Early on, I thought about responsible data management primarily about two issues data privacy and data protection. Visually I thought about it as a line, a spectrum. Then through reading and conversations, I realised data security was different than privacy and protection and had a role to play. So my visual became a triangle. But then, data literacy, digital literacy, and identity literacy were added. And awareness and consent, data sharing and the list goes on.

This happens all time when we learn. We start somewhere. We have an entry point and as we learn we realise things are not as simple as we thought. Perhaps our point becomes a line or jumps straight to a triangle. And then over time we continue to learn and see other connections, other part of the ‘ecosystem’ our original point is a part of. We also make mental shifts when our mental models go from 2d to 3d.

One of the challenges for those who can see a tetrahectagon (400 sided polygon), it can be hard to relate to the person who is discovering his point is actually a line. And it can be overwhelming for the person who sees a point when they realise their point is part of a tetrahectagon. And yet, change requires us to work with all those in the ecosystem.

Photo by Jake Hurley