Introduction

The digital revolution has broken all traditional barriers to communication, empowering the human race like never before.

At its early stages, this transformation was marked by global adoption of technology. Today we’re on a rapidly evolving curve where knowledge truly has become power. With data flowing in from multiple digital sources, decisions are intelligent, informed, and outcome-driven.

The economy and the people living in it are transitioning to knowledge-based industries. On an individual level, most of our daily tasks – commuting, paying bills, making purchases, or simply talking – are just instances of data, being processed smartly.

This interactive visualization from OurWorldInData lets you see how internet usage has grown in the world through the ages

However, with great power does come great responsibility. The average citizen now expects a lot more from the world around him, and government agencies must comply. People want to be aware of what’s going on at government levels, and have a say in the official decisions that impact daily lives.

Beyond the basic facts, these taxpayers also want to see exactly how well their government is doing – accurately measure its performance.

And most importantly, the current populace isn't ready to wait for days to access this information.

As UNESCO rightly claims, "There is (also) a need to focus on establishing partnerships, networks and an innovation system that enhance a country’s ability to share knowledge and information."" Clearly, an efficient, highly transparent government is the need of the hour.

The upside is that most Government agencies already have a large reservoir of impactful data they can make Open .

Even as huge volumes of data sit idly in public-sector warehouses, leaders across the world are inking legislations that’d boost transparency and accountability – paving the road to data-driven governance. The US is the helm of this revolution, with several State and Federal Institutions already incorporating data-driven processes in daily operations (or have promised to do so in the near future).

But is it enough to simply show this data off to the public? The bigger the volumes, the harder it is to understand – this is the very nature of data. And unlike a computer, the human brain is not designed to process rows and columns of information, at a glance. So here is the bottom line: unless the data is put into a consumable format, all that information a Government agency has up its sleeve, becomes useless.

That’s where Data Visualization comes into play.

What is Data Visualization?

In very simple terms, Data Visualization is the process of making a chart, a diagram or a picture that represents information graphically. Numerical data may be encoded using visual elements, such as dots, lines, or bars, to convey a quantitative message. It makes complex data more accessible, understandable, and usable.

The primary goal here is to communicate information clearly and efficiently.

Business organizations frequently employ Data Visualization to relay information between units like sales, marketing and HR. However, it can create wonders when worked on open datasets as well – leading us to the public sector.

This interactive by DensityDesign does an impressive job of introducing the non-linguist (aka most of us) to the many world languages. All 2,678 of them. Nadja Popovich and Adam Pearce used a histogram to visualize summer temperatures and show how summers have become hotter through the years. Global Warming is very real. Pew Research created this animated GIF composite to show shifts in population demographics over time. It’s a great way to tell a larger story in a neat package

How does it help Government Agencies?

  1. Increased productivity for the workers

    Implemented correctly, Data Visualization helps users to both see as well as understand the data. As most of these solutions are self-reliant, there is no need for strategic decision makers to ask IT folks for help whenever they want to ask a question or identify. This puts real-time information directly into the hands of internal knowledge workers who know exactly what questions to ask, how to look at the findings, and even which follow-up questions to explore.

    The plan-to-action time is reduced, and various departments in each agency can have complete ownership of learning from (and creating their own) information stockpiles. This effectively removes interdependency, one of the biggest hurdles in any public-sector agency.

  2. Showcase meaningful metrics

    The value of a openly published data might get lost if these resources are vast and unorganized – unfortunately, this is something that most governmental data around the world struggle with. The intrinsic value of the data is diminished and along with it, the faith of the people in the agency responsible for publication.

    The people are interested in real results, outcomes that actually matter to citizens, leaders, journalists, constituents, and consumers.

    Kansas State University

    Some students at Kansas State University put together a series of seven deadly sins maps from open data sources, depicting contemporary crimes of wrath (violent crimes), envy (burglary, robbery, larceny and stolen cars) , etc. across the United States

    However, such clear-cut insights are difficult to portray, because it requires multiple data points from disparate sources in multiple formats to actually convince users.

    If presented in the traditional text format, reams of apparently incoherent data would be very confusing. Data Visualization however makes this a lot simpler. A visual representation allows for data to be shown in any manner that the creator wants, almost like a painting – and a picture is worth a thousand, far more easier to understand words.

  3. Tell visual stories through Dashboards

    Having lots of data is just the first step towards a data empowered society. If the information is not really being understood by the people as part of larger socio-economic contexts, it has no value.

    To ensure that data provides a unique value proposition to audiences, a government agency needs to pull data from various sources, assemble them smartly, derive multiple relevant metrics, and finally put them on one single portal – a Dashboard.

    The World Bank’s Private Participation In Infrastrucrture Visualization Dashboard

    The World Bank’s Private Participation In Infrastrucrture Visualization Dashboard is a tool which allows users to visualize the data in several ways by selecting certain filters, such as regions, countries, sectors, and project status. A list of associated projects is also displayed at the bottom of the page.

    Dashboards show data instead of asking the user to read it. A single snapshot helps the human mind to take in a lot of information in one go – paving the path to insights. A dashboard combines multiple visualized datasets together, seamless weaving the story that the organization wants to tell. A story written with data.

    What’s unique about this format, is that the public is drawn in instantly, they are invited to learn things they didn’t even know they wanted to, and finally to analyze all the data available, on their own. Seeing data portrayed as key metrics on a visual dashboard will help government agencies and citizens collaborate, as trusted partners, towards unlocking ROI from tax dollars and meeting goals.

Success Story

How the 3rd most populous city in the US is using data visualisation to change the public’s favour

Data Visualization is crucial for a more educated populace – a fact that the City of Chicago was quick to realize. Back in 2011, Barack Obama’s former Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel took office as the 55th Mayor of the city of Chicago and one of the first things he did was to make a strong commitment towards ‘ Open Government’.

The World Bank’s Private Participation In Infrastrucrture Visualization Dashboard

The 44th President of the United States of America exploring visual data like a boss

Headed by Tom Shenk, the city’s Chief Data Officer, the department of Innovation and Technology launched a new unit called the Data Science Division. It applies advanced analytics on all the data that comes in from the city and creates summarized reports of all the information collated.

The World Bank’s Private Participation In Infrastrucrture Visualization Dashboard

The Crime Dashboard on the portal shows all crimes that happened from 2001 to present is one of the most viewed data sets on the portal

It also started the City of Chicago Data Portal, showcasing a huge collection of 900+ datasets and files. These are organized into 16 different substantive categories – administration and finance, education, facilities and geographic boundaries, public safety, transportation, and more. The portal houses a huge amount of data, from applicants for an alderman’s seat or locations of all kinds of services, to even shapefiles (used to create maps).

In addition to this extensive portal, The Data Science Division runs several other projects and resources to enhance the public participation in local initiatives.

Two important ones are:

Business Dashboard

The How’s Business Dashboard: A brief overview of how the city’s economy is doing based on multiple data sets collated from various public agencies.

City Zoning Map

The Second City Zoning Map: An interactive map that allows users to know why a building was zoned and to explore city wide zoning patterns.

How to start using DV in your agency

Public sector agencies all over the world have started to implement data visualization in a big way, and this is changing how they interact with their citizens. Here are the basic steps for this transformation:

Step One: Get to know Your data

The first step is knowing what data you have. You need to define the story you want to tell, identify the existing patterns, and the conclusion – all fitting into the narrative.

Step Two: Create a Story Map

Once you are clear as to the raw data at hand and the information you want to share, the next step is to define exactly how you want to do it. The individual components you want to showcase and the visualizations you want to use will help you outline a clear skeleton, of the final visual story.

Step Three: Know What Your Audience wants to Know

Answer the Following Questions about Audiences and Goals

  • Who is the audience?
  • What level of knowledge and access to IT do they have?
  • What level of understanding of data do they have?
  • What do they want to know about your agency and its data?
  • What do you want them to know about your agency and the issue you are trying to highlight?
  • What are the right metrics to use?

The more sophisticated the audience, the more interactive should be your visualization.

Step Four: Identify Your Resources

Once you are familiar with the information and have chalked out what the audience wants, check the resources available at your agency. Is there someone on the staff already with charting experience, data analysis knowledge, and graphics skills? Is there someone who is willing to learn? Do you need to hire? Or can you collaborate with other vendors to help you?

Step Five: Choose Your Tool

Before taking a final call, try out the tools available online. Remember, a highly sophisticated tool isn’t always required to produce a professional result. As part of your resource analysis, determine whether there are funds allocated to purchasing software, or whether free software is the only route.

Step Six: Start Visualizing

  • Be creative during development and in the visualization itself.
  • Remember, tell a story: Data + Analysis + Design = Better Understanding of Data for Users.
  • Experiment with a few visualizations to get accustomed to the process — decide which options you’d like to use, and which ones to apply finally.
  • Don’t expect ‘first time right’ — start simple, and then gradually add more and more elements.
  • Seek feedback from citizens using the website, and also from employees. What is working and what is not? Be flexible about making changes.
  • Incorporate disclaimers for the data – a must for government agencies, for regulatory compliance

Success Story

How Redwood City is Using Data Visualization to get more Economic Opportunities

While the city of Chicago is using data visualization to help citizens become more informed, on the other side of the country the much smaller town of Redwood California is doing something similar – and doing it quite well.

Redwood City posts budget, economic, and business data in an interactive dashboard to boost transparency, help local businesses, and attract economic activity. Bob Bell, the City Manager working alongside Vice Mayor Gee laid the foundation of an easily workable tool that anyone could use to view the city’s financial status. “Residents will be interested in seeing where the city’s revenues come from—which in turn are used to provide the city services they use” Bell believes.

How Redwood City is Using Data Visualization to get more Economic Opportunities

The dashboard provides graphic data visualizations and data tables for various important data sets like City Revenue, Commercial Property vacancy, Sales tax and employment opportunities

The Finance & Community Development departments of the city also added a citizen response feature which asks the following two questions:

  • Is there a business or service that you think would add value to the city’s business mix?
  • After looking at this Economic Indicators Dashboard, is there anything else that you think should be added? If so, please describe.

Today, the dashboard enjoys 3,000 times the page views compared to the average Redwood City website page, with the top dashboard pages receiving 4.5 times the page views of the average page. The city plans to continue maintaining the site while also expanding it – incorporating new economic development projects and adding components that make the site even more relevant to the local business community.

This is clearly an ongoing program, as Redwood City learns what works best and which visualizations on their platform are the easiest to understand.

The Way Forward

Make it easy to access
Open government data is all about sharing information for real-world impact. It doesn’t matter if you’ve created the best-looking dashboard there ever was – to attract users first, it must be readily available. Use simple browser-based distribution for publishing, especially if the dashboard can pull current or live data, and always adhere to security norms. And make it possible for users to open the dashboard with just a single click, whether they’re at their desk, on a smartphone, or using a tablet.
Spread The Word
The possibilities of dashboards are virtually infinite. You could embed them in existing government reporting tools, intranets and other internal web-based resources. Cross-linkage to the dashboard via other online channels, like websites, blogs and even social media, can further boost traffic and levels of data dissemination. As the community is invited to click, share, and participate, the agency goes from being another official entity, to an valued member of the local community.
Share The Knowledge
Locational visualizations are essential for government dashboards, and they should guide users through links, clicks, and interactive maps smoothly. Citizens could plot points to see dollars awarded, jobs created, and other specifics for the selected region – beginning at the country level, and narrowing down to states and counties. Anyone can take a deep dive, play and explore this information – and that, is what a cutting-edge, data-empowered government agency looks like.

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