[School-of-data-announce] The Latest from the School of Data

Tue May 21 12:16:49 UTC 2013

An Action Packed Week for the School of Data and plenty of chances to get
your hands dirty!

*# Data Expedition - Mapping the Garment Factories *

The horrific factory collapse at Rana Plaza in Dhaka has brought the
business practices of global garment brands, as well their thousands of
suppliers, into the spotlight.

Starting on Thursday, and continuing for a full day on Saturday, the School
of Data team led by +Anders
Pedersen<https://plus.google.com/110627203980096990304> will be
conducting a data expedition into investigating Global Garments
factories.

We need storytellers, engineers, designers, data scouts and analysts all to
work on getting to the bottom of what is happening in these garment
factories. Sign up here: http://bit.ly/14c1WcJ

*How it will work: *

1. Prior to the data expedition, we'll be working to collaboratively build
a list of garment factories from around the world.

2. In advance of and during the data expedition, data wranglers from around
the community will offer one-hour drop in sessions for a limited number of
participants as introductions to a particular topic, such as mapping (which
will be a large component here).

3. On Saturday 25th - small teams of investigators will pick a story and
investigate it in a team, aiming to reach a conclusion by the end of
Saturday.

More information can be found here:
http://schoolofdata.org/data-expeditions/data-expedition-mapping-the-garment-factories/

*Know someone from an NGO or advocacy campaign working on ethical fashion
that would be interested in joining? Please put them in touch on
schoolofdata at okfn.org*

*# Next Week - 30th May - One day Expedition on Tax Evasion *
*
*
Next week - Lisa Evans will be offering a one day introduction to
investigating tax evasion and tax avoidance with an associated data
expedition. Places are limited again, so sign up now! http://bit.ly/14c1WcJ

*# Welcome - Liliana Bounegru *

A very quick and happy welcome to Liliana Bounegru, who has joined the
School of Data team today, part time as an editor for the blog to help
source case studies from the blog of now NGOs are using data in their
campaigns as inspiration for all of us.

You may have heard Liliana's name before from DataDrivenJournalism.net and
the DataJournalismHandbook (ddjbook.org) and we are thrilled she could join
us.

Read more: http://schoolofdata.org/2013/05/20/introducing-liliana-bounegru/

*# The latest from the School of Data ask service*
*
*
Are you able to offer any insights into the following questions raised this
week via the School of Data ask service? If so - please jump in and help
out.

   - Would you know of a software which would convert all the sheets of an
   xls file into CSV files
?<http://ask.schoolofdata.org/question/69/would-you-know-of-a-software-which-would-convert-all-the-sheets-of-an-xls-file-into-csv-files/>
   - Problem installing OpenRefine on Mac OS
10.8<http://ask.schoolofdata.org/question/68/problem-installing-openrefine-on-mac-os-108/>
   - Translating
Datasets<http://ask.schoolofdata.org/question/47/translating-datasets/?sort=latest>
   - What is the difference between a KML and a shapefile
?<http://ask.schoolofdata.org/question/57/what-is-the-difference-between-a-kml-and-a-shapefile/?sort=latest>

Many thanks this week to "geohacker", "Nigini", "PAC", and "Gaba" for their
helpful input.

*# From the blog *
*
*
*Special thanks to John Murtagh this week who has volunteered to write the
School of Data roundup posts while Neil Ashton is away. Look forward to
that tomorrow!*

* When A Government Minister’s Data Laundry is Hung Out to Dry…
http://schoolofdata.org/2013/05/17/when-a-government-ministers-data-laundry-is-hung-out-to-dry/

* Data roundup - May 15 by Neil Ashton:
http://schoolofdata.org/2013/05/15/data-roundup-may-15/
*
*
We remain,

Your School of Data Team

schoolofdata at okfn.org.

-- 

**

*Lucy Chambers*

Project Coordinator  | skype: lucyfediachambers  |  tel: +44 7909 330731  |
 @lucyfedia <http://twitter.com/lucyfedia>

The Open Knowledge Foundation <http://okfn.org/>

Empowering through Open Knowledge

http://okfn.org/  |  @okfn <http://twitter.com/OKFN>  |  OKF on
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OpenSpending | http://openspending.org/ |
@openspending<http://twitter.com/openspending>|Tracking every
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School of Data | http://schoolofdata.org |
@schoolofdata<http://twitter.com/schoolofdata>| Evidence is Power
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