Data

We are witnessing an unprecedented ‘explosion’ of data in the world, accumulating in electronic databases everywhere. This poses challenges about its usefulness and about how we may store, manage and derive meaning from it.

• Storage and management – schools, like businesses, are facing huge challenges in terms of data storage and management, including issues such as data backup and disaster recovery etc.
• Manipulation/visualisation - Visual data analysis blends highly advanced computational methods with sophisticated graphics engines to tap the extraordinary ability of humans to see patterns and structure in even the most complex visual presentations. For example: http://www.gapminder.org
• Open data - is a philosophy and practice requiring that certain data be freely available to everyone, without restrictions from copyright, patents, or other mechanisms of control. Many countries around the world are now making all of their government data openly available for people to download and manipulate to derive meaning, discover new patterns etc.