We’ve now scheduled the first community workshop for the first data mural project. December 20th! As the date approaches, we’re trying to refine the workshop process. This session will be what we’re calling “storyfinding”. Together we’ll look at the data that the group has provided, we’ll do some activities to think about how stories can be told visually, and we’ll do the real work of data analysis- sifting through the data to find the interesting and relevant stories that they tell. We’re developing activities that we think will be fun and engaging for a wide variety of ages, and for people who don’t already feel comfortable playing with numbers.
Organizations did indeed have data lying around, and as I suspected, one of the hardest parts for us is trying to limit the data that we bring. We now have a small mountain of reports, charts, quotes and tables. We want to bring a representative sample of the information, and in this case we want to be sure that there are data relevant to three different topics; food, housing and poverty, but we don’t want to overwhelm our participants. We also don’t want an already complicated story about how these issues are inter-related to become even more complex. So, we’ve been sorting the data and trying to find the pieces that touch on all three topic areas, provide information in different formats, and aren’t too redundant.
In the meantime we’re also beginning to work out the logistics of location, food, childcare and recruitment for the sessions.