Data Analytic Literacy

The explosive growth in volume and varieties of data generated by the seemingly endless arrays of digital systems and applications is rapidly elevating the importance of being able to utilize data; in fact, data analytic literacy is becoming as important now, at the onset of the Digital Era, as rudimentary literacy and numeracy were throughout the Industrial Era. And yet, what constitutes data analytic literacy is poorly understood. To some, data analytic literacy is the ability to use basic statistics, to others it is data science ‘light’, and to still others it is just general familiarity with common data analytic outcomes. Exploring the scope and the structure of rudimentary data analytic competencies is at the core of this book which takes the perspective that data analytics is a new and distinct domain of knowledge and practice. It offers application-minded framing of rudimentary data analytic competencies built around conceptually sound and practically meaningful processes and mechanics of systematically transforming messy and heterogeneous data into informative insights. Data Analytic Literacy is meant to offer an easy-to-follow overview of the critical elements of the reasoning behind basic data manipulation and analysis approaches and steps, coupled with the commonly used data analytic and data communication techniques and tools. It offers an all-inclusive guide to developing basic data analytic competencies.