About Data Pointed

Details, Details, Details!

Hello there, and welcome to Data Pointed, which four out of five dentists agree is the best damn data and visualization site on the Internets!

First, a few bits about me. My full name is Stephen Von Worley, but I respond best to von or Steve. My parents raised me right, and in standardized tests of moral fiber, I consistently rank in the top one-percent. To me, nothing quite tops the drama of a high desert thunderstorm – except, perhaps, a raging blizzard. With an assist from my wonderful wife, I’ve propagated my Y-chromosome. Some years ago, Berkeley awarded me a graduate degree in Computer Science, and since then, from time to time, my business card has included the word Chief. A native of the Land Of Fruits And Nuts and currently a denizen of its central coast, I’ve lived in a cornucopia of other places – within figurative spitting distance of the Mariana Trench, Smithsonian Institution, Kennedy Space Center, National Atomic Museum, and Gateway Arch, consecutively. For more about me, see my personal site.

For the sheer fun of it, I like to fill the swimming pool with data, dive deep, emerge clutching a fresh insight, and use it to tell a story. Other times, an itch must be scratched – like the need to know how far one can get from modern consumer culture, which resulted in the very popular investigation “Where The Buffalo Roamed.” That article, and several others you’ll find here, went viral to the tune of millions of eyeballs, and originally appeared on my experimental blog Weather Sealed.

The Data Pointed recipe? One part magazine, with original, longer-format articles that document my in-house research endeavors, and two parts blog, chronicling interesting developments from elsewhere within the field of data art and visualization. Combine, add a pinch of comedy and half a thesaurus, pressure cook until tender, and bon appétit. To receive updates fresh-and-hot, please do subscribe to the RSS feed, follow on Twitter, or fan on Facebook.