East Bay Chapter Monthly Meeting

Thursday, October 2, 2003

Program Description

A startling article two years ago in Technical Communications described an ethical problem in many statistical graphics -- the absence of humanity in the presentation of bare numbers. Unfortunately, the graphics that accompanied the article provided not a single instance of a statistical graphic improved by "humanizing" it.

This would be a mere tempest in a teapot, but the same authors (Sam Dragga and Dan Voss) wrote a second article about humanizing accident reports, and this time their point was well supported by the illustrations.

So it seems that there can be ethical issues in the visual presentation of accurate information, and there may be more than one way to resolve such issues. We will take a look at the issues and solutions. Please expect a lively discussion.

About our Presenter

Mick Renner, an award-winning free-lance technical writer, is a member of the Berkeley chapter of the STC. He is Director of Communications for Childhood Matters, the radio talk show for parents and others who care for kids (airing Sundays, 9 am, 98.1 KISS-FM). He teaches Visual Design for Technical Communication for the Extension program at UC Berkeley, and serves on the Technical Communications advisory committee.