Kids and Data Count

Media and advocacy center SparkAction continues to creatively mobilize youth and those who care about issues concerning young people with its latest crowd sourced competition, the KIDS COUNT Infographic Challenge.

Sponsored by the Casey Foundation, the competition challenges graphic designers and visionaries of all ages to create a compelling presentation of Casey's KIDS COUNT data, a massive repository of hundreds of measures of child well-being. All entries will be viewable online, and viewers will vote for their favorites through the end of the month. Winners in two categories, youth (age 13-24) and adult (over 24), will win laptops.

On the KIDS COUNT Infographic Challenge web page, SparkAction has a short clip which puts into perspective the importance of the role of good data in good decision making. With so much information coming at us, how do we know where to focus? How do we get the most relevant story to stand out? Those questions are near and dear to the heart of any of us working in media and policy. One suggestion for any young designer looking to make their mark in this competition: Consider the work of Edward Tufte, a much-revered master of visualizing data.

One of the things that was always eye opening about Tufte's work is that his seminal book on the topic is NOT called "Data Visualization." It's called "Envisioning Information." This emphasizes "visualizing" as an active verb.

It's been said that "If you can dream, you can do it." But in making real change happen, that is often only the first step. Others have to see the hard facts to comprehend the problem and see the possibilities for improvement. In their latest endeavor, SparkAction is teaching youth the importance of just that.