The International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC) has launched its new data portal with the aim of 'data storytelling': the ability to effectively communicate insights from a dataset using narratives and visualisation.
The objectives: The data portal is designed to accomplish two things:
- Putting basic, yet still very robust, data storytelling capabilities into the hands of the global cotton and textiles community. This is a substantial upgrade over the basic information that comes from querying a traditional database.
- Adding significant new value to ICAC member governments, some of the most powerful functionalities found in the data portal is reserved for use by only ICAC members.
The idea: To make visually appealing charts, tables and graphs is only a part of its effectiveness.
- It's about using data to create a narrative that humans can relate to in a more useful and meaningful way.
- Traditional data dashboards can be effective at showing when something changes, but they aren’t very good at explaining why something happened, or what that change might mean in the real world.
What they said:
The dashboard that is being showcased today is the foundation upon which the ICAC will build. In time, we will migrate our publications into interactive and dynamic reports, giving you the ability to dig deeper into the data to help understand the analysis. This is a massive change from the way we have been operating the statistics programme. With formal databases, interactive dashboards and dynamic reports, we are excited to provide the same excellent analysis using the latest in modern and cutting-edge data science technology.
— Matthew Looney
Data scientist and architect of the data portal
International Cotton Advisory Committee
Not only has this data portal ensured that the ICAC is now at the cutting edge of data provision but it also has an added advantage of allowing ICAC members to interact directly with the data we hold. It really is a fantastic achievement and developed in-house by our data scientist in just a few months.
— Kai Hughes
Executive Director
International Cotton Advisory Committee
Recent measures: The data portal is one of several steps the organisation has taken over the last five years to provide even greater value for members.
- The others include the development of the Four Simple Steps to Sustainable High Yields programme, Virtual Reality Cotton Training, and a voice-based app designed for illiterate small holder farmers.
