Sebastian Ruiz's Github repository for Data 150 at WIlliam and Mary
Hans Rosling’s TED talk The best stats you’ve ever seen shines a light on the modern day misconceptions of the developing world and provides good evidence of the importance of accessibility and representation of data in reaching beneficial outcomes for developing countries. I was pleasantly surprised to learn about the big strides that the world has made in the context of global development and the fact that this was a surprise highlights Rosling’s point that there should not be a generalized “us versus them” approach when characterizing developing countries. Rosling’s data demonstrate that the developing world has more nuance to it than people believe. His data on family size, income distribution, and life expectancy is important for researchers to understand to further human development, especially because it can demonstrate factors besides wealth that are important for development.
Rosling showcased the importance of health and technology to development. His data showed that health is more indicative of faster rates of development than wealth is and that access to technology such as computers correlated strongly with development as well. I agree with his statement that not all developing countries should be treated the same. Rosling made a good point when he showed that his data indicated that not all of Africa is the same by comparing the different economies and health outcomes of African nations. More people need to start thinking about developing countries in this more nuanced context.
Furthermore, Rosling’s presentation also reinforced in me the importance of effective data visualization. Rosling’s claims were surprising to his audience and the interactive visualization he made really drove his point home. The key takeaway is that researchers have to take a more customized approach to human development and accessible understandable data is important to that.