Some of the most interesting, provocative and salient quotes we heard around the Aspen Ideas Festival today:

03 Jul 2012Thomson Reuters

“Well-off people don’t think the Affordable Care Act has anything to do with them. You are wrong. We’re all going to have electronic records, we will all go to safer hospitals, and we all will have a situation where doctors are better at focusing on chronic illnesses.” — Ezekiel Emanuel, Vice Provost, Global Initiatives & Chair of the Medical Ethics and Health Policy Department, University of Pennsylvania

“Cities are the first social media platform – cities accelerate connectivity.” – Mark Wigley, Dean of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation

“I think the word data is useful because it sounds so unloaded, but actually data is just a word we use to point to a huge thing we have no grasp of that is neither in the world of objects nor the world of images… We are living a life so much stranger than we are willing to acknowledge.” – Mark Wigley

“We’re rapidly moving to the point where a single point narrative is becoming irrelevant and where co-creation, collaboration and interdependent experiences are becoming very relevant.” – Edward Schlosserg, Founder and Principal Designer, ESI Design

“Data visualization is an important mechanism that allows decision makers to gain critical insights and mine and navigate relationships between data sets.” – James Powell, Chief Technology Officer, Thomson Reuters

“The collaborative model is fascinating – allowing a community to take a view of what the data means.” – James Powell