461: quantum of sollazzo

#461: quantum of sollazzo – 28 March 2022

The data newsletter by @puntofisso.

Hello, regular readers and welcome new ones :) This is Quantum of Sollazzo, the newsletter about all things data. I am Giuseppe Sollazzo, or @puntofisso. I’ve been sending this newsletter since 2012 to be a summary of all the articles with or about data that captured my attention over the previous week. The newsletter is and will always (well, for as long as I can keep going!) be free, but you’re welcome to become a friend via the links below.

Every week I include a six-question interview with an inspiring data person. This week, I speak with Alasdair Rae, Founder of Automatic Knowledge, former academic, and fundamentally the source of many maps you’ve seen in this newsletter – countless data journalists, cartographers, analysts, and yours truly, have all learned how to make maps thanks to Alasdair’s tutorials and courses.

Before I close – you might remember that some time back I created some road-colouring maps of London that show roads coloured according to their suffix, i.e. whether they are roads, streets, avenues, ways, and so on. They sold really well, and I have only 2 left. I need to empty my loft so… here’s a 70% discount which basically will get you the map for a fiver.

‘till next week,
Giuseppe @puntofisso

Six questions to...

Alasdair Rae

Alasdair is Founder of Automatic Knowledge Ltd (a UK-based company with a focus on geographic data analysis, research and training).

What is your daily data work like and what tools do you use?

As part of my work with Automatic Knowledge, I do a mix of data analysis and research consultancy (with a focus on spatial data), training, and data sharing. As a window into my work, I also like to share things on twitter - mostly maps. For geo stuff I mostly use QGIS but I dabble with command line stuff too, just whatever works best. I also like to share methods and skills on my blog. I work with some very big and some very small organisations and I talk to my colleagues Elvis and Philip about work we've got on.

Tell me about a data project that you're proud of...

This is a difficult question because but I tend not to look backwards or feel proud about things, but I did quite like the way my Land Cover Atlas of the UK came together, and the resulting 'How much of your area is built on?' tool on the BBC website. This was a simplified piece of work for a mass audience, but the original piece of work in the Atlas was me trying to understand a dataset better and then share that with others, which is at the core of many of the things I do. Obviously, it wasn't perfect, and looking back I might have done a few things differently but it was an interesting experience and I learned a lot about how these things come together as well as practical things, from people within the BBC team such as Prina Shah (Visual & Data Designer) and Lucy Rodgers (Senior Journalist) to Mark Easton (BBC News, Home Editor). I did this while I was working as a Professor at the University of Sheffield and in the end part of this work led to me winning 'Stat of the Year' from the Royal Statistical Society (although I also received angry letters and emails from other people, just to balance things out, because that seems to happen when you write about land use).

...and a data project that someone else did and you're jealous of.

In general, I look around me and see people doing so many amazing things and then feel slightly self-conscious about my own meagre skillset! Overall, I'm continually inspired by what I see on Twitter (despite the noise) and there are so many people doing amazing things, but over the past couple of years I've been so impressed by what Bin Chi (previously UCL, now at the University of Glasgow) has done in relation to linked data for the housing market, and particularly combining transaction information from the Land Registry Price Paid Data (PPD) and property size information form the Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) dataset. This is the kind of thing that can sound outrageously dry but in my view is the exact opposite - it's exciting, innovative and useful - and Bin is doing great work here.

If I say "dataset", you think of...

'Spreadsheet', because most of the time when I go to download data that's the form I find it in. But I also think 'important knowledge might be hidden here, so let's take a look'. So I suppose that means I think 'potential knowledge' when I hear 'dataset'.

Give someone new to data a tip or lesson you wish you'd learned earlier.

Things will go wrong a lot when you work with data - and geodata seems to be even more like this because you also have to think about coordinate reference systems and why things are sometimes in the wrong place, the wrong shape, or both. In fact, things might go wrong so much that you'll be surprised when things go right. Also, lots of weird but not necessarily wrong things will probably happen and you won't always know why. You might never know why. Maybe that's just like life in general. I'm an eternal optimist so I still expect things to work first time, though when they don't I'm still not that disappointed - I see the problem solving as part of the fun. So, for someone new to all this I'd just say that it happens to everyone and that's ok. Being confused is fine.

Data is or data are...

I don't have strong feelings about this. I use 'is' and others use 'are', and that's fine. I think we should be pretty relaxed about these kinds of things because, after all, we is all in this together. My new mug proves that there are space for both views.

Topical

How the New York Times has changed their map symbology as the Russian war in Ukraine️ unfolds.

A Twitter thread.

The Sigma Awards Projects Database

A gallery of all the candidates for one of the most recognised awards in data/visual journalism.

Overcrowding, isolation, and shrinking of human rights in Greek prisons

“During the first months of the pandemic, the spread of the virus in Greek prisons appeared to have been limited. Today it is estimated that one in three inmates has contracted coronavirus, despite the fact that correctional facilities were operating under a strict lockdown. What went wrong?“
This is an interesting investigation, part of a series on the European Data Journalism Network.
On a similar note is this highly visual piece by UCLA looking at US detention centres.

See How Vaccinations Are Going in Your County and State

A very comprehensive look at vaccination rates by the New York Times.
Meanwhile, this article about Tunisia (in Arabic, English, and French), which I discovered via Datawrapper’s blog, comes with pretty nice graphics and numbers.

States Are Reopening

“See How Coronavirus Cases Rise or Fall” on this article by ProPublica, which comes with an outstanding use of animated arrows.

Tools & Tutorials

Wikidata for data journalism

Giorgio Comai has published this readable slide deck that is behind his tutorial on how to use R and ‘tidywikidatar’ in order to use Wikidata (the linked data version of Wikipedia).

Introduction to K-Means Clustering

“Clustering allows you to find and organize data into groups that have been formed organically, rather than defining groups before looking at the data”, and this tutorial explains how to use K-means clustering, one of the most popular techniques.

Data Science Project Quick-Start

“Several mistakes and mentors later, I’ve gained some hard-won lessons on how to start data science projects effectively. I’ll share them here so you can go from nebulous problem to usable prototype, without repeating my errors.“

A/B Street

I discovered A/B Street at Geomob. It’s a wildly accurate traffic simulator, or more accurately a “transportation planning and traffic simulation software for creating cities friendlier to walking, biking, and public transit”.
It’s open source and developed by a group of talented academics.

How we visualise uncertainty

Another useful piece on the Economist’s Off The Charts newsletter, written by visual data journalist Rosamund Pearce.

Data thinking

Organizing and scaling an effective data team

“Here’s a high-level sketch of how to organize and scale an effective data team..“

Google Maps Hacks

“99 second hand smartphones are transported in a handcart to generate virtual traffic jam in Google Maps.Through this activity, it is possible to turn a green street red which has an impact in the physical world by navigating cars on another route to avoid being stuck in traffic.“
An art installation which makes me reflect on data and malicious uses.

Dataviz, Data Analysis, & Interactive

Chalamet Coughs, Dune Wins: Predicting Best Picture Winners Using Coughs and Sneezes

“Many movies have coughs and sneezes in them. Some win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Is there a connection? The mainstream statistical hegemony says “no,” but our research suggests otherwise.“
Big LOLs for this one, including at the Editor’s Note.

Macron’s “Falklands effect”

Lisa Charlotte Muth of Datawrapper analyses and visualises French electoral polls and compares them to Thatcher’s.

New York ISO Real-Time Dashboard

A handy tool to monitor New York’s energy markets.

AI

The AI Index Report AI INDEX REPORT

“Measuring trends in Artificial Intelligence”, by Stanford University.

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