We are pleased to launch our online 2012 Annual Report, which highlights how our business helps customers to turn Change into Opportunity.

In addition to providing information on our financial performance, this year’s annual report uses the power of data visualization to explore five issues impacting our world today. From understanding the dynamics of market sentiment to mapping the evolving legal landscape, our information and tools help customers to understand the changes that are transforming their industries, and to uncover important new opportunities.

We encourage you to view and share the 2012 Thomson Reuters Annual Report.

As the world we live in becomes increasingly awash with data, new opportunities have begun to arise. We recently announced a new partnership with Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) in order to capitalize on one such opportunity—data visualization. The Advanced Data Visualization Project (ADVP) will combine Thomson Reuters’ content and industry expertise with Columbia University’s leading researchers to gain insight on the potentials of data visualization and its implications for academia and industry. (more…)

Yesterday we were pleased to announce an exciting new partnership with Columbia University, the Advanced Data Visualization Project (ADVP). The initiative, based at Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP), will facilitate research into data visualization and its implications for academia and industry in a world increasingly awash with data. The project will explore data visualization applications in various fields, including journalism, science, medicine and public health, law, architecture, planning and political science and utilize experts from the university, Thomson Reuters and outside researchers. Thomson Reuters will be actively engaged with the program and lead one of six flagship visualization projects.

As the university unit devoted to the future of cities, the GSAPP at Columbia University is in a unique position to galvanize this university-wide project on the future of data visualization. As the world’s leading source of intelligent information to businesses and professionals, we believe Thomson Reuters is in a unique position to support the highest level of research throughout this project.

For more details about this exciting new partnership, you can watch the full session (below) from the Aspen Ideas Festival featuring a discussion between our CTO James Powell, Edwin Schlossberg and Mark Wigley of Columbia University. The session, titled “Information’s Beautiful Future,” explored the potential of data visualization to harness and communicate information clearly and dynamically.

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

“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

Another exciting day here at the Aspen Ideas Festival began with another in the Festival’s CEO Series, featuring Dr. Anthony Coles, president and CEO of Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Other sessions included a Thomson Reuters Knowledge Exchange event, “Information’s Beautiful Future,” featuring our chief technology officer, James Powell, in conversation with Edwin Schlossberg, founder and principal designer of ESI Design and Mark Wigley, dean of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, discussing our new advanced data visualization partnership with Columbia.

In the afternoon, Thomson Reuters Foundation CEO Monique Villa moderated a panel discussion titled, “The Politics of Sex,” with Christopher Elias, president of the Global Development Program of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Musimbi Kanyoro, president and CEO of the Global Fund for Women, and Timothy E. Wirth, president of the United Nations Foundation and Better World Fund. The session was presented with support from United States Agency for International Development.