Hey! 👋
Welcome to Kawan—our vibrant community of data heads and storytellers. We’re all about improving data literacy and sharing nuanced stories about Asia. Come hang!
Pluck, pluck, pluck — issue #74
What would you do if you discovered a new resource growing in abundance on your land? What if it comes with a cost? Human behaviour is age-old, and we seem bound to repeat the choices that have echoed throughout history. We ponder access, utility, and the secret calculations we make every day.
Better, greener, more sustainable: But at whose expense?
We all want a better, greener, and more sustainable future, we also want abundance in agriculture, food production, and natural conservation. But adding the decolonial lens forces us to ask: At whose expense is this better, greener, more sustainable development made possible?
Human drivers of a changing planet — issue #32
Lately, we’ve been hearing the word “unprecedented” a lot. Unprecedented rate of temperature rise, unprecedented frequencies of natural disasters, unprecedented numbers of injuries and deaths. Our climate is changing, and each day we are reminded it’s not for the better. But hey—when “unprecedented” is used to describe
Meet the Community! Krist Wongsuphasawat, data visualization engineer
Krist Wongsuphasawat is currently an Engineering Manager of the Data Experience team at Airbnb. He often publishes data visualisation work…
An ode to the producers — issue #31
The question of who produces the things we eat, use, and basically take for granted each day has seeped deeper into our consciousness over the past few years. It seems that humanity’s slowly (and hopefully, surely) woken up to the horrors of our overconsumption—and, with that, begun to
Meet the Community! Kimly Scott, Tableau Data Visualisation Specialist
Kimly Scott is an Australian Tableau data visualization expert and analytics manager. Although her data viz journey started just three…
Meet the Community! Lim Chee Aun, front-end engineer and map viz-builder
Lim Chee Aun is a front-end engineer who loves to continuously learn things and build useful applications. He’s particularly famous for…
Meet the Community! Diana Yukari, information designer
Diana Yukari is a Brazilian-Japanese information designer. She graduated with a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and…
New year, old clothes — issue #30
Recently, a friend’s acquaintance was searching for specialty coffee beans from countries near Singapore to reduce his carbon footprint. My friend quipped that those seemed rare. Apparently, things blew up real quick after that. Surely you’ve been in one of these conversations. A chat about sustainability nosedives, and
Meet the Community! Alexandra Khoo – data analytics strategist
Alexandra Khoo is at her best when she blends strategy, data analysis, creative design, and coding. Starting her career in international…
Meet the Community! Nilangika Fernando, data viz enthusiast
Nilangika is a data visualization enthusiast from Sri Lanka. She started her career as a researcher at Verité Research, one of Sri Lanka’s…
Endings — issue #29
Dear notes from equator subscribers, Thank you for being our pen pals. Although our exchange is usually one-way, we’re grateful to have a sliver of your attention and time, whether this is your first or twentieth letter from us. The past year has left me adrift, much like
Meet the Community! Andrea Lau, data visualization specialist
Andrea Lau is a data visualization specialist; she is the co-founder and one of the directors of Small Multiples, Australia’s leading data…
Humans of Kontinentalist: Arnold
Hey Arnold, what’s your role at Kontinentalist? I’m a full-stack developer. I’m responsible for maintaining our website and content management products and converting designs — such as web page styling and layout, or stories — into clickable buttons or components. I also help Rifqi, our dev lead, manage