467: quantum of sollazzo

#467: quantum of sollazzo – 10 May 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 Valentina d'Efilippo the data designer behind so many award-winning data visualizations.

Finally, a shout out to YouGotThis! for evolving into a learning hub. YouGotThis! is a series of events about work/life balance for techies, and they're just released a lot of material as a curated collection of talks about the core skills needed for a happy and healthy work life.

'till next week,
Giuseppe @puntofisso

Six questions to...

Valentina D'Efilippo

Valentina is a data designer.

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

I juggle many different things. So my days vary depending on whether I am consulting for a client, designing a dashboard, illustrating a book or teaching dataviz and infographic storytelling. When designing I usually receive the data research from my clients. I use Google Sheets to explore the data and often use rapid prototyping tools like Rawgraphs or Data Illustrator to plot the data. Most of the craft in my designs is carried out in Adobe illustrator and if I design an interactive display I work with Adobe XD and collaborate with developers.

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

Over the years, I have been lucky to get involved in some great projects and I collaborated with some awesome people – from theatre productions to books, and editorial artworks and interactive products. I am proud of many of these experiences and it's hard to pick one favourite project. But if I have to name only one, well it must be co-authoring and illustrating The Infographic History of the World. The result of a collaboration with James Ball is a collection of 100 infographics which narrate the evolution of mankind and the planet. We created them in less than a year and, as you can imagine, it was a very intense experience but also very rewarding to see the book translated in more than 10 languages and being read and shared by people. The project has cemented my experience in this field and has opened up many doors.

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

Pretty much everything Mona Chalabi creates! I love the immediacy of her work and how she provides clarity to very complex and important topics.

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

A window into the world. An opportunity to learn/discover but also to express/communicate.

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

Embrace your limitations and transform them into assets. It can be intimidating starting out, you might feel you need to master everything from data analysis, to designing and writing. The reality is that most projects you see are the result of collaboration. So my advice is to focus on one specific area.
Dataviz is not magic, it is planning, researching, designing, failing/succeeding and showing up the next day to do it all over again. Document what you do, experiment, allow for feedback cycles in your work and be obsessive about your craft. Take pride in your work, but don’t take it too seriously. Above all else, have fun exploring. The important thing is to find YOUR process and respect the data.

Data is or data are...

Data is but...who cares? I don't think there is room for many absolutes in this field. My only rule is to respect the data and the audience...regardless of how they spell.

Topical

Banning abortion doesn’t stop abortion, it just makes it more dangerous

Old but topical, this Twitter thread by US Guardian Data Editor Mona Chalabi sheds some light on the correlation between abortion legality and safety.

This is literally the opposite of what has happened, empirically speaking

The Economist's G. Elliott Morris takes a look at the data behind Elon Musk's claim that he finds himself driven to the right by a polarised left.

How political leaders declare war

Francesco Piccinelli has published this "data-driven analysis into one of the most uncomfortable avenues of political rhetoric". It uses NLP to assess the emotion of famous declarations of war.

How the pandemic has changed American homebuyers’ preferences

"They are flocking to warm suburbs." In this intriguing article on The Economist, we learn that "Other suburban and exurban counties have also seen big rises, especially ones with good weather. These areas often contain affordable housing and industries friendly to remote work."

Twitter, Tesla and Copious Emojis: What and When Elon Musk Tweets

He tweets a lot and in interesting ways. This article also comes with an emoji chart...

Tools & Tutorials

Handbook for Journalists

How to get "GDPR and the handling of personal data while exercising your journalistic duties in one place" PDF. By PANELFIT.
(via EDJNet)

Scene

"Easy-to-make VR stories", by the Knight Lab.

trdsql

trdsql is a "CLI tool that can execute SQL queries on CSV, LTSV, JSON and TBLN. Can output to various formats."

Using Google Sheets as a database

Similar to the above, but using API on Google Sheets.

Blog graph

"Many blogs include a blogroll on their page with links to other blogs. I thought it might be interesting to try to map the network that emerges from blogs linking to one another."
From data collection in Python to force-directed chart in D3.

Hiding a photo inside another photo

"Steganography is the practice of concealing a message within another message or a physical object. In this blog post we want to hide a photo inside another photo. So when you share the photo, it looks like a single ordinary photo, but it's actually two photos. One of them is hidden inside of the other, and it can only be revealed using an external tool."
Nice and easy tutorial.

PesaYetu

"PesaYetu helps journalists, researchers and activists transform their work with in-depth county-specific information. Get started now with datasets from Kenya."

Data thinking

We found this cool study about randomness that we wanted to show you.

Uh oh.
"But…there is something we saw in the data that made us question the results. Can you help us reproduce the study and figure things out?"
Unusual project from The Pudding. Really really interesting.

The Three Mental Models Model for Data Visualization

"A useful way to think more holistically about how data visualization works", by Enrico Bertini.

The Genres of Data Stories

A data journalist opens up on how he classifies his own data stories into 'genres', ranging from "question story" to "how it happened".

Dataviz, Data Analysis, & Interactive

Public Finance for Energy Database Data Dashboard

"This dashboard shows the total flows of public finance going to fossil fuel, clean, and other energy projects from G20 countries’ trade and development finance institutions as well as the major multilateral development banks."
(via Andy Redwood)

Waterworks

"A heatmap of where people have cried on UWaterloo campus."

MRI of the Earth

"We narrate the global climate crisis, analysing its roots, and taking a snapshot of what Earth's landscapes are now and what they could look like in the future if no further action is taken."
The actual "MRI" can be found here.

Future of skills

"LinkedIn’s data tells us how jobs are changing, and what skills workers may need to stay competitive in the new world of work."
It's also pretty interactive.

AI

Optimizing Solar Energy Production with Reinforcement Learning

"This research demonstrates a model-free approach to optimize the energy produced by a dual-axis solar panel using reinforcement learning. Specifically, a softmax actor-critic agent optimizes energy production in a simulated, dynamic lighting environment which is generated from real power data. All schematics, algorithms, and code are provided as open-source materials."
Open source rocks.