Hans Rosling & the art of storytelling with statistics
November 26, 2009
Hans Rosling is the Zen Master of presenting statistics. He's brilliant. Hans proves what we all know, even if our teachers from yesteryear did not: Statistics are not boring. Statistics tell a story. Hans gave this talk at TEDIndia a couple of weeks ago. (I heard from friends who attended TEDIndia that the entire event was incredible; I must get there next year.) This may be the best Hans Rosling TED talk yet (all his talks are fantastic). He's natural, funny, passionate, and he knows his points and where he's going with them—and he's very, very visual. And what a great stage—that's the best TED stage atmosphere I've seen yet. Do yourself a favor and set aside 15 minutes to watch this informative talk. Better yet, share it with others.
Gapminder World
Gapminder World is a web service that displays time series of development statistics for all countries (Google acquired Trendalyzer from the Gapminder Foundation in 2006). Gapminder World is a powerful (free) tool. Increasingly, we're running out of excuses to be dull. Remember: Do not simply display data—present the data so that its story is revealed to all.
Gapminder World is loaded with over 200 indicators displaying trends in some cases back as far as the year 1800. Gapminder World is an amazing tool that is especially useful for educators or anyone else who is interested in "unveiling the beauty of statistics for a fact-based world view."
He is good isn't he! Riveting, interesting, thought provoking and motivating - and it's based largely on stats - one word, wow!
Posted by: Michael Eury | November 26, 2009 at 02:33 PM
I had the chance to meet him last Spring and he was incredibly generous of his time (45 minutes for a corridor conversation) and passionate about his topic. Here's hoping that he will influence presentations and teaching all over the world.
Posted by: Mozza | November 28, 2009 at 04:00 AM