Hello everyone. I felt compelled to break the silence with a brief update on matters. I’ve had quite a lot of traffic round these parts of late, thanks to sharing of my data journalism handbook post and Nathan’s inclusion of my site on his collection of blog reads, but by now people are probably wondering why the lights are on but there’s seemingly nobody home!
Packed Training Schedule
One of the main reason for my current dry blog post spell is that I’m firmly in the midst of my packed training schedule. I’ve had a few private events lately and tomorrow I fly over to New York to begin a three date tour in NYC, DC and Baltimore. When I return I’m on a 2 week Italian holiday and then back over to Chicago and Toronto for another chunk of time. This means my posting frequency has been and might continue to be somewhat sporadic for the near future but once the middle of June arrives, the acceleration will be significant.
I’ve had a number of people starting to ask when I’ll be arranging and announcing my training schedule for the latter half of 2012/start of 2013. Well, the simple answer is I’ve not had time to think about it but I will be doing a formal call out for suggested locations soon. In the meantime, just drop me an email with your preferred location and I’ll throw it into the mix!
Upcoming posts
I’ve got so many half-finished/half-started blog posts in my draft folder it is becoming quite incompetent, especially as for many of the subjects the moment has somewhat passed, but I hope to rattle off a few key posts over the next month or so:
- I’ll be knuckling down soon to compile the usual best of the visualisation web collection for April. There’s just too much good stuff to make this a lightweight task!
- Benjamin’s recent post about the data visualisation tools collection has inspired me to finally face up to the task of refreshing and making complete this series of essential visualisation resources posts. I’ve got about 30 tools to add to the collection and all sorts of updates to make here and there.
- I’ve also got to finish off my long overdue collection of data handling tools and places to get data for this same resources series.
- I’ve got some great interviews/designer profiles lined up in the next month and hope to have these out as soon as they are ready.
- I’ve got a number of guest posts to finish off and publish on O’Reilly Radar
- I’m also going to be launching what I hope will become an annual survey about the state of the visualisation field, that’s nearly ready but I’m not ready for the dealing with all the data, analysis and presentation of the findings side of things!
- I’ve got outstanding reviews of Designing Data Visualizations and Visual Complexity (the delay for those has been embarrassing and I apologise to the authors!)
- I’m going to do some reflective write-ups about my training experiences and discuss further the potential importance of data visualisation education in schools/universities
- It won’t be long until I will be sharing my opinions on the most significant developments of the first 6 months of this year
- Finally, with the Euro Championships looming I may be repeating my previous collections of football visualisations found on various media/web platforms
Visualing Data: The Reboot
Once June is out of the way I have loads of plans for a bit of a Visualising Data reboot which will see the site being stripped back and rebuilt brick by brick. I’m going to be looking at a new look, a new feel and definitely an enhanced approach to the content side of things too. If you have any deep felt opinions about what the site should and/or shouldn’t be, feel free to get in touch via email – I can’t guarantee it will turn out as you suggest but happy to receive any informed opinions.
Book
Last, but not least, I’m currently also very occupied with writing my first book. As you may have heard on the recent Data Stories podcast I am in the middle of working hard on an e-book which will be published later in the year. I won’t share any further details at this stage but watch out for further announcements in due course. I will, however, share news that this isn’t the only book I’m working on…
Anyway, enough self-promotion for now, just thought I’d let you know what’s going down at Visualising Data HQ.