The Big Data (BD) Interagency Working Group (IWG) coordinates Federal agency research and development (R&D) to extract knowledge and insight from large, diverse, and disparate data sources, including mechanisms for data capture, curation, management, access, analysis, and visualization. The BD IWG works under the auspices of the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) Subcommittee of the NSTC’s Committee on Technology to coordinate current big data R&D activities across the Federal Government and to enhance collaboration among agencies, academia, and the private sector. The Human Computer Interaction and Information Management (HCI&IM) Task Force (TF) reports to the BD IWG and organizes workshops on the science of visualization.
The Data Visualization Workshop II: Data Wrangling was a web-based event held on October 18, 2017. The “Frontiers of Data Visualization Workshop II: Data Wrangling Workshop Summary” report summarizes the individual perspectives of a group of visualization experts from the public, private, and academic sectors who met online to discuss how to improve the creation and use of high-quality visualizations. The specific focus of this workshop was on the complexities of “data wrangling”. Data wrangling includes finding the appropriate data sources that are both accessible and usable and then shaping and combining that data to facilitate the most accurate and meaningful analysis possible. The workshop was organized as a 3-hour web event and moderated by the members of the Human Computer Interaction and Information Management Task Force of the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development Program’s Big Data Interagency Working Group.