Hans Rosling impresses Paxman

BBC2 Newsnight's Jeremy Paxman is a man not easily impressed, at least not usually on-air. Last night Paxo was visibly gobsmacked by Hans Rosling's performance. It's not everyday that you see a statistician 'perform'.
China's inexorable rise in GDP and educational standards is well known and predictable. Rosling showed, through his startling use of infographics the extent that Chinese health and life expectancy was also improving markedly. As an indicator of how important Rosling's work is, he shared the platform with Bill Gates today at the LSE's conference on Global Poverty. 

I've talked about Prof Rosling before, but I've not seen anyone more effectively turn data into knowledge. The data for Professor Rosling's brilliant infographics is drawn from a myriad of public datasets. He neatly presents these as information through the Gapminder.org graphical interface. You can play with and adapt using the Gapminder.org tools that he showcased on Newsnight.

The unique gift that Rosling has is to add a third dimension to the information to generate knowledge. That dimension is time. You can play, fast-forward or reverse a time sequence, showing how values and their intersections have changed over a number of years. Colour and relative size of plots are also varie over time. To a certain extent a static graph requires interpretation and analysis. Rosling's tool allows the viewer to experience change in a visual way that is immediately engaging. See him in action here:

The Gapminder tool is now available here as a free desktop download, so you can use your own data to impart knowledge.

Hans Rosling  is Professor of International Health at Karolinska Institute and co-founder and chairman of the Gapminder Foundation. 

Related articles

• Hans Rosling and the magic washing machine (innovativecollaboration.wordpress.com)
• Gapminder.org (annmic.wordpress.com)

'National Living Treasure' - Knowledge retention the 1950s Japanese way

Image via Wikipedia

Ōsaka Hiromichi, a master Japanese woodworker, honed his skills by creating replicas of historic objects from the Shōsō-in treasure house in Nara. He spent 5 years just researching the tools and materials he needed. His first object, a rosewood box, took seven years to complete.

I came across Hiromichi through the wonderful Grayson Perry exhibition 'Tomb of the Unknown Artist' at the British Museum yesterday. Amongst the beautiful objects that Perry has assembled was a lovely metal-inlaid wooden box. I was intrigued by the fact that it was created by an artist designated by the Japanese government as a 'Living National Treasure', under the 1950 law of 'Preservers of Important Intangible Cultural Properties'.

What a wonderful concept; that an individual recognised as having special or unique skills should be paid to "keep and pass on ancient skills and knowledge and make them relevant to the present". Even more remarkable that this is intangible knowledge, the experience built-up over many years that can't simply be documented. The Japanese government recognised the importance of social capital right back in 1871, when the first preservation of antiquities statute was passed. Since then subsequent administrations have strengthened and widened these laws to include important intangible knowledge, and pay a healthy stipend to the holders of that knowledge - those designated 'Living National Treasures'.

I think the most far-sighted part of the law is that the designate must 'make the knowledge relevant to the present'. How many organisations in 2012 understand the value of their social capital as well as the Japanese government did in 1950?


If you would like take a look at Ōsaka Hiromichi's remarkable work, you can see photos here.

Related articles

• Grayson Perry, a pot and me (britishmuseum.org)