What is CGDV and how can you get involved?

The Center for Global Data Visualization (CGDV) is an initiative led by QED Group to build data visualization capacity and strengthen a culture of data use. 

CGDV provides a unique platform for collaboration, offering opportunities for training, networking, publishing and professional development in data analytics and visualization. CGDV aims to mobilize the power of crowdsourcing to offer insights into some of the greatest challenges facing many low- and middle-income countries today.

Join the initiative

In growing CGDV to its fullest potential, QED is seeking universities, organizations, and individuals with an interest in realizing the power of data to impact international development to join this initiative. As part of the collaboration, we will have access to data visualization trainings, guidance on accessing data sets, and the opportunity to publish on the CGDV platform.

Are you a student or professor? Are you looking to become a Collaborating Partner? What does it mean to join CGDV?

Joining CGDV will provide users the opportunity to:

• Gain experience in Tableau, international development, and data analytics spheres

• Apply analytics and visualization for data from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), World Bank and World Health Organization (WHO), and other institutions to uncover patterns and stories in the data to promote the common good

• Publish unique research on the CGDV visualization platform

• Compete in CGDV Challenges for recognition and prizes

• Join a global network of like-minded individuals working to better understand data and use insights to improve programming and evaluation impacts

• Collaborate with other users through visualization comments , allowing for better understanding between students and expert individuals to provide insight on how the message can be improved where necessary and where good work has been performed.

No strings attached

• There are no fees and there is no obligation to participate. We are serious about spreading the use of data visualization for international development and to do that, we need to grow our community of collaborators. If you decide to collaborate and change your mind later, it's OK. Any work that is done by a collaborating university, professors, or students is wholly owned by the creator. We are not asking for the rights to any of it.

To get involved in the site as a user please go to http://www.centerforglobaldata.org/authentication/signup and follow the steps outlined below.

Signing up, and setting up a profile: How to develop and use your profile to promote your work

Sign up to CGDV:

• Go to:- http://www.centerforglobaldata.org/authentication/signup

• Enter your email address, first name, last name, a user biography (which can be updated at a later stage)

• Select your University / Organization from the combo box, if it is not listed, select the Other option at the bottom of the list which will allow you to add your own organization

• Finally enter a password that you will use to login to the system.

Upon sign up you will automatically be logged into the CGDV system.

To login to CGDV:

• Go to http://www.centerforglobaldata.org/authentication/signin

• Enter your email address and the password you used to sign up and click login.

The creation of a profile in the system along with the publishing of visualizations to that profile allows for a user to showcase their visualizations in a single repository that can be referenced by individuals for future opportunities.  CGDV attributes visualizations to the authors and the creation of a biography highlighting user accomplishments and interests can be used for promotion to individuals.

Users are also shown with badges to show status on the website in terms of contributions and challenge status.

To fully update your profile, follow the below steps:

• After login to the system -> go to the profile icon next to -> My Visuals in the menu and click on "Edit Profile"

• On the profile page, fill in the additional information that is required on the profile (Mobile #, Gender, Country, and update the Bio if necessary). The Category section is only required if you are wishing to be part of the leadership team of CGDV.

• On default the user is provided with a standard user image.

• To update the picture -> click "Change", click "Choose File", and select your profile image from your local machine for upload.

• After selecting the file -> the upload button below the image needs to be clicked to upload the image to the server.

• On successful upload you will see a success message shown in the top right of the screen

• Finally click the "Submit" button to finalize your profile changes.

How do I upload a Visual?

Follow the below steps to upload a visual:

• Click on the "My Visuals" menu next to your profile image at the top of the screen

• Capture details of the visualization:

o Title -> Name of the visualization for searching

o Visualization Country -> The country for which the visualization is applicable (leave blank if multinational)

o University or Organization -> Organization which takes ownership for the visualization

o Category -> Category that the visualization may fall into this is to assist with searching

o Challenge -> if this visualization is to be entered in a specific challengeChallenges that are open can be selected in this section.

o Data Source -> Sources from where this data was supplied.

o Tags -> As per Twitter's hashtags, these tags are to provide keywords for the visualizations that may apply that can assist with searching.

o Embed Code -> CGDV acts as a portal for linking visualizations from various sources. From this we are looking to put an embed code in here with the IFRAME portion attached as per this example: <iframe src="https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/182703/embed" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="width:100%;height:600px;"></iframe> This can be generated from most sources for visualizations.

NOTE: If you are just wanting to use an image as a static visualization, simply leave this field BLANK and the Picture uploaded below will default to show as the primary visual.

o Description -> this is to provide you with the ability to put some additional context for the visualization if required.

o Allow Comments -> This checkbox can be set on if you need it, it will allow you to receive comments on your visualization from the CGDV community. You have full moderator and administrator rights for comments.

o Picture -> This is to upload a screenshot of the visualization to provide an overview of the item as it is shown on the dashboard.Click -> Choose File and then find the local file to upload. Once selected, be sure to click "Upload" to upload the image to the CGDV server. You will see a "Success" message appear on the top right of the page showing the image is uploaded successfully.

o Finally click "Submit" to save the visualization to the server, you will see a "Success" message shown on the top right. In addition your visualization will be shown at the bottom of the screen as seen here:

• 3 Icons are shown with the visual:

o "Heart" icon represents the number of upvotes or likes the visual has received from the community.

o "Pencil" allows you to go in and edit the visualizations settings if you need to amend any items, or put the visual in an open Challenge.

o "Bin" allows you to delete your visualization from the system

Using the CGDV Library

Under the Library section -> Featured visualizations are highlighted as selected by moderators of the CGDV site.  All visualizations are then shown in the search section and can be searched under a number of criteria:

1. Ordered by most recent uploaded visuals

2. Ordered by Visuals with the most upvotes by the CGDV community

3. Filtered visuals by users from a specific organization / university

4. Filtered visuals by visuals that are from a specific country

5. Filtered visuals selecting only visuals from a specific challenge

6. Free search based on visuals title

Participating in Challenges

The Challenges section informs users of both active challenges in which they can participate • as well as winners of previous challenges. 

Challenges will be periodically created to continue community engagement making use of public data sources to look at creating new stories and insights into available data.  They will be regularly themed around specific topics and may have some prizes associated on occasion.

Open Challenges will appear as the sample below:

Dates and details of the challenge are shown and to enter directly -> click "Enter Now" -> this will take you to the Add Visual section with the challenge preselected in your visual add page.

For any other questions or additional support, please contact datachallenge@qedgroupllc.com