Grant: Strategic Projects - Group

Effective communication of public statistics to Canadian citizens has many potential benefits, including: an increased capacity for business and community planning; increased productivity through better decision-making; and generally, a better understanding of the society in which we live. Recent technological advances have made the Web-based delivery of visual representations of public statistics a possibility. As with all other stages of the compilation of statistical data, however, great care must be taken to ensure an effective and unbiased dissemination of the data. The goal of this research is to design and evaluate a collection of visual representations of statistical data for the effective geo-spatial communication of this information to the Canadian public. We will evaluate existing visual representations in order to gain a full understanding of what is currently available, and develop alternative visualization techniques to support the public dissemination of statistical information. In partnership with Statistics Canada and the Newfoundland and Labrador Statistical Agency, we will develop a Web-enabled geo-visual analytics toolkit designed to meet the needs of the Canadian public, populate the toolkit with a well-chosen collection of data, and perform user evaluations to determine the effectiveness of communication of the information. The primary outcome of this research project will be a publicly accessible geo-visual analytics system designed to promote the awareness and use of statistical information through interactive visualization and exploration tools. The specific geo-visual modules designed and developed in the course of this research will be released to the open-source community, making them freely available for use by government agencies, industry, and academia. Knowledge discovered through the design, development, and study of these systems will be published and promoted through academic journals and conferences.