Godin says:

1. Things are going great, look!
2. Things are a disaster, help!
3. Nothing much is happening.
4. We need to work together to figure out what the data means.

We've been pounding the data-as-storytelling thought a lot here -- that's why we do community indicators. Godin suggests discarding graphs that fit category 3 as pointless and 4 as a work session and not a presentation. However, "nothing much is happening" is a compelling story, especially after significant community effort/resources are poured into a problem. Failure to bend the trend line is sometimes the most important story we tell -- what we're doing isn't working, and we need to try something else.

Rule 3. Follow some simple rules

This is where he says to use known conventions -- time on the x-axis, increasing left to right. He suggests that the data/y-axis be structured so that upward-moving trend lines are good. We tried that, once upon a time. Graphing the "employment rate" rather than the unemployment rate was just silly, and meant that viewers couldn't see the story while they were trying to figure out why we were being cute. That said, following patterns in how data are displayed can help the real story line pop out -- the less time trying to decipher the message, the better.

Rule 4. Break some other rules

Somehow, your graph has to be memorable -- the story has to stick. That means mixing things up once in a while. Hard to argue with that.

So what rules would you add? What do you use as your guidelines as you present your information?

The International Society of Child Indicators has released its Summer 2009 Newsletter. You'll want to take a look at the following:

• Their 2nd International Conference scheduled for November 3-5, 2009, at the University of Western Sydney, Australia;
• The collected papers from their first 2007 conference;
• A nice write-up of Measure DHS (Demographic and Health Surveys), a collection of free data from more than 200 surveys in 75 countries. "The strategic objective of MEASURE DHS is to improve and institutionalize the collection and use of data by host countries for program monitoring and evaluation and for policy development decisions."

You'll also be interested in this announcement:

Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago has published a report on “Improving Indicators of Child Well-Being.” The report makes a number of recommendations on new directions for child well-being indicators, including the areas of early childhood and young adult transitions. It also argues for additional indicators on childcare, poverty, and immigration. The report follows a symposium on child well-being indicators held in December 2008, attended by leading experts from universities, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations. It is available on the Chapin Hall website at http://www.chapinhall.org/research/report/improving-indicators-child-well-being.

Take a look at ISCI. Membership is available.

• Our Quality of Life Progress Report, begun in 1985 and updated annually since then, in our traditional PDF format;
• Our Race Relations Progress Report, which reports on our community's progress in eliminating race-based disparities across six elements of the Quality of Life, a project launched after a 2002 community-based study and informed by a fascinating 1946 precursor report; and
• Our new Community Snapshot, which lets you select indicators and see the data displayed simultaneously on a map and time-series trend lines and quintile comparisons and more.