A Data Visualization Journey

In November 2019, I was awarded a scholarship by NNLM-PNR (Pacific Northwest: Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington) to attend a data visualization workshop titled “Accessing, Analyzing, and Visualizing IPUMS Data” in Denver, CO. The workshop, hosted by PolicyViz, was facilitated by Jonathan Schwabish, Urban Institute; David Van Riper, IPUMS; and Jose Pacas, IPUMS. I was eager to attend as I was on a journey to learn two new skill sets: data visualization and teaching data visualization to others – and the experience did not disappoint. First, the venue chosen was very cool – General Assembly reminded me of something out of the Grizzle Campus from Parks & Recreation – complete with glassed-in classrooms, concrete floors, and a café that sells sparkling waters you’ve never heard of before. Our workshop had only six attendees, which really personalized the experience. My co-students ranged from educators to business analysts – and we had a good laugh during introductions when we realized that two instructors and myself were all from the University of Minnesota (I flew all the way to Denver to learn from folks on my own campus – and it was totally worth it!). There were quite a few significant takeaways. Sketching. One of the first exercises we did was to use post-it notes to sketch as many different ways to visualize a particular scenario as we could imagine. This simple exercise stretched my creative limits and reinforced the importance of ex...
Source: The Cornflower - Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Tags: Blog Source Type: news