Back in October, we posted about a competition Google co-sponsored with The Guardian's Datastore challenging entrants to create compelling visualizations using world aid data. Today we announced the winner in the The Guardian: Aidan Berensten's visualization of global aid spending by agency. Berensten used data from the International Aid Transparency Initiative to create a an interactive visualization so robust that it comes with its own tutorial.
Check it out Berensten's winning work at iatid.com, and read more over at The Guardian, "See how the world's development aid flows with our competition winner."
On October 16, Google teamed up with The Guardian to host a debate in Kings Cross, London on the topic of the role of data in international development. Debate participants were Douglas Alexander MP, Salil Tripathi (Institute for Human Rights and Business), Rachel Rank (Publish What You Fund), and Simon Rogers (The Guardian Data Store). Issues covered include the importance of transparency around foreign aid and its impact on government behaviors, especially censorship and surveillance. Video below!
Tripathi and Alexander addressed the complex issue of how sanctions may help chill speech instead of foster it if data is not analyzed. The night ended with a great case for telling the story of political/social/economic development through data and also how critical the Internet has become in telling stories of people who don't usually have a voice.