A few months ago during a big online event, we started discussing setting up a platform with knowledge, information, and insights around the topic of Data Literacy. The thing that we knew was that we wanted it to be different, we wanted it to bring “things” to the people. We rapidly discovered that we had to stretch the term “Data Literacy” a little. Stretch it beyond the mere education of people to enable them to read, understand, create, and communicate with data. For us, the story doesn’t end with knowing when to use a bar chart and when to stick a y-axis in (hint: it’s always). We are passionate about inspiring people to adopt a data and analytics mindset – and education about how to do that is only a part of that, among others, are inspiration, cultural transformation, insight-driven action, and many more.
From there we connected and discussed what we could actually do to set up a platform to spread our ideas, our knowledge, our inspiration and we worked very hard to deliver the dataliteracygeek.com platform on the 25th of September 2020.
From the moment we started to think about the Data Literacy Geek platform, we also thought about the fact that we have amongst us a lot of fantastic people who are addressing data literacy and doing surveys etc. Why should we create yet another platform? The answer to that question is simple: we believe in “sharing knowledge and inspiration” and we wanted to have a different approach, more focussed on the stories from experience, the life within the data & analytics world, and share that with the world.
It is almost impossible to be active in the data and analytics world and not have come across the term “Data Literacy”, but while it is mostly used to illustrate the importance of using data in a right way people are seldom shown how to get there – and as stated above not only learn how to but also embrace the ideas behind using data in their everyday lives.
The name of our website wasn’t a big thing, it came up, we registered the name, bought a security certificate, rented some webspace, designed a logo, and we worked on the website (our platform). After setting up the basics, the real work started: starting to collect things, translating them (yep some pieces were in Dutch – especially the Insightclopedia) and putting them on the website.
Although we love technology, we actually decided to stay away from technical stuff and to focus on stories about data literacy and how to adopt it. After those fantastic last years many know what data literacy is, but the main question we get is how can we start, what to do, how do I write a plan for my organization, where can we find quick wins etc.. Therefore we have created this platform to give you information and share inspiration in the form of blog posts, articles,, youtube videos, all data & analytics terms in our Insightclopedia, book reviews, and many more. We are working on materials to later even offer templates for plans, business case calculations etc..
So what can you expect from us in the future:
- Live panel sessions, with friends, and guests to discuss topics around Data Literacy (first one will be some time in October)
- Fireside chats, the first ones are recorded already and will be available on our platform. Our fireside chats are an open format, and if you would like to join us please let us know!
- Online coaching sessions where you can ask questions and we will try to answer them.
- Our fantastic Insightclopedia where we have loads of Data & Analytics terms collected and their definition (We have created an initial collection, feel free to reach out to us if you want to contribute)
- Success stories from people all over the world of data and analytics.
- Recordings from various occasions, where we talk about data literacy and of course loads of stories around the success, failure and learnings from delivering data- and insight-driven projects.
- We plan to do a global survey about your experience and expectations with data and analytics.
- Share what we’re reading, watching and let you in on our thoughts about the material.
- Opening a partner/sponsor page in the near future
Building the Data Literacy Geek platform is a dream come true for us. We are looking forward to sharing this with you and we are even more looking forward to sharing this journey with you!
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Angelika & Boris
The Data Literacy Geeks