Each month, we'll be introducing you to one of our authors. This month, it's the turn of Brian Suda, whose book, 'Designing with Data' launches next week. Over to Brian!

Hello, my name is Brian Suda. With the help of the Five Simple Steps team, I am putting the final touches on my book 'Designing with Data' which will be available August 9th, 02010. My background is officially in Computer Science. I have a Master's Degree from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland in Informatics. Which (by my logic), makes me an Informatician. Informatics is a good grounding in all things information related. From programming, to databases, to human-computer interaction, to a bit of design. Much of this has culminated into this new book. Designing with Data isn't about fancy visualizations and infographics, but rather the basics of charts, graphs and good design across disciplines.

Over the last few years, I have had the pleasure to work with large data sets trying to tease out some interesting stories and to display complex issues in a way that everyone can understand. Much of this experience has trickled into this introductory book.

Some people might describe this type of job as data scientist, but the folks as Last.fm have come-up with the most apt name so far, they call this job a Data Griot. A griot (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griot) is an African story teller who wanders from town to town reciting verse and putting a spin on local issues. When working with data, we are all also trying to tell a story and influence, just as the griot is doing.

There is a blog at the official book site, http://designingwithdata.com which I will update from time to time with links, stories and other interesting charts and graphs. My own personal site ishttp://suda.co.uk where other projects can be found. I mostly write longer-form blog posts athttp://optional.is/required/ and short-form messages on twitter http://twitter.com/briansuda

I hope everyone who buys the book enjoys reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.