Data Visualization for Public Administration

Dataviz & Public Administration
FFunction
Data Visualization &
Public Administration
Sébastien Pierre
IRSPM Workshop on Data Visualization
Ottawa, April 2014

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FFunction
Information Design & Data Visualization
Studio founded in 2008
Leader in Canada

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Clients
Industrials & bigger corporations
Non-profits (small to big)
Government agencies

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About this talk

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Practitioner's perspective
Overview of possibilities
Challenges & opportunities

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Data Visualization

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Mapping data
to visual elements
and reveal information
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Analytical
Logical
Rational

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Analytical
Logical
Rational
Creative
Holistic
Intuitive

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% of brains
used in
communications

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Types of visualization

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Infographics
Very popular way of summing up
information visually.
Uses
Create awareness
Entertain
Inform
Platform
Print, Web
May be interactive

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Interactives
Online experience that involves the
audience in learning more about a
topic.
Uses
Create awareness
Engage
Entertain
Platform
Web, primarily desktop
Maybe mobile

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Data Visualizations
Visual representations of (complex)
information.
Uses
Explore
Understand
Amaze
Platform
Touch screen, installations
Print

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Interactive Reports
Narrative-driven presentation of
results & insights.
Uses
Communicate
Educate
Convince
Platform
Web, desktop & tablets
Print (PDF version)

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Interactive Maps
Visual mapping of data on a physical
territory.
Uses
Communicate
Overview
Insights
Platform

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Dashboards
Visual overview of indicators (KPI)
Uses
Overview
Decisions
Discover
Platform
Web, destkop + mobile
Print

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Visualization Spectrum

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Exploration Communication

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Data Visualization Infographics

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Analysis Storytelling

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Exploration Communication
Mapping Uncharted Territory
Understand
Discover
Get insights
Communicating Results
Teach
Share
Convince

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Governments & Data Visualization

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Transparency &
Citizen Participation
Services Performance
Inform citizens on the performance of key
services. For example, success or failure of IT
project, hours of waiting at the ER, etc.
Budget Visualization
Help citizens know where the money given to
the government is spent. For example:
participatory budget, visual budget explorer.

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Dataviz & Public Administration Million Dollar Gram
Davic McCandless
[link]

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Decision Support
Geographic Mapping
Mapping indicators to support better
understanding of territory-specific factors.
Dashboards
Track indicators and allow to have a visual
snapshot of the situation. Put emphasis on
allowing to compare between different periods
and allow quantitative measurement of policies.

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Dataviz & Public Administration Mapping America
New York
[link]

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Data & I.T.
Quality Assurance
Improve the data quality by making it visible. For
instance, many datasets contain errors which go
largerly unnoticed because the data is not
visible.
Visual Catalogue
Make data more accessible by making it easy to
browse and find. Information silos are common
place, and even with open data it is hard to find
the proper information.

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Dataviz & Public Administration Expense Visualizer
FFunction
[link]

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Challenges

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Data Literacy
Culture
Public servants do not yet have a culture of
considering producing and curating data as a
core element of their activity.
Knowledge
Public servants are often not able to determine
what is “good” and “bad” data – not only in
terms of quality, but also in its ability to be used
as a material for data visualization & online
tools.

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Tools
Data Processing & Visualization
While some data processing and visualization
tools are being developed, most of them are still
beyond the reach of someone with a good
technical background, if not programming skills.
Third-parties
There are not many external resources for
offering data-visualization services or training,
which makes it difficult to implement projects.

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Citizen Participation
Openness
The notion of open government and open data is
still very young and not very mature. Public
servants are working behind closed doors and
very rarely collaborate with citizens, while
collaborations are often required for data-viz
projects.
Innovation
New paradigms such as open-government or
using data visualization in communication
require the ability to create innovation within
the government. While institutions should
primarily focus on delivering services to citizens,
the government should allow for pilot projects
to kickstart innovation.

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Opportunities

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Crowdsourcing
Innovation
Citizens, researchers, entrepreneurs and
non-profits are eager to use government data to
change their environment.
Hackathons have been organized in many
countries from Europe to North-America,
generating hundreds of new projects, some of
which made a big impact on the citizens' life.

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Dataviz & Public Administration Code For America
[link]

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Drive economic
development
Growing the technology & creative industries is
an important aspect of our modern economy.
Startups and small groups of individuals need an
ecosystem to grow and develop their ideas into
actual projects.
By encouraging and favouring working with
smaller & local companies, the government
would help sustain such an ecosystem, while
also having opportunities to benefit from
citizen's innovation.

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Dataviz & Public Administration Open Data Institute
[link]

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Transparency &
accountability
Corruption is as much a plague to governments
as low citizen participation. Governments are
often perceived as black boxes that citizens'
can't understand, which discourages citizens to
get involved.
Using data visualization and the Web,
governments could not only give a better idea of
how they work, but also engage citizens and
allow them to participate.
Publishing actual data would also help have
informed debates, which would help discussion
focus more on the facts than on the individual
beliefs.

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Dataviz & Public Administration Citizen Budget
Open North
[link]

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Thanks!
Data Visualization &
Public Administration
Sébastien Pierre
[email protected]
www.ffctn.com

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Data Visualization for Public Administration

Data Visualization for Public Administration

sebastien

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