Katy Börner

Katy Börner, my heroine, a major professor at Indiana University with multiple accolades and numerous appointments.   I first learned of her from Davis Masten, who was a key MediaX@Stanford program Advisor for me from 2006-2011.   Six years into an NSF funded program to promote "Data Visualization Literacy: Research and Tools that Advance Public Understanding of Scientific Data", Börner had an exhibit with 60 poster-boards that showed interesting, sometimes exciting, ways to portray data, especially Big Data (although that term hadn't yet reached the trade press).

I called her to ask how we might be able to host her exhibit at Stanford.  It turned out that she'd shown it maybe fifteen times, NOWHERE WEST of the Mississippi River, even though she was at Indiana Univ. This little factoid is remarkably consistent in America, in my experience--the map for New Yorkers that looks west and sees New Jersey and the Pacific Ocean (only) is all too prevalent, as any perusal of sports channels will illustrate on your weekend television.

She said, "If you'll pay the shipping costs, you can have it for three months."  Which we did, hosting it in Wallenberg Hall (the left front building at Stanford when you see the oval lawn with Memorial Church in the center background).   We filled the first floor lobby and hallways, the second floor hallways, and parts of the fourth floor.  We invited the artists (these were, for the most part, computer scientists with artistic skills) to a grand opening, and it was this opening to which Warren Muir attended.

The show was a smash hit, and co-incidentally Edward Tufte lectured on campus concurrently, with no indication to me that he attended our exhibit, although he indeed might be called the progenitor of such efforts.   The fact that my COPD work was several years prior to Tufte's first book is one of those personal satisfactions for which no credit accrues, except for my own enjoyment.

Börner has gone on to author numerous books on the subject, easily the most informative and visually satisfying books on the subject.  Just read this blurb about her latest.

Atlas of Forecasts.   This book came out in 2021.  

Modeling and Mapping Desirable Futures

Forecasting the future with advanced data models and visualizations.

To envision and create the futures we want, society needs an appropriate understanding of the likely impact of alternative actions. Data models and visualizations offer a way to understand and intelligently manage complex, interlinked systems in science and technology, education, and policymaking. Atlas of Forecasts, from the creator of Atlas of Science and Atlas of Knowledge, shows how we can use data to predict, communicate, and ultimately attain desirable futures.

Using advanced data visualizations to introduce different types of computational models, Atlas of Forecasts demonstrates how models can inform effective decision-making in education, science, technology, and policymaking. The models and maps presented aim to help anyone understand key processes and outcomes of complex systems dynamics, including which human skills are needed in an artificial intelligence–empowered economy; what progress in science and technology is likely to be made; and how policymakers can future-proof regions or nations. This Atlas offers a driver's seat-perspective for a test-drive of the future.