[liberationtech] For philanthropic professionals: A workshop on data visualization in Massachusetts

[Deborah Elizabeth Finn]

Dear Liberation Tech Colleagues,

(Putting on my TNB hat.)

Tech Networks of Boston (TNB)  and The United Way of Mass Bay & Merrimack
Valley (UWMBMV) invite philanthropic professionals and United Way grantees
to participate in an introduction to data visualization and the Weave
platform.

In the information age, grantmakers are increasingly challenged to use many
kinds of data for both internal and external purposes: to understand local
challenges, to track their progress toward specific goals, to make course
corrections, to measure regional impact, and to brief stakeholders about
their successes. In many cases, we find that grantmakers have plenty of
data, but are in need of finding ways to derive more useful insights from
it and to convey those insights more succinctly.  Data visualization is one
of the most promising practices for grantmakers who are seeking to
understand the essential meaning of a story and to tell that story to
others.

We are very fortunate that Georges Grinstein, one of the creators of the
open source Weave data visualization platform, has volunteered to lead this
workshop.  He will walk us through an overview of what data visualization
means, and use the Weave platform to show how it can be done.  Workshop
participants will have an opportunity to explore a sample data set provided
by the United Way of Mass Bay and Merrimack Valley, and to create their own
impromptu visualizations.

Here's is a little more about Georges:

Georges Grinstein is is Professor of Computer Science at the University of
Massachusetts Lowell, head of its Bioinformatics Program, Director of its
Institute for Visualization and Perception Research, and CSO of Weave
Visual Analytics.  He received his Ph.D. in mathematics from the University
of Rochester in 1978. His work is broad and interdisciplinary, covering the
perceptual and cognitive foundations of visualization, very
high-dimensional data visualization, visual analytics and applications. The
emphasis is on the modeling, visualization, and analysis of complex
information data and systems. He has over 40 years in academia with
extensive consulting, over 300 research grants, products in use nationally
and internationally, several patents, numerous publications in journals and
conferences, a book on interactive data visualization, founded several
companies, been the organizer or chair of national and international
conferences and workshops in computer graphics, in visualization, and in
data mining.

Please note:

1) The open source Weave platform will be used to introduce workshop
participants to the basics of data visualization.  It is one of several
data visualization tools; information about other tools will be available
to those who request it.

2) This session will NOT be a sales pitch for any product or service.  It
will be a professional development opportunity for philanthropic
professionals who want to learn with and from their peers in other
organizations.

3) This session is designed exclusively for employees of philanthropic
organizations and United Way grantees. Vendors, volunteers, students,
consultants, job-seekers, and others are not eligible to register.

4) Participation in this session is free of charge for philanthropic
professionals and United Way grantees. However, you must have a confirmed
reservation in order to attend.

5) If this session is booked to capacity by the time you seek to register
for it, please go ahead and put yourself on the waiting list. We have a
good track record of finding seats for those on the waiting list.

We hope that you can join us for a session that will enable you to fulfill
your mission in new ways.

To register, please follow this link:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/for-philanthropic-professionals-introduction-to-data-visualization-registration-18333676520

Best regards from Deborah

Deborah Elizabeth Finn | Senior Strategist
Tech Networks of Boston
1 Wadleigh Place | South Boston, MA 02127
Phone: 617.504.8188 | Fax: 888.527.9333
deborah at techboston.com | techboston.com
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