✏️ Dearest data fam,

Christmas is mere days away, and we’ve got an early pick of festive goodies for you! But first off, how do you like the new look newsletter?? Have no fear, it’s the same hot data news you know and love, but in a shiny new design. Now, grab a cup of cocoa, cosy up by the fire (virtual or real, we won't judge), and let's unwrap the final data gems of the year.

👾 Game of the month 

This time last year we looked back over 2022 in search history data with our festive woolly jumpers. This year Google has one-upped us and gone even further with a “Where's Waldo” style game that explores the last 25 years in google searches. Full of quirky internet nostalgia, we spent far too long playing around on this one.

 💔 Heartbreak of the month

With the marathon of soppy rom-coms at this time of year, it’s natural we can all get a little sentimental. If it hasn’t hit you yet, then it surely will after you have a dig through this archive of romantic what-ifs.

The real great dramas start and end with a text.

🔧 Tool of the month 

In the daily maze of copy and pastes, reshares and screenshots it can be easy to lose the origin of content. This is a super exciting project to help creators get credit for their work, and ensure we can trust what we see online, pinning content to tell us where, when and who made it.

Finally we can find the owner of this wandering penguin.

🖼️  Installation of the month 

And now a little section to share what we’ve been up to this month!

We just opened one of our largest ever pieces at the M9 Museum in Venice. A 450 m2 immersive experience that raises questions about the threat of infoxication, and how it is shaping our relationship with information.

🗺️ Map of the month

The cloud is somewhat of a second home for many of us, but by very definition it is intangible. The Tech Cartographies is so important because it shows us the physical reality and vast material demand of cloud-based tech. This technology is not floating out in space, free from the implications of geo-politics here on Earth; long-standing inequalities and injustices are perpetuated in structures that sustain our online existence.

Can you spot the floating billionaire?

🙏 Hope of the month 

And as we round things up for the year, here’s a little gift of hope and positivity. You might remember our installation last month about designing a more humane future as part of Barcelona Design Week. Well in the process we compiled 51 projects that are leading the way towards the Sustainable Development Goals, and you can find them all in this reward doc that we shared with all those who interacted with our flags.

Our flags stood in the centre of Barcelona for two weeks

And that about does it for this year, see you in January for more!

Wishing a cosy Christmas for yours and yourselves,

Until next year, warm wishes from the Data Elves x

Thanks for reading all the way to the end!

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