DataBasic Intro Workshop - Learn 3 new tools for finding stories in data

Are you journalist, educator, student or community activist frustrated by data tools that don't help you learn anything? Wish working with data could be more fun? Join us for the first public workshop introducing three new tools and activities that can help! We built the DataBasic suite of tools to help you learn how to find stories in your data in fun ways.

We'll do three quick hands-on, creative, and fun activities that help you understand what the f*&^ is going on with your CSV file and analyze and understand large sets of text. You will have a chance to try out three web-based tools. One of them helps you get started analyzing a spreadsheet. The two others help you get started analyzing text documents as quantitative data (think "Hillary Clinton's emails"). The hands-on activity we do with will introduce you to a more playful approach to getting started with these types of data storyfinding questions. We hope you will find the tools useful enough to use in your own work and that you'll be able to introduce them to the communities that you work with to help them learn to work with data in a more fun way.

The evening will include yummy dinner. Beginners welcome - no prior experience in data analysis or data storytelling is necessary.

Bring your laptop! Please email us in advance so we can accomodate any special dietary needs.

Sponsored by the Emerson Engagement Lab and the MIT Center for Civic Media.