All About Mapping: From Humanitarian Efforts to the Election

Thank you for joining us for this week’s episode of the Let’s Make It Count podcast with Mikel Maron, Community Team Lead at Mapbox. Mikel takes us on a tour of how open mapping has been pivotal in connecting resources to communities: From creating images and maps for humanitarian aid workers’ response to the devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti, to aiding in the government’s response to the Ebola crisis, and to assessing accessibility of ballot drop boxes in the US. It’s been the combination of emerging web technology, free and open data including Census data and satellite images, and collaboration models that have enabled people to figure out where the focus of resources are needed, thus paving the way in solving specific social problems in real time. You’ll want to listen in on this practical, down-to-earth conversation--it may just inspire you in your own journey through the world of data science and social change!

In this 6th episode of the Let’s Make It Count podcast, we took the opportunity to chat with Kate Strachnyi about everything from data storytelling and data ethics to work-life balance.

Kate started her career with a finance degree, and shares her journey from being a risk analyst to branching out on her own to teach data visualization. Aiming to show a “before and after” story with data to inspire greater understanding and data-enabled communication, Kate has worked with audiences spanning pre-kindergarten students to executives.

Noting how important it is to “grow your network before you need your network,” she discusses how connecting with a community has instrumental in her career path. Now, she helps build community through her DATAcated Academy and conference.

Listen in as Kate reflects on what it was like to graduate with a finance degree during a financial crisis, how she handles imposter syndrome, and some “life hacks” (hint: discover your “Netflix and pizza” -- something you really love to do). She walks us through the basics of #DataViz and Tableau, providing advice for how to create a submission for the Let’s Make It Count National Competition for high school students and teachers. What data story will you be inspired to tell next?

In this 5th episode of the Let’s Make It Count podcast, we took the opportunity to chat with data analyst and entrepreneur David Curry. David is always looking for cool new ways to apply data in the real world. In our interview, we learn how he utilizes his 20+ years of software development and data analytics experience.

David started his career as a web developer in the late ’90s, using statistics to create online surveys for market analysis. Over the course of time, he realized that he would get the most excited when he was involved in using data patterns to directly affect and influence business decisions. Today, David operates his own data consultancy business and has also helped facilitate a weekly online learning lab with Matt Dancho designed to make the relatively new field of data science less intimidating for any explorer.

Listen in as Mr. Curry walks us through what data scientists “do,” how he teaches people to shape their business’ trajectory and outcomes, and what he specifically does to apply easily obtainable (and usually free!) data sets to create a clearer direction for markets and  organizations. Plus, David chimes in on exciting ways on how to use Census data to create a submission for the Let’s Make It Count National Competition for high school students and teachers. What new discoveries will you explore this week?

In this week’s episode, we visit with Julia Silge, a Data Scientist and Software Developer at RStudio. Julia shares her exciting career journey from physics and astronomy, to data science. A key theme that arises, is Julia's work to build thriving software communities. This includes ground-breaking research through the Stack Overflow Developer Survey to understand disparities between members of the community, through the use of survey methods and demographic data. Julia also discusses the latest trends in open-source software, associated business models to sustain development efforts over time, and her own contributions to the open-source community with the text mining package "tinytext" in R. 

Links from this episode:

Glitch Website

Modeling salary and gender in the tech industry

Opioid prescribing habits in Texas

Understanding gender roles in movies with text mining

About Let's Make it Count:

Let's Make it Count

National Census Data Competition

In this week’s episode, we visit with Joyce Hunter. Joyce is the former Deputy CIO of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and currently the Executive Director of ICIT, the leading cybersecurity think tank. 

Joyce speaks freely of her wide career path, one that has taken her from the White House to starting an agriculture data camp to leading cybersecurity policy, and the obstacles she had to overcome along the way. One of the few women in her field during the late 1990s, Joyce has been on the front lines of the growth of data science as a discipline and open data as a concept—and has been the inspiration of women who pursue a wide range of STEM-based fields.

In this week’s episode, we visit with Josh Starmer, founder of StatQuest. Josh is a computational biologist turned YouTube star. Granted, these are two very different career paths, but it was the basic human need for communication with others that ignited the fire of his passion: bringing statistics to the masses.

Lili Gangas, Chief Community and Technology Officer at the Kapor Center, shares her immigration story, discusses the Digital Divide, and how her organization is leveling the playing field in tech.