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Activity Number: 88 - Data Visualization in Practice
Type: Contributed
Date/Time: Monday, August 9, 2021 : 10:00 AM to 11:50 AM
Sponsor: Section on Statistical Graphics
Abstract #317988
Title: Lessons from William Playfair, from Colorful Rogue to the First Data Scientist in History
Author(s): Scott Lee Wise*
Companies: SAS Institute, Inc.
Keywords: Graphs; Graphing; Dashboards; Data Science; Visualization
Abstract:

With the goals of combining statistics, data analysis and informatics to make sense of our big data world, it is no secret that the inter-disciplinary field of data science is growing in popularity. But who was the first real data scientist to apply these methods way before the term ever became popular in modern times? This paper will show how Scottish polymath William Playfair was truly the creative founder way back in the 1780s of what we now label data science! We will explore not only William’s contributions to visualizing data (such as bar, line and pie charts on graphs and dashboards), but also how this colorful rogue embodied the very traits of a successful data scientist. We will also learn lessons from William on how we can enhance our own inner data scientist skills to be even more successful in whatever we do!


Authors who are presenting talks have a * after their name.

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