May I offer a comment, as a non-statistician, and I realise the thread
started specifically about books.
It seems to me the 'action' is elsewhere, in websites, or even phone
apps (augmented reality...). For example, I have seen examples of public
communication websites from national statistics agencies of Switzerland
and Australia. And the US government has had several competitions for
the best/most innovative use of its public data sets. This is a good
information source: http://blogstats.wordpress.com/
But I think going to an interactive medium makes sense in terms of what
is possible to communicate. With a statistics and visualisation engine
running, 'readers' become empowered to ask their own questions, and look
for answers. And the fact that a question may not have any simple answer
can be a more powerful piece of learning about the nature of statistics
than a whole stack of reading.
BTW, I am not advocating Rosling-style graphics alone, I think users
need to be given far greater control over what data they can access and
how it is visualised. And computer gaming, though not to my taste, is a
critical genre of interaction for (probably) a majority of the
population.
- Phillip
On Sun, 2012-03-04 at 22:50 +0000, Macfarlane, Alison wrote:
> The same applies to the various versions of the unofficial guide to official health statistics, produced by Radical Statistics.
>
> Alison
>
> ________________________________________
> From: Ruth Levitas [[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: 04 March 2012 22:07
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Official Statistics: a very short introduction
>
> small disciplinary plug - actually we were mostly in Bristol's Sociology
> Department at the time. I don't recall any resources apart from Will and I
> sitting up all night.
>
> Ruth
>
>
> On Sun, March 4, 2012 8:03 pm, Jeff Evans wrote:
> > I think there may be several ways of responding to the needs indicated by
> > Tom. A type of general short book, such as he describes, has been produced
> > periodically - I recall M. Slattery (1986), Official Statistics,
> > Tavistock, which may also have been part of a series.
> >
> > The problem, I think, is in keeping the book short and general - but also
> > interesting. In this area, there are a limited set of things you can say
> > in general about official statistics, but it is challenging to show how
> > they matter - in a short space, and without going into examples, of one or
> > more series where you have, in each case, to go into the definitions of
> > variable and the current policy needs they are meant to address. The
> > specific cases, crime or inflation etc., become interesting, but take
> > space to develop properly.
> >
> > So one might consider a larger book, edited with many contributors, like
> > Statistics in Society (1998) or Demystifying (1979), or Interpreting
> > Official Statistics, eds. Levitas & Guy (1996). But you need an
> > organisation like Radical Statistics, or the Univ. of Bristol Social
> > Policy [?] Dept. to have the resources to do that.
> >
> > So there may be a place for the smaller book. It might be worth scanning
> > the excellent book, The Tiger That Isn't, by M. Blastland & A. Dilnot
> > (2007/2008), to consider what they have "left out". The BBC series "More
> > or Less", on which the book was based, has of course produced more
> > programmes since.
> >
> > Finally, anything that might raise the visibility of official statistics
> > in discussions of curriculum, at any level, is to be welcomed. The RSS,
> > with the Society of Actuaries, published a report on school and college
> > level, in January, by Roger Porkess, which is generally helpful, but the
> > issues around a need for the critical examination of statistical data,
> > particualrly official data, are not emphasised.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Jeff Evans
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: email list for Radical Statistics [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> > On Behalf Of King T.
> > Sent: 29 February 2012 09:17
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Official Statistics: a very short introduction
> >
> > I have recently been reviewing the Very Short Introduction to Statistics
> > and I noticed that it says very little about official statistics. The VSI
> > series covers all manner of weird and wonderful topics but nothing that
> > really covers anything like official statistics. Something that gave the
> > history and also covered reasons for collecting data and governance etc
> > would be interesting. It could also explain ideas like seasonal adjustment
> > and different measures of certain things like unemployment. It could also
> > give considerable insight into the role a census plays in the statistical
> > system. Then it might move on to more complex issues such as performance
> > indicators. I think there would be a book in it, the only difficulty is
> > how to look at the international perspective including the role of
> > international organisations. Do you think it is possible to suggest such a
> > commission to OUP, or is it something radstats might consider doing?
> > Tom
++++++
Dr Phillip Kent, London, UK
mathematics education technology research
[log in to unmask] mobile: 07950 952034
www.phillipkent.net
++++++
"Man's rush to the n'th floor is a neck-and-neck race
between plumbing and abstraction" - Rem Koolhaas
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