Knowing how to avoid errors like this just one reason to love being a data journalist:

In case you missed it — everything we worked on last weekend (and plenty more)!

WORKSHOP PART 1: Intro to ScraperWiki and ManyEyes w/ Momoko Price

For the first half we worked on visualizing data with ManyEyes. We used arms import/export data courtesy of our friend and my doppelganger at ScraperWiki, data journalist Nicola Hughes:

Scraped data (see the icon that says “Download the Spreadsheet (CSV)?” Yeah, do that.):
http://scraperwiki.com/scrapers/arms_imports_database/
http://scraperwiki.com/scrapers/arms_exports_database/

If the source of the data isn’t apparent, check the scraper script (click on the tab that says “Edit”) and check for the source URL. Like so:

http://scraperwiki.com/scrapers/arms_imports_database/edit/

(Did you find the source? Good.)

You can check out a few of the visualizations we made in ManyEyes (for teaching purposes only. I don’t actually think these are great viz’s):

http://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/visualizations/total-arms-exporting-volume-per-na

http://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/visualizations/arms-importing-and-exporting-natio

http://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/visualizations/top-10-arms-exporting-nations-stac

We also used Google Refine to start cleaning up data taken from the new Canadian International Development Agency open data portal. Did you know they just launched one? Well they did:

CIDA Database Source:
http://www.acdi-cida.gc.ca/cidaweb/cpo.nsf/fWebprojDataEn?Readform

Google Refine:
[Data manipulation and cleaning tool]
http://code.google.com/p/google-refine/wiki/Downloads

(Keep in mind, GRefine keeps track of every single alteration you to a dataset, so don’t ever worry about doing something “wrong.” You can always go back. Version control, what an amazing thing.)

WORKSHOP PART 2: Mapping, FusionTables and FusionTables Layers with Joey Coleman

All of Joey’s workshop materials can be found on his data page:

http://data.joeycoleman.ca/

I believe he’ll be posting slides of his presentation soon …

OTHER COOL DATA-JOURNALISM REFERENCES:

Paul Bradshaw’s online journalism blog (amazing resource):
http://onlinejournalismblog.com/

NICAR-L Discussion mailing list (National Institute of Computer
Assisted Reporting)
http://www.ire.org/membership/subscribe/nicar-l.html

Toronto’s open-data catalogue:
http://www1.toronto.ca/wps/portal/open_data/open_data_home?vgnextoid=b3886aa8cc819210VgnVCM10000067d60f89RCRD

Data Visualization Blogs:

Stephen Few’s Perceptual Edge

http://www.perceptualedge.com/examples.php

David McCandless’s Information is Beautiful

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/

Doug McCune’s Adobe Flex- and ActionScript-focused blog: 

http://dougmccune.com/blog/

OTHER FUN STUFF (COURTESY OF DATA HACKER ROB MEDEIROS):

Google Public Data Explorer:
[Online data visualization tool]
http://www.google.com/publicdata/home

R Project
[statistics and visualization tool]
http://www.r-project.org/

SQLite
[Small, fast, embeddable SQL database]
http://sqlite.org

Matplotlib
[Python graphing and visualization]
http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/

OpenDX
[Hard-core old skool data visualization tool]
http://www.opendx.org

Blender
[3-D modelling and rendering application; scriptable w/ Python;
great
for 3-D static or interactive visualizations]
http://www.blender.org/

NumPy
[Scientific computing package for Python; fun w/ numbers]
http://numpy.scipy.org/

GNU Octave
[Mathematica clone; great for numerical calculations,
visualizations]
http://www.gnu.org/software/octave/

Linked Data
[Slightly esoteric vision of the future web in which data is
much
easier to get and work with]
http://linkeddata.org

Semantic Web
[Official home of the future, data-centric web]
http://www.w3.org/standards/semanticweb/

REQUIRED READING

Run, don’t walk, to the nearest bookstore and buy anything
written by Edward Tufte, e.g.

* The Visual Display of Quantitive Information
http://www.amazon.com/Visual-Display-Quantitative-Information/dp/0961392142/

* Envisioning Information
http://www.amazon.com/Envisioning-Information-Edward-R-Tufte/dp/0961392118/

* Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and
Narrative
http://www.amazon.com/Visual-Explanations-Quantities-Evidence-Narrative/dp/0961392126/

* Beautiful Evidence
http://www.amazon.com/Beautiful-Evidence-Edward-R-Tufte/dp/0961392177/

* Visual & Statistical Thinking: Displays of Evidence for
Decision Making
http://www.amazon.com/Visual-Statistical-Thinking-Displays-Evidence/dp/0961392134/”