Thursday, September 22, 2011

Does Data Visualization Improve the World? - Tech@State Event Asks the Question


While private sector innovators mint money through better data analytics, visualization, and innovations, a wide spectrum of global challenges and opportunities require similar tools to maximize results.  At tomorrow's Tech@State conference, the focus will be on how data visualization is being used--and even more importantly how is COULD/SHOULD be used--to make the world a better place.
Through visualization, we can view information in a variety of ways that will allow us to draw conclusions and convey messages that before would have been drowned in a sea of numbers. 
The event will feature speakers including:
Adam Bly from Seed Media Group
Laura Kurgan from Columbia University’s Spatial Information Lab
Aleem Walji from the World Bank Institute’s Innovation Team
Charles Kenney from the Center for Global Development
Peter Speyer from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation
Wayan Vota from Inveneo
Jaime Fitzgerald from Fitzgerald Analytics
Jake Barton from Local Projects

The full agenda is at tech.state.gov where you can find the most current agenda and speaker bios.

Proceedings  will take place over two days with the second being an unconference where participants can collaborate with other conference participants to create their own agenda.

·         September 23 at the Kennedy Center:  The first day, Friday, Sep 23, will be held at the Kennedy Center in the Atrium and Foyers.
·         September 24 at Microsoft.  The unconference on Saturday, Sep 24, will be hosted by the Microsoft’s Office of Civic Innovation, at the Microsoft Innovation & Policy Center, 901 K Street NW, 11th  Floor, Washington, DC.  There is a separate Eventbrite for Saturday – REGISTER HERE.

The event will also be streamed live on the Internet.

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Tech@State connects technologists to the goals of U.S. diplomacy and development through physical and virtual networking events.  As part of Secretary Clinton’s 21st Century Statecraft initiative, Tech@State brings together leaders, innovators, government personnel and others to collaborate on 21st century technology solutions to improve the education, health and welfare of the world’s population.  Previous Tech@State events have covered the aftermath of the Haiti Earthquake, Mobile Money, Civil Society 2.0, Open Source and Serious Games.