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Venue
The seminar was hosted by Statistics Sweden and jointly arranged by Statistics Sweden and the OECD. It was held on 26-27 May 2008 in Berns Salonger, Kammarsalen. Street address Berzeli Park, Stockholm, Sweden.
Format
The seminar took place over two days in plenum, with no parallel sessions. There were around 20 presentations, and discussants were allocated to the sessions. The conference was video recorded, allowing other interested parties to watch it, when available, on the seminar website.
Purpose
The purpose of the seminar was to contribute to the development of tools to help people transform statistics into knowledge and decisions. A first condition for statistics to be used this way is that relevant statistics become known, available and understood by wider audiences.
The seminar was held in the context of the OECD Global Project on "Measuring the Progress of Societies". It contributed to one of the goals quoted in the Istanbul Declaration: "produce a broader, shared, public understanding of changing conditions, while highlighting areas of significant change or inadequate knowledge".
Scope
The seminar could be seen as a continuation of the seminar in Rome on Dynamic Graphics (held by OECD and ISTAT in Rome on 6-7 March 2007) and of the first International Exhibition on "Innovative tools to transform information into knowledge", organised during the second OECD World Forum on "Statistics, Knowledge and Policy" (Istanbul, 27-30 June 2007).
During the seminar focus was on a broader range of tools than merely Dynamic Graphics, while these remained at the heart of the matter. The Stockholm seminar also included the use of videos, as explored by GapMinder and others, and participative approaches, as seen in some web 2.0 initiatives; and – although innovative tools are themselves of great interest, and worthy of being presented at the seminar – the focus of the seminar was on innovative applications of tools, e.g. so called story-telling applications.
Tools and applications for making statistics more popular were looked at, while avoiding the pitfalls of populism, over-simplification or propaganda. All these initiatives were looked at on a scientific basis and the basic principles of objectivity and good communication were observed. Experts in statistical methodology, cognitive science, and communication were therefore welcomed as active participants in the seminar.
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For further information, please contact Julie.Branco-Marinho@oecd.org
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