I hadn’t written a book before, let alone an international, open-source book with more than 50 contributors from 14 different countries.
在此之前，我从未写过书，更不用说写一本由来自14个不同国家的50多位参与者共同协作创造的国际化的开源的书。
It started with a message on Kickstarter:
它始于Kickstarter网站上的一段留言：
Hi Trina! Stats dork from Chicago here….Do you have any plans to include tutorials for basic data cleaning and data selection techniques for users who may not have any statistics background?
你好，特瑞娜！芝加哥统计小白在此……你有没有想过写一个教程，向没有任何统计基础的用户传授基本的数据清理、数据选择技术？
At the time, I didn’t know that this one message would turn into a book, a community, and a global endeavor to make information design more accessible.
当时，我根本没有想到这条留言最终会演变成一本书、一个社区、一个致力于让信息设计更加通俗易懂的全球化的努力。
The message author, Dyanna Gregory, was a statistical programmer who knew the challenges of teaching university-level stats to those who don’t identify as math nerds. I was an entrepreneur building Infoactive, a web application to help people create interactive infographics and data visualizations. I was also a Reynolds Fellow at the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute where my goal was to find ways to simplify the process of making data visualizations in newsrooms. I had launched a Kickstarter campaign to support Infoactive, and we had nearly 1,500 backers who were excited about breaking down barriers in data visualization.
这条留言的作者，迪亚娜·格雷戈里，是一位统计学的程序员，她了解向不是哪些所谓数学天才的人教授大学水平的统计学是一件极具挑战性的事情。当时我是一个正在创建infoactive的企业家。infoactive是一个致力于帮助人们创造互动式的信息图表和数据可视化的网页在线应用。我同时还在Donald W. Reynolds新闻学院跟随Reynolds一起工作。我的目标是寻找一种简化新闻编辑创造数据可视化的方式。我在kickstarter众筹平台上发起了支持infoactive的项目，并且已经有了1500个支持者。他们都对打破数据可视化的技术门槛这件事而感到兴奋。
We all believed in the vision of making data simple.
我们都相信在未来，我们可以让数据看起来更简洁。
But working with data can be far from simple. Data come in all different shapes, sizes, and flavors. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution to collecting, understanding, and visualizing information. Some people spend years studying the topic through statistics, mathematics, design, and computer science. And many people want a bit of extra help getting started.
但是和数据打交道并不是一件简单的事情。数据以多种多样的面貌呈现在我们眼前，不存在一种收集信息、理解信息、并将其可视化的放之四海而皆准的方法。有些人花费数年通过统计学、数学、设计、计算机科学来研究这些问题。很多人想要一些来自外界的帮助去打开新世界的大门。
Dyanna and I began talking about what a plain-language data resource would look like. Usability was a big priority for us. It’s hard to write a technical book that’s easy for less-technical readers to digest, but we believed that it was an important challenge to tackle. We wanted to create a free resource that was well-designed, joyful to read, and easy to understand.
迪亚娜和我开始讨论一个用简单朴素的语言表述的数据资源会是什么样子。易用性是我们的首要任务。写一本让缺乏技术背景的读者容易理解的技术书籍并不是一件易事，但是我们相信这是一个需要应对的非常重要的挑战。我们希望创造一个精心设计的，让人乐于阅读的，并且易于理解的开放资源。
Of course, the information would need to be accurate and we wanted to cover a range of different data concepts. We needed technical writers with an in-depth understanding of data, math, and statistics. We also needed editors who could comb over the content to make adjustments for simplicity and understandability and ensure that the chapters had a friendly, conversational tone. Our mission was to translate geek into non-geek — to make technical concepts more accessible to less-technical people.
当然，这些信息应当是精准的，我们想要覆盖各种不同的数据概念。我们需要对数据、数学和统计深入理解的技术作家。我们还需要能够梳理调整内容让其简单易懂，并确保章节呈现出友好的对话式的风格的编辑。我们的任务是把极客翻译成非极客－让技术概念对非技术人员更容易接受。
Dyanna and I made a call for contributors. Neither of us expected to see such a strong, positive response. Frankly, it blew our minds. Messages began pouring in from people from all over the globe who told us about their experiences working with data and design, or their lack thereof. What struck me the most was the number of self-identified “non-math people” who were hungry for a resource that could introduce them to data concepts in a manner that was simple, approachable, and even fun. They were motivated to pitch in and volunteer their time to make it happen.
迪亚娜和我发起招募协作者。我们都完全没有想到会有如此强烈和积极的反响。老实说，整件事出乎我们的意料。消息像潮水般涌过来，来自全世界的人们告诉我们他们关于数据和设计的工作经验，或是缺乏这方面的经验。最让我们惊讶的是那些自认为“非数学天才”却迫切想要一份简单、易懂、有趣的数据概念入门资料的人的数量。他们充满干劲地加入进来，无偿地付出他们的时间来让这一切变成现实。
Dyanna and I kicked off the project in February with a Write-A-Thon in Chicago. We invited writers, data analysts, programmers, designers, and others to come together in person and talk about the project as a whole. We thought through the process, talked about data, opened up our laptops, and started writing.
迪亚娜和我于二月份在芝加哥开始了这个项目。我们邀请了作家、数据分析师、程序员、设计师，以及其他人来到芝加哥共同探讨这个项目。我们思考了整个过程，谈论数据，打开电脑，开始写作。
After that, we contacted everyone who applied to contribute, and began figuring out who was going to do what. For an all-volunteer project with more than 50 contributors spread across many time zones, it was important to stay organized. We found project managers for different sections of the book, chose writers and editors for each chapter, and put together research and distribution teams. Chapter by chapter, the vision began to turn into a reality.
之后，我们联系了每一个愿意为这个项目付出努力的人，并开始安排分工。对于一个有超过50个遍布所有时区的参与者，并且参与者都是出于自愿而非报酬的项目来说，组织至为重要。我们为书的各个板块设立了项目经理。为每个章节选择作者和编辑，整合研究和联络团队。一个章节一个章节，我们的愿景开始变成现实。
For me, the best part of this project was having the honor of working with some of the smartest, funniest, most creative people I’ve ever met. Again and again, I’ve been blown away by their creativity, passion, and support. I’m beyond grateful that I had the experience of creating this book with such an incredible group of people. Data + Design is truly a community effort.
对我来说，这个项目的最好的部分是与那些我遇到过的最聪明，最有趣，最具创造力的人工作。我一次又一次地被他们的创造力，热情和支持所震惊。我难以表达我能有与这样一群人创造这本书的经历的感恩之情。数据 + 设计这本书是真正的集体的结晶。
This book isn’t a final product. It’s the beginning of a community process to improve our collective understanding of data and design. We’re releasing the first edition now, but we’re already working on more chapters for future releases and thinking about ways that we can improve. Together we can build upon it, translate it, transform it, and make it better with every iteration.
这本书不是最终的产品。它是一个提高我们对于数据和设计的理解的集体行动的开始。我们现在发布了第一个版本，但我们已开始着手为将来的版本添加更多的章节，并开始思考改进的方式。我们可以一起创造它，翻译它，改造它，并使它每一次迭代变得更好。
Data + Design is open source and available on Github. It’s free for anyone to read, download, remix, and re-distribute for noncommercial purposes. We invite you to join us. Email ebook@infoactive.co to get involved.
数据 + 设计是开源的，可以从Github获取到它。任何人都可以自由地阅读、下载、重组以及重新分发，只要用于非商业目的。我们邀请您加入我们，您可以通过电子邮件ebook@infoactive.co联系我们。
I also want to thank the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute (RJI) for supporting Data + Design. RJI’s support for journalism and data storytelling played an instrumental role in bringing this project to life.
我也想感谢唐纳德·W·雷诺兹新闻学院（RJI）对数据 + 设计的大力支持。 RJI对新闻工作及数据故事描述的支持，在这个项目的形成过程中发挥了重要作用。
Trina Chiasson
Co-founder & CEO, Infoactive
2013-2014 Reynolds Fellow