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Subject:RE: What would you call this process, and role? From:"Steve Janoff (non-Celgene)" <sjanoff -at- celgene -dot- com> To:Lauren <lauren -at- writeco -dot- net>, "techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Mon, 30 Jul 2012 17:18:01 -0700
Aha! Now we're getting somewhere! :)
Great stuff. Out of these references I see a couple of other terms of interest: data visualization, and data exploitation.
"Data Analysis" may sound like a dull thing to be doing, but as I'm seeing it play out, it's anything but dull. The applications are actually quite provocative.
Thanks, Lauren! Thanks too, Robert (valuable distinctions) and Monique!
I'll say this is sparking an interest in Information Architecture (in the original sense, per Richard Saul Wurman), Information Design, and infographics. Once you find the data and identify what you want to say with it, it's that presentation sense that becomes really interesting. Excel, PowerPoint, Visio, and beyond. I wouldn't mind getting into some local graphic design training too.
I still encourage additional ideas on the original question if anybody has them, but you guys have been great in enlightening me to this point.
Thanks!
Steve
-----Original Message-----
From: On Behalf Of Lauren
Sent: Monday, July 30, 2012 4:18 PM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: What would you call this process, and role?
On 7/30/2012 4:05 PM, Steve Janoff (non-Celgene) wrote:
> Let's say that, like many companies, your company has a lot of raw data scattered over its various networks. And one of your tasks is to harness or sort of "corral" this data -- not really pull it all together, but pull together the major data relevant to a particular task at hand; and then present that data in meaningful ways: in charts, graphs, spreadsheets, presentations, flowcharts, documents, etc.
Data Aggregation.
> An example I'm thinking of is, let's say you're a scientist working at a major academic or national lab, and you're involved in the Mars Rover project. You get access to the huge amount of raw data transmitted back by the Rover, and it's your job to let's say extract the relevant information on soil composition, make sense of it, and then present that information in ways that are meaningful to either a specialized audience (other earth scientists) or a general audience (Scientific American types, or even Popular Science types, or "Discovery Channel").
Data Analysis.
> What would you call that process, and role? Is it Information Architecture? Is it Information Design? Is it "data mining"? Is it "intelligent data warehousing"? (I used to work at such a company.)
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