn’t often get considered deeply and can limit what you can do. “I think it really needs specialist knowledge and can remain a grey area for non- experts. This makes it challenging to balance openness and data protection !
32. • Engage with subject matter specialist early in the planning process • Consider data sources being used, and the impact they may have later in the project "
33. Sustainability & Maintenance
34. • Plan beyond the life of the project – How (or is) the data updated? – Plans for data preservation? – Plans for infrastructure maintenance? "
35. David Kelly david.d.kelly@nuigalway.ie THB-1011, Hardiman Research Building @davkell www.davidkelly.ie | Thank you