Rethink your data storytelling
Community Data
Creative Approaches to Empowering People with Information
We need new ways to bring people together around data in community settings.
Charts and graphs weren’t designed to create participation and empowerment. Community Data introduces my broader toolbox, showcasing how to use data sculptures, data murals, data theatre, and more to meet people where they are and support change-making with data. Bridging from global examples you’ve never seen, to academic research that can help, to my own projects and workshops, I offer notes on playful and effective new approaches to data storytelling.
Designers, journalists, educators, community organizers, and others will find inspiration and practical guidance to help rethink how they tell data stories in community settings.
What people are saying?
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Alberto Cairo
"We, information and visualization designers, often think that our work consists of designing graphics for people, and not with people. Rahul Bhargava’s ‘Community Data’ challenges that mindset and provides an alternative one that is much more collaborative, participative, equitable, and inclusive."
Data Journalist, Author of The Art of Insight
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Catherine D'Ignazio
"A delight for all readers who are inspired by the creative and democratic potential of information. Replete with examples, Bhargava takes the reader on an accessible tour of how to use data for inclusion, community-building and action."
MIT Professor, Co-Author of Data Feminisim
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Giogia Lupi
"This book is a call to action for aligning data work with justice and inclusion, ensuring every voice is heard. A must-read for those seeking to infuse data with creativity and social impact."
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Jake Porway
"Makes the cold and confusing world of data accessible, warm, and people-oriented. If you're just starting your data journey or want a creative new way to work with your community around data, this is a must-read. Engaging and empowering from start to finish!"
Co-founder of DataKind
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Matt Carroll
“Data infiltrates so much of everyday life. But the very rigidity of columns and rows can also intimidate many of the people it should help. Rahul’s new book creates a new data toolbox that combines art and data to help community groups do their work better and for the social good.”
Pulitzer Prize winning data journalist
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Jonathan Schwabish
"Rahul helps us shift our thinking from dry statistics and graphs built with computer software tools to working with data in the real world with real people. This book is required reading for those who want to work with community data to solve problems and drive impact."
data storyteller and author, PolicyViz
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Ethan Zuckerman
"Bhargava is a pioneer in opening the often opaque field of data visualization to the communities working to address key social issues. By inviting communities to understand the data they generate and to communicate it in language, visuals, sculptures or movement that they choose, Bhargava connects people to the data they need and shows you how to do the same."
UMass Professor, Author of Mistrust and Rewire
About Me
I’ve been working on creative data literacy and storytelling for 15 years. From my training in electrical and computer engineering I moved into robotics and education, and then into civic technology design and computational journalism. Across those fields I use an engaged approach to working with community groups, methods that I carry into my data literacy and storytelling work. I create, study, and teach justice-oriented data storytelling. via community workshops, formal academic courses, organizational professional development, and beyond. These include innovative approaches showcased in the book like data murals, data sculptures, and data theatre.
I’ve created big data research tools to investigate media attention, built hands-on interactive museum exhibits that delight learners of all ages, and have run over 100 workshops to build data culture in newsrooms, non-profits, and libraries. I’ve collaborated with groups ranging from the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil to the World Food Program. I publish academically on data literacy, public interest technology, and computational journalism in venues like AEJMC, IEEE Vis, AoIR, ICWSM, and IJOC. I’ve shown work in places like the Boston Museum of Science, Eyebeam, and the Fuller Craft Museum. I’m currently an Assistant Professor in Journalism and Art + Design at Northeastern University, where I direct the Data Culture Group. Community Data is my first book.
Hear about the book
Listen to a recent interview, presentation, or keynote to get a better sense of what the book is about.
“Make Mirrors, not Windows” keynote at csv,conf,v9.
Interview on the What Works: The Future of Local News podcast.
Webinar for We All Count’s Data Equity Series.
Talk at VizUM event hosted by Alberto Cairo.
Chat with Amanda Makulec hosted by the Data Visualization Society.
Keynote at the Information is Beautiful Awards 2024, presented by the Data Visualization Society.
Interview with Jon Scwabish on his PolicyViz podcast.
Presentation at the csv,conf,v8 conference.