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Just Data

The Political Economy of Data in Collective Impact

I’m giving a presentation today on the topic of data in collective impact strategies at the Data Power Conference in Sheffield, UK. You can view the slides on Google Slides. Here’s the abstract: Collective impact strategies bring together nonprofit organizations and governments in a structured way to move the needle on social issues using shared […]

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Just Data

Ethics and Data Use

On March 16, 2015, I will host a workshop in Saint Paul, Minnesota that introduces social workers to thinking about ethics and data. As with last year, I decided to make the materials for this workshop open to anyone who wants them. I believe we do a lot more learning when we create knowledge with […]

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Just Data

Darnit, Data Munging

As I’ve continued my data analysis/visualization journey, I’ve bumped into the problem of “data munging.” This goes by various names, including wrangling, tidying, and cleaning. It’s commonly viewed as a major pain in the ass. That’s because, in many ways, it is. The last few weeks I’ve been working on a project to visualize the […]

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Just Data

Using the Qualtrics JavaScript API to Create Visualizations

If you haven’t used Qualtrics for surveys before, I highly recommend it. The University of Minnesota maintains a contract with the company and we have access to use it for free. It’s by far the most robust survey software I’ve ever used. Today I needed to do some visualizations within Qualtrics for a client, based […]

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Just Data

Browser-based Data Manipulation with Miso.Dataset

This is the first in a series of posts about browser-based data manipulation and visualization. Anyone hoping to jump on the web data visualization bandwagon is likely immediately intimidated when they start trying to figure out the nitty gritty of how to get various visualization libraries to work. Some like D3 and Google Charts have […]

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Just Data

Panel on Open Data and Civic Technology

Last month, I was on a panel on Open Data and Civic Technology with some other wonderful local folks: Amy Springer, Government Documents Librarian, University Libraries Bill Bushey, Open Twin Cities Kristen Murray, Center for Urban and Regional Affairs and CURA:Tech It turned out to be a fascinating conversation about Open Data, Ethics, and Uses […]

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Just Data

Key Concepts for Doing Social Work in the Digital Age

On August 22, 2014, I will present a workshop at CEUs on a Stick! in Saint Paul, Minnesota that introduces participants to thinking about the Open movement in social work and social services administration. Many new and potentially confusing (and also just generally complex) terms and concepts are a part of such a workshop. Introducing them in such […]

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Just Data

Workshop: Using Open Data & Open Source for Social Work and Administration

I’ll be facilitating a workshop for the University of Minnesota’s CEUs on a Stick! event on August 22nd. The workshop is titled: Using Open Data & Open Source for Social Work and Administration. The longer abstract for the workshop is: The Open Source and Open Data movements are transforming traditional landscapes of social work practice, making government and […]

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Just Data

Book Review: It’s Complicated by danah boyd

I recently participated in a collaborative project on HASTAC to review danah boyd’s book It’s Complicated. I was part of reviewing the 6th chapter, focused on race and social media use by young people. You can read and comment on the review here. The remainder of the project should be released soon. Full Link: http://www.hastac.org/node/110061

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Just Data

How the Rapidly Evolving Open Access and Open Data Movements will Transform Child & Youth Care Research in the 21st Century

These are the notes from my presentation with Ben Anderson-Nathe entitled  How the Rapidly Evolving Open Access and Open Data Movements will Transform Child & Youth Care Research in the 21st Century presented at the Child & Youth Care in the 21st Century, Victoria, CA in May 2014. The notes and slides for the presentation are […]