The Non-Obvious Book of the Week: Community Data by Rahul Bhargava

For my book selection this week I’ll start by sharing that I have known this author for literally his entire life—because it’s my younger brother, Rahul! His first book, Community Data was just released this week by Oxford University Press. The book delves into the work he has been doing for the past few decades around data storytelling first as a research scientist at MIT’s Media Lab and currently as a professor teaching about data and journalism at Northeastern University in Boston.

How can you get a community to not just view but participate in storytelling using data? Why should we use data not as a window into a certain group but for that group itself to reflect on their own stories by using it as a mirror instead? What new insight might we all learn from data if we could present and interact with it physically rather than just gazing over charts on a page or spreadsheets on a screen?

The fascinating stories in this book will take you across the world from a fashion show in Tanzania featuring clothing depicting data murals to a team of sound engineers in California creating music concerts based on climate data. Complimented by full color illustrations, Community Data makes a powerful case for why we should all rethink the way we use and tell stories around data. Aside from the fact that the author is like a brother to me, if you have an interest in getting smarter about using and understanding data—definitely pick up this book.

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About the Non-Obvious Book Selection of the Week:

Every week I will be featuring a new “non-obvious” book selection worth sharing. Titles featured here may be new or from the backlist, but the date of publication doesn’t really matter. My goal is to elevate great books that perhaps deserve a second look which you might have otherwise missed.