The Australian Bureau of Statistics has put together another engaging interactive that personalises the 2006 Australian Census data for the user in an interesting and very visual way. [The 2011 Census in Australia was just completed in August ]
The site is called “Spotlight” and takes some of the data from the last Census [2006] and shows just a few of the interesting things that the Census can tell us about Australia’s people and population.
It is another great example of visualising complex data in subtly personal ways to help inform and direct policy debates about future planning.
The ability to “personalise” the interactive by adding, gender, age, postcode and occupation gives the user a context of the personal and local, within the national aggregate. This is a good technique that would be both a wonderful teaching tool as well as a general community resource that encourages evidence-based planning.
Of course the challenge now becomes providing greatly expanded tools such as this in ways that become routine and accessible for the broader population and electorate.
Live reporting at regional and local scales, personal updates and real time data input is now needed more than ever. The complexity of decision making within highly complex policy environments requires larger, more timely and more accurate information than ever before. This is a nice start.
You can find the Australian Bureau of Statistics “Spotlight” website at
http://spotlight.abs.gov.au/
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