Editing Community Data Science Workshops (Spring 2015)

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| colspan="2" | '''<span class="plainlinks" style="font-weight:bold; font-size:2em; text-align:center;">Registration Closed</span>''' 
<span class="plainlinks" style="margin-left:1em;">Unfortunately, registration is now closed. ''If you have experience to share, it's not too late to sign up as a mentor by [https://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/cdsw-sp2015-mentors joining the mentor list].''</span>
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[[Image:Cdsw combo images-1.jpg|thumb|600px|[[Community Data Science Workshops/Photos|More photos from past workshops]].]]
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The '''Community Data Science Workshops in Spring 2015''' are a series of project-based workshops being held at the University of Washington for anyone interested in learning how to use programming and data science tools to ask and answer questions about online communities like [http://en.wikipedia.org/ Wikipedia], [http://twitter.com Twitter], [[:w:Free software|free and open source software, and]] civic media.

The workshops are for people with absolutely no previous programming experience and they bring together researchers and academics with participants and leaders in online communities.  The workshops are run entirely by volunteers and are entirely free of charge for participants, generously sponsored by the [http://www.com.washington.edu/ UW Department of Communication] and the [http://escience.washington.edu/ eScience Institute]. Participants from outside UW are encouraged to apply.

Our goal is that, after the three workshops, participants will be able to use data to produce numbers, hypothesis tests, tables, and graphical visualizations to answer questions like:

* Are new contributors in Wikipedia this year sticking around longer or contributing more than people who joined last year?
* Who are the most active or influential users of a particular Twitter hashtag?
* Are people who join through a Wikipedia outreach event staying involved? How do they compare to people who decide to join the project outside of the event?

An earlier version of the workshops was run in Spring and Fall 2015 and [[CDSW|the curriculum we used for both are online]].

== Registration ==

Unfortunately, registration is over and we were oversubscribed and we have a large waitlist. Sorry about that! This is our third set of workshops and we do hope to run more of these again in the future.

'''Interested in being a mentor?''' We are still interested in mentors, however. If you already have experience with Python, please consider helping out at the sessions as a mentor. Being a mentor will involve working with participants and talking them through the challenges they encounter in programming. No special preparation is required. And we’ll feed you!  Because we want to keep a very high mentor to student ratio, recruiting more mentors means we can accept more participants. If you’re interested, [https://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/cdsw-sp2015-mentors sign up on our mentor mailing list] or email makohill@uw.edu. Also, thank you, thank you, thank you!

== Schedule ==

There will be a mandatory evening setup session '''6:00-9:00pm on Friday April 10''' and three workshops held from '''9:45am-4pm on three Saturdays (April 11 and 25 and May 9)'''. Each Saturday session will involve a period for lecture and technical demonstrations in the morning. This will be followed by a lunch graciously provided by the [http://escience.washington.edu/ eScience Institute at UW].  The rest of the day will be followed by group work on programming and data science projects supported by more experienced mentors.

'''All sessions are interactive and involve you programming on your own and on your own laptop. Everybody attending should bring a laptop and a power cord so that they don't run out of battery.'''

=== Session 0: Setup and Programming Tutorial (April 10 evening)===
:'''Time''': 6-9pm
:'''Location''': [http://www.washington.edu/maps/#!/cmu Communications (CMU) 104]
<!--:'''Material''': <font size="+1">[[Community Data Science Workshops (Spring 2015)/Day 0 setup and tutorial|Click here for the the setup and tutorial material.]]</font>-->

:'''Note:''' Because we expect to hit the ground running on our first full day, we will meet to help participants get software installed and to work through a self-guided tutorial that will help ensure that everyone has the skills and vocabulary to start programming and learning when we meet the following morning.

Come to '''[http://www.washington.edu/maps/#!/cmu Communications (CMU) 104] between 6:00 and 9:00pm.''' It's OK if you come a little late but you'll want to have as much time as you can to finish the setup and self-directed assignments so come as close to 6:30pm as you can. Most people will finish early but some people will definitely need the full 3 hours. It's hard to know in advance where problems will crop up so please come on time even if you are confident.

During this session, mentors will help you:

* set up your development environment
* learn how to execute Python code from a file and interactively from a Python prompt
* learn about printing and using Python as a calculator

=== Session 1: Introduction to Programming (and April 11) ===
:'''Time:''' 9:45am-4pm
:'''Location:''' Morning in [http://uw.edu/maps/?sav Savery Hall (SAV) 260]; Afternoon in [http://www.washington.edu/maps/#!/cmu Communications (CMU)] 104, 126 and 242

Come to '''[http://uw.edu/maps/?sav Savery Hall (SAV) 260] by 9:45am''' (Note: it's ''not'' in the communication building). You will need time to get settled and setup. We will start lecturing promptly at 10am. There will be coffee!

* '''Morning, 10am-12:20 (SAV 260):''' A 2 hour lecture-based introduction to the Python programming language <!-- [[Community Data Science Workshops (Spring 2014)/Day 1 lecture|A 2 hour lecture-based introduction to the Python programming language]] -->
* '''Lunch, 12:20-1pm (pizza in Room 126):''' We'll provide lunch
* '''Afternoon, 1pm-3:30pm (Room 104, 126, 242):''' Python practice through short projects on a variety of fun and practical topics <!-- [[Community Data Science Workshops (Spring 2014)/Day 1 projects|Python practice through short projects on a variety of fun and practical topics]] -->
* '''Wrap-up, 3:30pm-4pm:''' Wrap-up, next steps, and upcoming opportunities for learning and practicing Python

Programming is an essential tool for data science and is useful for solving many other problems. The goal of this session will be to introduce programming in the [http://www.python.org/ Python programming language]. Each participant will leave having solved a real problem and will have built their first real programming project.

=== Session 2: Importing Data from web APIs (April 25) ===
:'''Time:''' 9:45am-4pm
:'''Location:''' Morning in [http://uw.edu/maps/?sav Savery Hall (SAV) 260]; Afternoon in [http://www.washington.edu/maps/#!/cmu Communications (CMU)] 104, 126 and 242

An important step in doing data science is collecting data. The goal of this session will be to teach participants how to get data from the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application_programming_interface public application programming interfaces] ("APIs") common to many social media and online communities. Although we will use the APIs provided by Wikipedia and Twitter in the session, the principles and techniques are common to many other online communities. An outline for the lecture can be found [[Community_Data_Science_Workshops_(Spring_2015)/Day_2_Lecture|here]], and some info about the projects can be found [[Community_Data_Science_Workshops_(Spring_2015)/Day_2_Projects|here]].

=== Session 3: Data Analysis and Visualization (May 9) ===

:'''Time:''' 9:45am-4pm
:'''Location:''' Morning in [http://uw.edu/maps/?sav Savery Hall (SAV) 260]; Afternoon in [http://www.washington.edu/maps/#!/cmu Communications (CMU)] 104, 126 and 242

The goal of data science is to use data to answer questions. In our final session, we will use the Python skills we learned in the first session and the datasets we've created in the second to ask and answer common questions about the activity and health of online communities. We will focus on learning how to generate visualizations, create summary statistics, and test hypotheses. The lecture outline can be found [[Community_Data_Science_Workshops_(Spring_2015)/Day_3_Lecture|here]], and the projects can be found [[Community_Data_Science_Workshops_(Spring_2015)/Day_3_Projects|here]].

<!-- == Resources ==

The following materials are currently being updated by the mentors:

* [[Community Data Science Workshops (Spring 2015)/Day 0 setup and tutorial|Friday April 10th setup and tutorial]]
* [[Community Data Science Workshops (Spring 2015)/Day 1 lecture|Saturday April 11th lecture]]
* [[Community Data Science Workshops (Spring 2015)/Day 1 projects|Saturday April 11th projects]]
* [http://www.codecademy.com/courses/python-beginner-en-kSQwt Introduction to Python CodeAcademy exercises]
* [[Community Data Science Workshops (Spring 2015)/Day 2 lecture|Saturday April 25th lecture]]
* [[Community Data Science Workshops (Spring 2015)/Day 2 projects|Saturday April 25th projects]]
* [http://www.codecademy.com/tracks/apis-python Introduction to APIs in Python CodeAcademy exercises] - Includes information on using APIs from [http://npr.org/ NPR], [http://bit.ly Bitly], [https://sunlightfoundation.com/ Sunlight Foundation], and [http://placekitten.com/ PlaceKitten]
* [[Community Data Science Workshops (Spring 2015)/Day 3 lecture|Saturday May 9th lecture]]
* [[Community Data Science Workshops (Spring 2015)/Day 3 projects|Saturday May 9th projects]]

-->
== Venue and Logistics ==

=== Contact information ===

If you have any questions about the event, you can contact [mailto:makohill@uw.edu makohill@uw.edu].

=== Location ===

The [http://www.com.washington.edu University of Washington Department of Communication] is hosting the event and all of our events '''except the Saturday morning lectures''' will be held in the '''Communications building (CMU)''' on the Seattle UW campus. This includes the Friday setup and the and all of the afternoon projects. You can find the building on [https://maps.google.com/maps?q=CMU+Building&hl=en&ll=47.655675,-122.306435&spn=0.018732,0.016394&sll=47.613028,-122.342064&sspn=0.599907,0.524597&hq=CMU+Building&t=m&z=16 this Google map] or on [http://www.washington.edu/maps/ this campus map from UW].

Because we have grown so big, we have had to move the lectures into a larger lecture hall than the CMU building has available. Please meet at '''Savery Hall 260''' ([http://uw.edu/maps/?sav map]) on '''the three Saturday mornings at 9:45'''. It is about a five minute walk from the Communications building. Unfortunately, most of the doors to Savery Hall are locked on weekends. The door on the '''west side of the building''' (i.e., the one nearest Kane Hall) should be open.

Parking at UW is available but is not free. There is [https://www.washington.edu/facilities/transportation/commuterservices/parking/selfserve self-serve parking] as well as gatehouses that are staffed from 7am on Saturday and can issue you parking passes and point you to an appropriate lot. More details are on the [https://www.washington.edu/facilities/transportation/commuterservices/parking/daily UW Commuter Services website for Visitors and Guests]. UW is also well served by public transportation and easily accessible by bicycle with the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burke_Gilman_Trail Burke Giilman Trail].

One important note is that Huskies football games will be played at UW on '''Saturday November 8th and 22nd'''. The November 8th game will start at 4pm and the November 22nd game will start at 7:30 pm. Parking may be more complicated and it might be worth considering taking public transit.

=== What to bring ===
# a '''laptop'''
#*  for '''Session 0''' make sure that you have about 1GB of space free so you can install Python and all the necessary other software
#* for '''Sessions 1-3''' bring your laptop with Python set up
# a '''power cord'''
# a '''sense of adventure!'''

=== Food ===

Thanks to generous sponsorship by the [http://escience.washington.edu/ eScience Institute at UW], we will provide catered lunchs during the Saturday sessions. Although we haven't figured out the menu, the food will all be vegetarian and there will be vegan and gluten free options. If the food we have doesn't doesn't work for you, there is a food court open for lunch in [http://depts.washington.edu/thehub/ the HUB] (the UW student center) that is almost directly next door.

=== Social Media ===

* We use the hashtag [http://twitter.com/#!/search?q=%23cdsw #cdsw]

== About the Organizers ==

The workshops are being coordinated, organized by [http://mako.cc/academic/ Benjamin Mako Hill], [http://jtmorgan.net/ Jonathan Morgan], [https://guyrt.github.io/ Tommy Guy], Ben Lewis, Dharma Dailey, Sage Ross, and a long list of other volunteer mentors. The workshops have been designed with lots of help and inspiration from Shauna Gordon-McKeon and Asheesh Laroia of OpenHatch and lots of inspiration from the [http://bostonpythonworkshop.com/ Boston Python Workshop].

These workshops are an all-volunteer effort. Fundamentally, we're doing this because we're programmers and data scientists who work in online communities and we really believe that the skills you'll learn in these sessions are important and empowering tools.

The workshops are being supported by the [http://www.com.washington.edu/ UW Department of Communication] and the [http://escience.washington.edu/ eScience Institute].

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Benjamin Mako Hill at makohill@uw.edu.

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