Preface

I hadn’t written a book before, let alone an international, open-source book with more than 50 contributors from 14 different countries.

我之前沒有寫過書，更別說一本橫跨 14 國、多達 50 名貢獻者的國際開源書籍。

It started with a message on Kickstarter:

這一切開始於一則在 Kickstarter 上的留言：

Hi Trina! Stats dork from Chicago here….Do you have any plans to include tutorials for basic data cleaning and data selection techniques for users who may not have any statistics background?

Trina 你好！我是一個住芝加哥的統計宅 …。你們未來有沒有計劃替沒有任何統計背景的的人，寫一些基礎資料清理與資料遴選技巧的教學文呢？

At the time, I didn’t know that this one message would turn into a book, a community, and a global endeavor to make information design more accessible.

那時的我，並不知道這則留言會變成一本書、催生一個社群，甚至點燃不同國家的人的熱情，有志一同地讓資訊設計更加親民。

The message author, Dyanna Gregory, was a statistical programmer who knew the challenges of teaching university-level stats to those who don’t identify as math nerds. I was an entrepreneur building Infoactive, a web application to help people create interactive infographics and data visualizations. I was also a Reynolds Fellow at the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute where my goal was to find ways to simplify the process of making data visualizations in newsrooms. I had launched a Kickstarter campaign to support Infoactive, and we had nearly 1,500 backers who were excited about breaking down barriers in data visualization.

那則留言的作者 Dyanna Gregory 是一名統計學程式設計師，深知將大學統計學教給數學宅以外的人，是多大的一個坑。我則是一名連續創業家，打造 Infoactive 網路應用程式，幫助人們創造互動型資訊圖表與資資料視覺化。我也曾是美國密蘇里大學 Donald W. Reylonds 新聞學院 (RJI) 的 Raylonds Fellow，研究如何簡化新聞編輯室裡做資料視覺化的流程。我在 Kickstarter 上替 Infoactive 募資，有近 1500 人贊助；贊助者都十分樂見資料視覺畫的門檻能變得更低。

We all believed in the vision of making data simple.

我們都懷抱著讓資料更簡單的願景。

But working with data can be far from simple. Data come in all different shapes, sizes, and flavors. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution to collecting, understanding, and visualizing information. Some people spend years studying the topic through statistics, mathematics, design, and computer science. And many people want a bit of extra help getting started.

但處理資料可沒有那麼容易。資料有著各種奇形怪狀，既能搜集、理解又可以將資料視覺化的萬用必殺技並不存在。有些人研讀統計、數學、設計與電腦科學好幾年，就是為了鑽研這個主題；也有很多新手想踏入這個殿堂，需要一些小小的幫助。

Dyanna and I began talking about what a plain-language data resource would look like. Usability was a big priority for us. It’s hard to write a technical book that’s easy for less-technical readers to digest, but we believed that it was an important challenge to tackle. We wanted to create a free resource that was well-designed, joyful to read, and easy to understand.

我跟 Dyanna 開始討論如何用淺白的語言來談資料。易讀性至關重要；一本給非技術讀者消化的技術書籍確實不好寫，我們相信這是必須要去面對的重要挑戰。我們想要創建一份免費／自由的參考資源，它設計精良、能輕鬆閱讀，也易於理解。

Of course, the information would need to be accurate and we wanted to cover a range of different data concepts. We needed technical writers with an in-depth understanding of data, math, and statistics. We also needed editors who could comb over the content to make adjustments for simplicity and understandability and ensure that the chapters had a friendly, conversational tone. Our mission was to translate geek into non-geek — to make technical concepts more accessible to less-technical people.

當然，這份教學資訊仍需精確到位，我們也希望能囊括不同的資料處理概念。我們需要技術背景的寫手深入介紹資料、數學與統計。我們也需要爬梳並調整內容、讓內容更好理解的專業編輯，確保各章節能保持友善的對話語調。我們的使命是化宅為非宅 — 讓艱深的技術概念更容易被非技術人所理解。

Dyanna and I made a call for contributors. Neither of us expected to see such a strong, positive response. Frankly, it blew our minds. Messages began pouring in from people from all over the globe who told us about their experiences working with data and design, or their lack thereof. What struck me the most was the number of self-identified “non-math people” who were hungry for a resource that could introduce them to data concepts in a manner that was simple, approachable, and even fun. They were motivated to pitch in and volunteer their time to make it happen.

我跟 Dyanna 開始徵求貢獻者加入。大出所料的是，我們收到了大量的正面迴響；說實話，這讓我們沖昏了頭。來全世界的留言湧入，告訴我們他們如何處理資料與設計，或他們如何地缺乏這些能力。最讓我震驚的是，有非常多自稱為「非數學人」的人們，非常渴望能有一份教學資源，用簡單易懂甚至有趣的方式來介紹資料處理的概念。這些人們自願投入時間，協力讓這美好的事情發生。

Dyanna and I kicked off the project in February with a Write-A-Thon in Chicago. We invited writers, data analysts, programmers, designers, and others to come together in person and talk about the project as a whole. We thought through the process, talked about data, opened up our laptops, and started writing.

二月，在一場芝加哥的作家松（Write-A-Thon）中，我們開始了這個計劃。我們邀到了一些作家、資料分析師、設計師、程式設計師等人，面對面地討論整個計劃。我們在腦海裡順過整個流程、討論一下資料，就打開筆電動手寫書。

After that, we contacted everyone who applied to contribute, and began figuring out who was going to do what. For an all-volunteer project with more than 50 contributors spread across many time zones, it was important to stay organized. We found project managers for different sections of the book, chose writers and editors for each chapter, and put together research and distribution teams. Chapter by chapter, the vision began to turn into a reality.

在那之後，我們向報名貢獻的人聯絡，並且開始分工。這個全自願性專案有超過 50 個貢獻者、橫跨不同時區，因此管理變得很重要。我們將整本書的不同區段指派給各專案經理、選擇各章的責任作家與編輯，並且設置了研究與散佈小組。一章接著一章，願景逐漸地化為真實。

For me, the best part of this project was having the honor of working with some of the smartest, funniest, most creative people I’ve ever met. Again and again, I’ve been blown away by their creativity, passion, and support. I’m beyond grateful that I had the experience of creating this book with such an incredible group of people. Data + Design is truly a community effort.

對我來說，參與這個專案最棒的地方，在於能有榮幸與我所遇過的一些最聰明、最有趣、最有創意的人們一起共事。他們的創意、熱忱與支持一次次地驚呆了我。我非常感激能有這個機會與這些不可思議的人們一起寫這本書。Data + Design 完全是社群的共同努力。

This book isn’t a final product. It’s the beginning of a community process to improve our collective understanding of data and design. We’re releasing the first edition now, but we’re already working on more chapters for future releases and thinking about ways that we can improve. Together we can build upon it, translate it, transform it, and make it better with every iteration.

這本書並非成品，而是社群對話的開始，精進我們對資料與設計的集成智慧。雖然現在才剛發行第一版，但我們已經在準備未來會釋出的新章節，也在思考如何更進步。以此為基礎，我們能一同創建、翻譯、轉化，透過一次次地改版，讓它更好。

Data + Design is open source and available on Github. It’s free for anyone to read, download, remix, and re-distribute for noncommercial purposes. We invite you to join us. Email [e-mail] to get involved.

Data + Design 完全開源，你可以在 Github 上找到它。任何人都可以自由／免費地閱讀、下載、改作，與不帶商業目的地重新散佈。我們邀請你加入我們，請來信到 [e-mail]。

I also want to thank the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute (RJI) for supporting Data + Design. RJI’s support for journalism and data storytelling played an instrumental role in bringing this project to life.

我也想要感謝 Donald W. Reynolds 新聞學院 (RJI) 支持 Data + Design. RJI 對新聞與說故事技巧的支持對這個計劃的誕生至關重要。

Trina Chiasson Co-founder & CEO, Infoactive 2013-2014 Reynolds Fellow