Time: 02:30 PM
Location: CIC Ideation Studio, Building 22, Blackfriars Campus
On Friday 20 January, we welcomed guest speaker Ishan Shapiro, creative entrepreneur, technologist and storyteller. He shared some from-the-trenches stories about the oft-overlooked and invisible aspects of the human-level sense-making around and within the data science and data analysis workflow. His experiences in ‘data sense-making’ and social information design come from a variety of applications, from content publishing, adtech, art, civic tech + open data, community development and film production.
Topics that were discussed: 
• Key skills of a data sense-maker
• Human-centered data science & design
• Big data, Small data, Smart data?
• Systems modelling, domain definition and methodology design
• Balancing the qualitative and quantitative – unknowns and ambiguity
• Between semantic engineering and deep learning – a sweet spot?
• Data storytelling and narrative development
• New interfaces for expressing and experiencing data
About Ishan Shapiro
Ishan Shapiro is a creative entrepreneur, technologist and storyteller. With a classical training in Film Direction (BFA) at the International Film School of Paris, he uses systems thinking and design as a lens through which to create cohesive story worlds across formats and mediums.
Ishan is a creative technologist, artist and storyteller. Mapping concepts, networks, and narratives in the context of contemporary culture and movements, Ishan translates complex conversations into knowledge ecosystems through sense-making frameworks, process and experience design with the aim of enhanced group cognition and collective intelligence.
In 2008 he co-founded Notthisbody, a Los Angeles based boutique creative studio operating at the intersection of technology, futures thinking and storytelling. Ishan is also co-founder of Metamaps.cc (founded 2012), a open source online platform for collaborative, real-time sensemaking, which combines network visualization, storytelling and systems thinking + design. He has, in various capacities, been a stagehand, first assistant camera, fromagerie assistant, taxi driver, teacher, director, editor, graphic designer, facilitator and producer.