Why ‘data camps’ are no longer just for geeks

Time was when people who talked a lot about data were highly numerate statisticians and analysts who talked mostly to fellow professionals about apis, uris, and specialist computer programmes the rest of us had never heard of. These days, according to Jamie Whyte and Julian Tait of Open Data Manchester, more and more non-specialist managers are showing up at data events and responding enthusiastically to data analysis published in mainstream or social media. One reason is that there is growing awareness generally of our increasingly data-driven society, with words like ‘algorithm’ and acronyms like ‘GDPR’ entering everyday conversation, thanks to wide discussion of the Cambridge Analytica/Facebook and other data-related affairs. Another reason is that people who love data are learning to make it make it more accessible to people who have had an aversion to graphs, charts and anything related to ‘maths’ since primary school. Better, more creative visualisation of data is encouraging people to engage who would not look twice at a spreadsheet.