Data visualisation

Just in case you are wondering where we are heading with this course, we encourage you to watch this Hans Rosling video. There is more information about this video and the Gapminder Foundation at “200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes”.

Until his recent death (7 February 2017), Hans Rosling was the principal behind the Gapminder Foundation and the Gapminder data we often use. He was a major force in the fields of data visualisation, and global heath and development, and was the world’s best communicator of data-based stories for a general audience.

In 4 short minutes Hans Rosling conveys the power of visualisation in the process of telling a compelling story about global health. You’ll see how the visualisations uncover the story, and how they help communicate the story.

This short clip is from the longer film The Joy of Stats – © Wingspan Productions for BBC, 2010 – broadcasted on 16th October 2013 on BBC Four. Director and Producer: Dan Hillman; Executive Producer: Archie Baron. Permission to use the video for this course was granted by the Gapminder Foundation (which is still going strong and producing amazing things).

Postscripts

The Gapminder Foundation, now led by Hans’ son Ola and daughter-in-law Anna, is still going strong and still doing amazing things.

The full The Joy of Stats video is here and here.

But my favorite Hans Rossling videos are still his earliest TED talks which were such a revelation when they first appeared, “The best stats you’ve ever seen” (2006) and “New insights on poverty” (2007) – at the end of which he pulled his ultimate party trick (but I won’t spoil it by sharing)