GAPMINDER

Graphs are visual in nature and that has been of tremendous aid in understanding plethora of unnerving statistics. Today what I learned is how to augment this visual pleasure using various softwares. Make no mistake it is not something that is done just to accentuate the beauty of a presentation. What this provides us with is information that is clearer and easier to understand. In today’s world where complexity is ever increasing these visual aids provide a solution to simplify things. One look at a graph drawn on three co-ordinates and one is able to fathom the information. Graphs are no more limited to histograms or bar charts but instead include a variety of augmentation such as pie charts, scatter plot and radar diagram. These variations help us in grasping a clear picture. And with the increasing usage of latest software GAPMINDER graphs are increasingly becoming more and more alive, swallowing loads of information which have been traditionally very cumbersome to understand. The modern day software allows one to represent graphs that show the variation in time series of data and one can actually see this differences springing to life.

A short video by Hans Rosling, developer of GAPMINDER that is available on YouTube shows 200 years of world history in four minutes. This is the amazing power that this visual aids when married with technology hold.

Another thing that struck me is their practicability ad their usage. Just by seeing such a representation a business can find out where is it lacking and what measure it needs to take to stay ahead of the competition or in the competition. Here what is needed is the understanding of the business and the environment in which it functions. Thus it becomes imperative to bring out the synergy that lies latent in combination of technology with understanding. And this is a definite way for businesses to move forward in these changing times.

Group- HR1

Author- Abhas Srivastava