Good company in a bad year.
2016 has been a year full of contrast for vizzuality and me.
2016 saw us stand proud next to the Chief Scientist of the White House, demonstrating climate change preparedness applications — whilst a new president who rejects the premise of a warming planet was elected.
2016 saw Global Forest Watch make it possible to see forest loss happening in near real time — while deforestation in Brazil was the highest in a decade.
2016 saw us slide ever nearer to a sixth extinction of biodiversity — whilst we actively work with the EO Wilson Foundation to help get the message of half-earth to every citizen on the planet.
2016 saw an increase in the number of reported hate crimes — as we worked with the SDG16 Data Initiative to put all the data related to peace and justice into one place.
There were, of course, some real gains in the world (some say yuge) and I like to think we have played our part. Here are a few that come to mind.
Our work with the Open Government Partnership has shown a thirst for transparency and accountability in running nations. We are helping cities from New York to Toronto plan and make better decisions with facts and data.
The Stockholm Environment Institute and Global Canopy Project can now help anyone track the movement of agricultural commodities — from the source where landscapes are being drastically changed, right to the country of import.
Millions of people each year will read and be inspired by stories from IISD that show the world is steadily making its way towards achieving the important Global Goals.
We have worked with 50 organisations reaching millions of people, each of which are straining to make the world a more sustainable and fair planet.
And I’ve not even mentioned all the ongoing work we’ve not released yet! I think we can be pretty proud of that.
As our internationally-staffed company grew, it was painful to watch the reality unfold around Brexit, realising that my children may be unable to experience the greatest feature of my career — working alongside brilliant friends from across Europe. Immediately after these big political shifts, I did think to myself, are we just moving the deckchairs around the Titanic? Could we do more?
Fortunately, I don’t have the attention span for melancholy. But I do have it for setting our company on a trajectory to change the world. So here is what we as vizzuality, promise to you, the world.
We will search for the mission-driven organisations that need their voice amplified the most and we will help them. To those of you whose gains over the last years are now under threat, we will help you. We have opened our office in Washington, DC to make collaborating with you even easier.
We reject post-truth, and instead we will talk about capturing people’s attention with reality, with data, and with truth. I’m not buying the current post-truth discourse. We will be better at shaping minds with truth and data than others are with lies.
We will find more designers, engineers, scientists, strategists, psychologists, anthropologists, communicators, and developers of communities to join vizzuality. We’ve doubled in just over a year and every time we add a new teammate, I feel the company crackle with energy. There’s a lot of work to do, so we won’t put a cap on our growth unless it means we can no longer deliver to our full potential. Or, I suppose, our job is done. Every day I hear talented people reaching out to join the cause we find ourselves in, and we will embrace them.
To our team. I make no apology that 2017 will be a lot of work. But we promise to make sure the work you do is important, that your colleagues make you laugh so hard you pee a little, and that you can be the masters of your craft.
Everything else. We’ll figure out as we go along :).
Thank you 2016. You have created the rod in our back, the stiff upper lip and the promise to aim even higher. Onward.
Craig.
