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.
Who:
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.
Where:
Bern Dibner Library of Science and Technology, Brooklyn, NY.
Get directions with
OpenStreetMap
or
Google Maps.
Requirements: 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).
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.
Accessibility: We are committed to making this workshop
accessible to everybody.
The workshop organizers have checked that:
The room is wheelchair / scooter accessible.
Accessible restrooms are available.
Materials will be provided in advance of the workshop and
large-print handouts are available if needed by notifying the
organizers in advance. If we can help making learning easier for
you (e.g. sign-language interpreters, lactation facilities) please
get in touch (using contact details below) and we will
attempt to provide them.
To participate in a
Data Carpentry
workshop,
you will need access to the software described below.
In addition, you will need an up-to-date web browser.
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.
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.
SQLite
SQL is a specialized programming language used with databases. We
use a simple database manager called
SQLite in our lessons.
Visit SqliteBrowser and download and install it. Version 3.11.0 or greater.
Visit SqliteBrowser and download and install it. Version 3.11.0 or greater.
Visit SqliteBrowser and download and install it. Version 3.11.0 or greater.
If you installed Anaconda, it also has a copy of SQLite
without support to readline.
Instructors will provide a workaround for it if needed.
Python
Python is a popular language for
research computing, and great for general-purpose programming as
well. Installing all of its research packages individually can be
a bit difficult, so we recommend
Anaconda,
an all-in-one installer.
Regardless of how you choose to install it,
please make sure you install Python version 3.x
(e.g., 3.6 is fine).
We will teach Python using the Jupyter notebook,
a programming environment that runs in a web browser. For this to work you will need a reasonably
up-to-date browser. The current versions of the Chrome, Safari and
Firefox browsers are all
supported
(some older browsers, including Internet Explorer version 9
and below, are not).
Download the Python 3 installer for Linux.
(The installation requires using the shell. If you aren't
comfortable doing the installation yourself
stop here and request help at the workshop.)
Open a terminal window.
Type
bash Anaconda3-
and then press
Tab. The name of the file you just downloaded should
appear. If it does not, navigate to the folder where you
downloaded the file, for example with:
cd Downloads
Then, try again.
Press Return. You will follow the text-only prompts. To move through
the text, press Spacebar. Type yes and
press enter to approve the license. Press enter to approve the
default location for the files. Type yes and
press enter to prepend Anaconda to your PATH
(this makes the Anaconda distribution the default Python).