The new datarati

It has been said that data is not information, information is not knowledge and knowledge is not wisdom.We are today flooded with data-- from polls on all subjects to human development indices and world bank statistics. It has become increasingly harder to make sense out of this flood of data even if we can access only ten percent of it. Looking at tables in UN statistics or the back pages of the Economist does little to clarify the facts underlying these data much less provide either information or knowledge.

Now comes the chief economist of Google, Varian,who believes that a new era is dawning for what you might call the datarati. "What's ubiquitous and cheap?" Varian asks. "Data." And what is scarce? The analytic ability to utilize that data.

Here is an example of how massive data can be analyzed and presented to convey information and wisdom. Rosling, a Swedish professor has developed a unique software that takes raw boring data and converts it into wisdom. Rosling’s presentations are grounded in solid statistics (often drawn from United Nations data), illustrated by the visualization software he developed. The animations transform development statistics into moving bubbles and flowing curves that make global trends clear, intuitive and even playful.What sets Rosling apart isn’t just his apt observations of broad social and economic trends, but the stunning way he presents them. Guaranteed: You’ve never seen data presented like this. By any logic, a presentation that tracks global health and poverty trends should be, in a word: boring. But in Rosling’s hands, data sings. Trends come to life. And the big picture — usually hazy at best — snaps into sharp focus.

We will increasingly need datarati like Professor Rosling to explain the world we live in- using the data that is now readily available on the internet but converting it into knowledge through its intelligent interpretation.