Day 1: Understanding the Data Before Choosing the Story
Today’s question
What data is available, and what kinds of questions could it genuinely help me answer?
What I am working on
Today, I am beginning my first exploration of the datasets available for the Pacific Dataviz Challenge 2026.
Before choosing a story or creating a polished visualization, I want to understand the evidence properly.
My first task is to identify:
- What each dataset measures
- What each row represents
- Which countries, territories or communities are included
- Which years are covered
- Which variables could be useful
- How much information is missing
- Which datasets could potentially be connected
Why I am starting here
It would be easy to begin with an attractive map or chart. However, a visualization can look convincing while representing the data incorrectly.
I first want to understand what the datasets can support and what they cannot support.
Early observations
I will add my first observations here after inspecting the datasets.
The ideas, calculations and visualizations documented during this phase are provisional. They may change as I improve the data cleaning and methodology.
Questions that emerged
I will record new questions here as I explore the data.
Next step
Create a dataset inventory covering the source, unit of analysis, geographic coverage, time period, important variables and possible uses of each dataset.