Comet pins the finished Q3 bar graph on the board by the front desk. By lunch, members are taking photos of it.
By evening, Keeper Ines finds a copy in the members' newsletter. Someone has added a headline: "The Commons will stay open late!"
The source line is gone. The note about 38 valid answers is gone too.
"But the council has not decided anything yet," Comet says.
Wren studies the copy. "What do you notice? Our graph is the same, but the story around it changed."
Nova dims her lights thoughtfully. "Interesting," she says. "Once a graph is shared, who decides what it means?"
Comet sighs and picks up a pencil. "Then we need to make our graph harder to misread."
Sharing a program or its results fast with many people can have big effects beyond the maker's control.
A graph is a result of the crew's work. Once it is copied, the crew cannot control every place it goes.
In this made-up example, the copy lost its source line and gained a headline the data do not support.
| On the crew's graph | On the newsletter copy |
|---|---|
| Title: What Commons members want added next | Headline: The Commons will stay open late! |
| Source: Commons Count survey, made-up data | (no source) |
| Note: 38 valid answers out of 40 | (no note) |
| Bars from 0, in equal steps | Bars from 0, in equal steps |
The crew cannot stop every copy. They can make each copy carry its own facts.
Wren suggests putting the source line, the date and the note inside the graph frame, where a photo will catch them.
| Statement | True or false? |
|---|---|
| Results shared fast with many people can have effects beyond the maker's control. | ? |
| Once a graph is shared, its maker controls every copy. | ? |
| A source line gives credit to those who collected the data. | ? |
| A headline added to a graph is always supported by its data. | ? |
| Week review | True or false? |
|---|---|
| Tables, diagrams, text and other visuals can share what data show. | ? |
| Pie charts are a good choice for showing change over time. | ? |
| Line graphs are better than bar graphs for small changes over time. | ? |
| On a bar graph, the y-axis usually starts at 0 with equal parts. | ? |
| If one variable decreases while the other increases, the relationship is positive. | ? |
Thoughtful work, data analyst. Tomorrow is Mission Quest: graph a window count and explain it to your family.