Re: What would you call this process, and role?
Lauren wrote:
... If you can present the data with same enthusiasm you have for analyzing it and get people enthusiastic about the data, then you can probably build yourself a lucrative niche.Yes, bingo. That would be awesome.
What's most interesting about this stuff is that, although actually locating and extracting the data is not that exciting (although maybe it can be), the real excitement and challenge comes from analyzing the data and then presenting it in a way that anyone can understand -- and that's where our skills in Technical Communications come in.
That is where I was going. It is always good to be enthusiastic about doing a job, but your enthusiasm about presenting data comes through in email. If you can "sell" that data to your audience, then you would put yourself in a very marketable position of a data presenter in whatever role you wind up calling yourself.
I like to get user buy-in in my documents and that requires using some marketing about whatever I am communicating in my documents. I like getting people excited about business processes and effective collaboration. It is exciting to me to see enthusiasm, especially when so many people are jaded by business because of assorted economic chaos and loss.
Being enthusiastic about data that people can use and more importantly getting people excited about the prospects of benefiting from knowing the meaning behind that data will certainly prove to be a promising venture, if you pursue it.
You have a strong foundation for a great philosophy and a good reference for understanding a new direction for data and its many facets of aggregation, analysis, visualization, modelling, manipulation, presentation, dumping, management, use, etc. You may also have the rudimentary elements to establish a methodology of aggregating and presenting data. Something you can write about or present in lectures, if you get a mature methodology that others can replicate in their own businesses.
The archive link to your post is worth saving.
http://www.techwr-l.com/archives/1207/techwhirl-1207-00382.html#.UBg8_7R8Duw
It also gives you the opportunity to think a little bit visually rather than just verbally.
This is important for most people to grasp what it being said. Every great news story has a photo because people can relate to the story when they see a picture. Then there is the adage that a picture tells a thousand words.
... I have no artistic ability at all, but I do have a decent visual sense, and something that could be augmented with some basic design training.
If you can conceptualize data in a way that others will easily understand, they you will be an artist; I guess, a data artist.
...there may be a niche here for Tech Commers. (Tech Commies?:)
Not commies. :-\
There is a niche for you, at least. I think that TechComm does have the potential to expand in many areas because want information about *everything* and many people are tired of being in the dark about how their systems work. It seems there has been a sort of data obscurity where users of a system do not know how the system works, so they have to rely on whatever they are told about it. People have used this data obscurity against business and businesses have used data obscurity against people. Knowledge is power, but attaining data knowledge is a challenge for many people.
... there's not an information explosion, rather a data explosion. We're inundated with data, and there's no sense-making out of it. ...
You have an inspiring philosophy; I think you should build on it.
There is a need for people to bridge that gap between Data and Information, and it looks like the Technical Communicator is well-suited for that. ...
Perhaps, you should be a little selfish about this right now and focus on how *you* can "bridge that gap" rather than how all TechCommers can benefit. Cartographers do not take people with them when they map an area; they map by themselves and then provide the map later. I think you can get slowed down if you give to much attention to global aspects of what you are doing. You are at the edge of a big, largely unexplored area of technical communication. While there are many inroads to data communication, most approaches are unique and few are easily understood by the non-technical people who need data information.
This doesn't have to be graphics, either. It can be charts or other variations of text-based presentations, maybe that just have more of a visual look.
You are describing your new niche as something that may be called, "Data communication."
If I was in your position, I would put "Data Communicator" as my résumé headline. It would get people talking and the discussion would flow right into what you do and that infectious enthusiasm you seem to have.
Anyway, don't mean to ramble. But it's exciting stuff.
It sounds like it.
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- RE: What would you call this process, and role?, Steve Janoff (non-Celgene)
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What would you call this process, and role?: From: Steve Janoff (non-Celgene)
Re: What would you call this process, and role?: From: Lauren
RE: What would you call this process, and role?: From: Steve Janoff (non-Celgene)
Re: What would you call this process, and role?: From: Lauren
RE: What would you call this process, and role?: From: Steve Janoff (non-Celgene)
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