Edward Tufte on his White House appointment

Edward Tufte was officially appointed to a White House advisory role a few weeks ago. Tufte, along with other experts like Ben Shneiderman, have been providing input for the last year or so.

Tufte has a short chat (embedded below) with On the Media about what’s been going on with Recovery.gov. The main point: report data like The New York Times.

The first thing I said about a year ago when I met with them for the first time is that their model should be a first-rate news website… Once we got the news metaphor and got the intense mapping, that’s halfway there. I wouldn’t give it an A yet. There’s, you know, still a ways to go, and I know some of them, and I hope to, you know, find a few more.

Once Recovery.gov is further along, hopefully other government organizations follow suit, starting with Data.gov…or maybe Census…or the Bureau of Labor Statistics…or Centers for Disease Control and Prevention…

Listen to the six-minute interview below.

[Thanks, Patrick]