[ddj] self-education python study group anyone?

Thu Sep 22 18:04:05 UTC 2011

Hi Lorenz,
Just FYI, I am working on a starter curriculum for non-programming
journalists with a really great Toronto-based data-hacker friend and
the general  beginner syllabus he came up with was this:

- send instructions on how to install Python for
various OSes before workshop.
- intro to python syntax
basic data types: primitives, tuples, lists, dictionaries
- fetching a JSON file via HTTP
- working with JSON (much nicer than CSV if you can get it)
- storing data in a SQLite database
- querying the database

By all means, feel free flush this out into a program if you think
it's a sensible, journalism-appropriate direction to take,
exercise-wise ...

M

On Thu, Sep 22, 2011 at 1:53 PM, Lorenz Matzat <matzat at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi Andreas, Momoko and all,
>
> thanx for the fast feedback. Maybe we wait until next week; after that
> we can slowly outline a curriculum in an etherpad etc.
>
> Best
>
> Lorenz
>
> Am 22.09.11 16:00, schrieb Andreas Trawoeger:
> > Hi Lorenz!
> >
> > I would actually love to contribute to that course. I did some pretty
> > advanced stuff in Python to clean up and combine statistic and
> > geospatial data published by the cities of Vienna [0] and Berlin [1].
> >
> > With people now being interested in databases and Python it would be a
> > pleasure for me to contribute on a topic like Python database
> > programming or howto properly handle spatial data in Python.
> >
> > cu andreas
> >
> >
> > [0] http://www.kartenwerkstatt.at/#!/map/austria-wien-regdistrict-osm-imposm-bright-01
> > [1] http://www.kartenwerkstatt.at/#!/map/germany-berlin-regdistrict-osm-imposm-bright-01
> >
> >
> > 2011/9/22 Lorenz Matzat <matzat at gmail.com>:
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> since everyone here seems to be into learning about databases, I wonder
> >> if somebody is interested in learning Python in a self-organized way, too?
> >>
> >> What is the plan? We meet once a week online in the evening to study
> >> together.
> >>
> >> The Peer-to-Peer-University platform will be used for self-education
> >> Python course starting on November 1st, 2011.
> >>
> >> The course is self-organized and thus free. But its very important you
> >> are motivated to learn together with others and be an engaging member of
> >> the group.
> >>
> >> Every week we decide on how much exercices out of the course book
> >> "Learning Python the hard way"  we are going to work on the coming week.
> >> ( http://learnpythonthehardway.org/ The html-version of the book is for
> >> free; pdf/ePub avaible for 3 USD.)
> >>
> >> Sign-up - press “Participate” on the left of the screen.
> >> http://p2pu.org/en/groups/python-for-journalists-20112012/content/start-1st-of-november/
> >>
> >> Read this about Why Journalists Should Learn Computer Programming
> >> http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2010/06/why-journalists-should-learn-computer-programming153.html
> >>
> >> This is about how to install Python on your computer.
> >> http://diveintopython.org/installing_python/
> >>
> >> Best,
> >>
> >> Lorenz
> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> data-driven-journalism mailing list
> >> data-driven-journalism at lists.okfn.org
> >> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/data-driven-journalism
> >>
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> >
>
> --
>
> http://www.datenjournalist.de
> http://www.opendatacity.de
>
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>
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>
> Lorenz Matzat
> Medienkombinat Berlin
> Köpenickerstraße 187/188
> 10997 Berlin
>
> Tel. (030) 7891 3457
> matzat at gmail.com
>
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