Helpers:
Jeremy Thompson, Ian Goodale, Jessie Simpson, Allyssa Guzman
General Information
Data Carpentry develops and teaches workshops on the fundamental data skills needed to conduct
research. Its target audience is researchers who have little to no prior computational experience,
and its lessons are domain specific, building on learners' existing knowledge to enable them to quickly
apply skills learned to their own research.
Participants will be encouraged to help one another
and to apply what they have learned to their own research problems.
The course is aimed at graduate students and other researchers.
You don't need to have any previous knowledge of the tools
that will be presented at the workshop.
Participants must bring a laptop with a
Mac, Linux, or Windows operating system (not a tablet, Chromebook, etc.) that they have administrative privileges on.
They should have a few specific software packages installed (listed below).
Registration:
If you are interested in attending, please complete the workshop registration form by clicking the button below.
Space in this workshop is limited, so if you are interested in attending please try to register as early as possible. Once the workshop is full, a waitlist will be created that will accept a limited number of additional registrants.
Accessibility:
We are committed to making this workshop
accessible to everybody. The online workshop sessions will be conducted via Zoom and will have automated closed captioning enabled.
If we can help making learning easier for
you please get in touch (using contact details below) and we will
attempt to provide them.
Contact:
Please email meryl.brodsky@austin.utexas.edu for more information.
Roles:
To learn more about the roles at the workshop (who will be doing what),
refer to our Workshop FAQ.
Code of Conduct
Everyone who participates in Carpentries activities is required to conform to the Code of Conduct. This document also outlines how to report an incident if needed.
Collaborative Notes
We will use this collaborative document for chatting, taking notes, and sharing URLs and bits of code.
Surveys
Please be sure to complete these surveys before and after the workshop.
To participate in a
Data Carpentry
workshop,
you will need access to software as described below.
In addition, you will need an up-to-date web browser.
A list of common issues that occur during installation is provided as a reference at
Configuration Problems and Solutions wiki page. You can also find additional details about preparing for the spreadsheet and OpenRefine portions of the workshop at https://datacarpentry.org/ecology-workshop/setup-python-workshop.html. If you visit either of these webpages, please ignore the “Anaconda” and “Python” sections since we will alternatively be using the Google Colab development environment in this workshop.
We will also have a virtual software installation session that will be conducted via Zoom from 3pm to 4pm on Tuesday November 1st (the day prior to the first day of the workshop). During this session workshop registrants will have the opportunity to ask questions and receive help getting the required software ready on their computers.
OpenRefine
For this lesson you will need OpenRefine and a
web browser. Note: this is a Java program that runs on your machine (not in the cloud).
It runs inside a web browser, but no web connection is needed. In addition to having OpenRefine installed, you will need to download the following data file to your computer https://ndownloader.figshare.com/files/7823341 because we will be working with this data in OpenRefine during the workshop.
Check that you have either the Firefox or the Chrome browser installed and set as your default browser.
OpenRefine runs in your default browser.
It will not run correctly in Internet Explorer.
Unzip the downloaded file into the OpenRefine directory by right-clicking and selecting "Extract ...".
Go to your newly created OpenRefine directory.
Launch OpenRefine by clicking openrefine.exe (this will launch a command prompt window, but you can ignore that - just wait for OpenRefine to open in the browser).
If you are using a different browser, or if OpenRefine does not automatically open for you, point your browser at http://127.0.0.1:3333/ or http://localhost:3333 to use the program.
Check that you have either the Firefox or the Chrome browser installed and set as your default browser. OpenRefine runs in your default browser. It may not run correctly in Safari.
Unzip the downloaded file into the OpenRefine directory by double-clicking it.
Go to your newly created OpenRefine directory.
Launch OpenRefine by dragging the icon into the Applications folder.
Use Ctrl-click/Open ... to launch it.
If you are using a different browser, or if OpenRefine does not automatically open for you, point your browser at http://127.0.0.1:3333/ or http://localhost:3333 to use the program.
Check that you have either the Firefox or the Chrome browser installed and set as your default browser. OpenRefine runs in your default browser.
Unzip the downloaded file into the OpenRefine directory.
Go to your newly created OpenRefine directory.
Launch OpenRefine by entering ./refine into the terminal within the OpenRefine directory.
If you are using a different browser, or if OpenRefine does not automatically open for you, point your browser at http://127.0.0.1:3333/ or http://localhost:3333 to use the program.
Check to confirm that you can use Python in Google Colab
Visit https://colab.research.google.com/ and click Sign In at the top right of the page and log in with your @utexas.edu Google Account credentials. Once you are signed in, try clicking on the File button at the top left of the page and the select New Notebook. If a new Google Colab Notebook loads successfully for you, you have everything you need in place for the start of the workshop.
Install the videoconferencing client
If you haven’t used Zoom before, go to the official website to download and install the Zoom client for your computer.
Set up your workspace
Like other Carpentries workshops, you will be learning by “coding along” with the Instructors. To do this, you will need to have both the window for the tool you will be learning about (a terminal, RStudio, your web browser, etc..) and the window for the Zoom video conference client open. In order to see both at once, we recommend using one of the following set up options:
Two monitors: If you have two monitors, plan to have the tool you are learing up on one monitor and the video conferencing software on the other.
Two devices: If you don't have two monitors, do you have another device (tablet, smartphone) with a medium to large sized screen? If so, try using the smaller device as your video conference connection and your larger device (laptop or desktop) to follow along with the tool you will be learning about.
Divide your screen: If you only have one device and one screen, practice having two windows (the video conference program and one of the tools you will be using at the workshop) open together. How can you best fit both on your screen? Will it work better for you to toggle between them using a keyboard shortcut? Try it out in advance to decide what will work best for you.
This blog post includes detailed information on how to set up your screen to follow along during the workshop.
The setup instructions for the Data Carpentry Social Sciences workshops (with R) can be found at the workshop overview site.