January 20, 2012
Periscopic Featured in Print Magazine
We’re honored to be featured in the February issue of Print Magazine.
Their article, Data Swims Upstream, is an interview with Periscopic co-founder Dino Citraro and highlights our sustainability efforts, our creative process, and the role we see data visualization playing in a world of information overload.
Here’s an excerpt:
In general, data visualizations deal with facts. Sometimes they can be manipulated to support a specific point of view, but for the most part, the raw data lets you take an objective look at what’s actually going on, and then draw a conclusion.
Unfortunately, things are becoming so cloudy now, especially in legislative discourse where people are just completely distorting the facts, or in some cases, just making things up—to a point where it’s very easy to be confused and not know what to think. And I don’t think that’s a result of people being unable to understand the information, it’s a result of information overload. People are just too willing to invent things these days. But that lack of respect for objectivity is countered by data transparency, and the rise of data visualizations.
The current issue is on the newsstands now, and we encourage you to check it out. It’s a great magazine and full of many good articles. If you’re interested in our interview, you can check out the images below, and also take a look at the PDF version.
As an added bonus, here’s one bit of the interview that didn’t fit, but that we feel is still important:
Is there anything that you think would be helpful in getting people to recognize their impact on the environment?
When you look into this, you come to see that it’s really, really complex. Every action you have is tied to so many other actions. Even when you try to do good, you may actually be supporting something that has a negative impact without even knowing. There are so many factors that are related to the decisions that we make on a daily basis, so many connections that get made, so many actions and reactions, that it would be impossible to see all of the relationships at once and draw a conclusion. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. You have to take a step, right? You have to keep moving forward. You just have to do your best at calculating which direction is forward.
To tease some of the truth from all of that overwhelming information—even if it’s only in a small way—that’s what we’re trying to do with our data visualizations.
