The CTO of IBM recommends people develop the skill of turning data into knowledge. The New York Times featured an article about how new ways to mine or exploit raw data may bring a surge of innovation. McKinsey research identifies big data as the next frontier for innovation and that people with deep analytical skills are needed for this frontier. I believe that data can be transformed into a logical innovation, and that the innovation has the best chance to succeed when it is grounded in data. There are many steps to doing this. First you need to find or generate data related to the challenge you are working on. Next, you organize and analyze this data. Then, you interpret or make meaning of the data. Later, you visualize this data and communicate it to yourself and other audiences. When you have done all of this the innovation could seem obvious. The solution or course of action seems logical when the data presents itself to you. Infographics are a trend and this trend is useful. Communicating data visually helps us to understand. Watch this video of Hans Rosling to see what I mean.
Intel’s Museum of Me is a good example of how to access data and make something visual and innovative out of it quickly. It takes your Facebook pics, updates, etc. and makes a video for you. http://www.intel.com/museumofme/r/index.htm
http://visual.ly/ is an emerging tool that is gaining popularity to help people explore, share, and create infographics. Let me know what your experience with Visual.ly has been like. Any other good resources out there to help you communicate and visualize your data?
http://Cooltext.com is a great free online tool for turning your text into graphics.