Me-ifestos for Visualization Empowerment in Teaching (and Learning?)

One sunny June afternoon in a remote castle deep in Saarland, a group of visualization researchers of many stripes — from different countries, disciplines and generations — came together to discuss teaching and learning for empowerment in visualization. Our first order of business in Saarland was to develop a shared vision: a manifesto of sorts that would guide us towards strategies to broaden data visualization skills, make them more common and accessible, and enable this empowerment. That exercise failed. Instead of creating one common manifesto (who are we to do that, anyway?), we took a different, more personal approach. We found things we liked and things we didn’t: inspiration and counter-inspiration, we crafted individual value and commitment statements ("me-ifestos"), we shared these with each other and reflected on them. The process of writing these commitment statements was illuminating and motivating. It was a positive experience with such visceral effects that we want to share the feeling with the visualization community. And so we offer a collection of "me-ifesto" excerpts from the authors and a call to action: we invite you to craft and divulge your own me-ifesto.