Research Computing Services Blog

Data Storytelling for Researchers - Free Event!

Data! Data! Data! I can’t make bricks without clay!
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

How do we think about stories in today’s context of Artificial Intelligence, mixed reality, and automation? Is it possible to create engaging narratives amidst the endless stream of digital content? How can we narrativise data to set ourselves apart from the crowd as researchers?

Thankfully, the hardworking team at RezBaz can help! At Data Storytelling for Researchers, you will have the opportunity to answer these questions and many, many more.

This July we are hosting an interactive two-day intensive event focused entirely on telling interesting stories with data.

What is Data Storytelling for Researchers?:

Data Storytelling for researchers is free event, run over two consecutive days on Monday the 3rd and Tuesday the 4th of July from 9am - 5pm.

The event will comprise four streams, each with a focus on different methods of narrativization using different digital tools:

Displaying Data Divinely: Archiving and Online Exhibits

Digital Archives of 3D Objects

Textual Analysis of Social Media Data, and

Analysis and Visualisation of Public Databases

Sound like your cup of tea? (or wine)…

This is not your average training workshop. Instead of learning to use digital tools the standard way via an instructor-student approach, participants will develop their own data sets, problem solve, and learn to approach data creatively through hands-on, intuitive methods. You’ll be mentored in groups and supported in answering self-guided research questions with new digital approaches, from data collection to communicating your research story with stunning data visualisations.

At the end of the event, participants will present their data project proposal to a panel of experts for feedback. There will also be the opportunity to hear from Keynote speakers, engage with experts in the field, share ideas with other researchers, and meet like-minded people. The event will culminate in a session of group presentations moderated by a panel of judges, followed by canapés, drinks, and excellent prizes!

Apply to be part of Data Storytelling for Researchers here:

https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/data-storytelling-tickets-34995856549

In more detail, the 4 streams to choose from are:

Displaying Data Divinely: Archiving and Online Exhibits

In this stream, participants will work creatively to develop a data-collecting survey using KoboToolbox. Using cultural research techniques to tailor a survey form to their immediate environment, they’ll end the first part of the workshop with an original, new data set with which to work. Following this, participants will use the digital archiving tool Omeka to develop an engaging, informative online exhibit that casts their dataset in an interesting narrative of their own creation.

Learning objectives:

How to design an archive (creating metadata categories)
How to create a survey in Kobo Toolbox
How to upload your archive to Omeka
Organise your data in Omeka using Dublin Core metadata standards
Display your data in an attractive online exhibition

Digital Archives of 3D Objects

Ever wanted to create an online museum of physical objects? Had an archive that you were wondering how to digitise? Come along to the Digital Archives of 3D Objects stream of DatStory where you can explore 3D modelling with tinkerCAD, 3D scanning, and archiving with Omeka!

Learning objectives:

Object oriented learning
Take a physical object and create a computerised model with 3D scanning
Design and edit 3D objects in TinkerCAD
With Omeka, archive them to create an interactive online museum
Create a physical museum by printing your designs on a 3D printer; not an absolute must!

Textual analysis of Social Media Data

Learn to capture social media data and create your own research corpus using text mining with TAGS. Participants will then learn how to analyse their data with the Natural Language Toolkit, a computational linguistics tool for automated textual analysis. Participants will also be introduced to linguistics concepts such as concordancing, collocations and programming methods to perform these tasks on large datasets.

Learning objectives:

What an API is and how to use the Twitter API to scrape text data
How to process your data for analysis
Install Python and nltk data on your computer
Analyse textual data using collocational analysis
Create basic graphs from your textual data

Analysis and Visualisation of Public Databases

Political donations – Compiling and exploring an online database with R.

Australian political parties rely heavily on donations from domestic and international businesses. Where does the money come from? How is it distributed? Is it all declared? What can this tell us about democracy in Australia? In this stream, participants will be guided in manipulating and visualizing data scraped from the web to answer these questions and ask new ones.

Learning objectives: