Wat sien ons wanneer ons na data kyk?

– Deur Benito Trollip –
//English follows below//

Die ganse wêreld is vol data, daardie brokkies inligting wat op een of ander manier hulle weg tot jou bewuste of onderbewuste vind. Dit kan die nuusberigte wees wat jy heeldag dophou, jou hartklop volgens jou slimtoestel, of selfs die nuwe woord en sy definisie wat jy vandag ontdek het. My woord vir die dag is besant – ʼn Bisantynse goue muntstuk. Uiteindelik is data ʼn baie breë begrip en is taaldata die spesifieke soort data waarmee ék die meeste werk – hoekom kom ʼn sekere woord op sekere plekke voor? Of waarom kom die woord nie op sekere plekke voor nie? Kom dit meer of minder as in die verlede voor? Wat beteken die woord in hierdie spesifieke konteks? Ek moet myself gereeld afvra wat die nommers en woorde beteken en waar kry ek my inligting, want ek kan helaas nie net sê wat ek wil nie, al wil ek reg wees en al my eie (slim) voorspellings bevestig. Behalwe vir die data wat ek ontdek, is dit ook belangrik om te weet ander mense het heel moontlik ander data en daar is in wese hierdie ekosisteem van data en interpretasies wat op dieselfde tyd bestaan.

ʼn Vaardigheid wat juis as gevolg van die oorvloed van beskikbare data al hoe belangriker word, is die bevraagtekening van die data wat jy (wil) gebruik of self wil skep. ʼn Mens behoort altyd te vra waar jy data vandaan kry, hoekom het die betrokke organisasie of individu hierdie data versamel en as jy dit wil hergebruik, is dit geskik vir jou eie doeleindes? Is daar voorwaardes vir die gebruik daarvan? ʼn Nuuskierige ingesteldheid oor data en moontlike gapings daarin, bied geleenthede om tot ʼn gesprek by te dra of menslike kennis oor verskynsels op te helder.

Kennis en insig kom uiteindelik tot stand deur data te interpreteer – wat op dees aarde beteken al hierdie woorde, grafieke, nommers en formules? Data het nie inherente betekenis nie, iewers skep mense betekenis en dit bly kernbelangrik om dit altyd in gedagte te hou wanneer data betrokke is.


What do we see when we look at data?

The world is flooded with data, those snippets of information that somehow find their way to your conscious or subconscious. It could be the news reports you monitor throughout the day, your heart rate according to your smart device, or even the new word and its definition you discovered today. My word for the day is bezant – a Byzantine gold coin. Ultimately data is a very broad concept and language data is the specific type of data I work with the most – why do certain words occur in certain places? Or why does the word not appear in certain places? Does it occur more or less than in the past? What does the word mean in this particular context? I often have to ask myself what the numbers and words mean and where I get my information from, because unfortunately I cannot just say what I want to, even though I want to be right and confirm all my own (smart) predictions. Apart from all of the data that I discover, it is also important to know that other people quite possibly have other data and there is essentially this ecosystem of data and interpretations that exist at the same time.

A skill that becomes increasingly important precisely because of the abundance of available data, is questioning the data that you (want to) use or want to create yourself. One should always ask where data comes from, why did the relevant organisation or individual collect this data and if you want to reuse it, is it suitable for your own purposes? Are there conditions attached to its use? A curious attitude about data and possible gaps therein offers opportunities to contribute to a conversation or elucidate human knowledge about phenomena.

In the end knowledge and insight are created by interpreting data – what on earth do all these words, graphs, numbers and formulas mean? Data does not have inherent meaning, somewhere people create meaning and it remains crucial to always keep this in mind when data is involved.