DDJ - Events

Training course: Introduction to data visualisation

2012-01-25T09:37:14+00:00

Exponential advances in technology have provided us with ubiquitous means for creating, recording and mobilising incredible amounts of data. Where once data was scarce, now it is captured in abundance. Our attitudes as consumers have also evolved. We demand transparency and openness and yearn for visual insight and understanding. Yet, whilst we have access to fantastic tools and widespread capabilities for storage, handling and analysis, the knowledge and techniques required to most effectively display and communicate data are somewhat neglected. In a cluttered, competitive world, a design approach based on intuition, instinct and personal taste is no longer sufficient to cope with, let alone exploit, this data overload.

This is where data visualisation comes in. Data visualisation is both an art and a science. It is an art concerned with unleashing creativity and innovation, designing communications that appeal on an aesthetic level and survive in the mind on an emotional one. It is a science aimed at understanding and exploiting the way our eyes and brains process information most efficiently, effectively and accurately.

This series of training courses on data visualisation starts on January 26 at the University of Ulster, Derry, and ends on July 13 in Amsterdam.

For more information on this series of data visualisation trainings and the different dates and locations, check the website Visualising Data.

NICAR 2012: St. Louis

2012-01-11T08:17:42+00:00

Looking to learn skills that will help you and your newsroom thrive? Join IRE and NICAR in St. Louis for their annual conference devoted to computer-assisted reporting. Come and learn about tools you need to dig deeper into stories and give readers, viewers and your online audience the information they're demanding.

The CAR conference offers something for everyone, from beginners to those on the cutting edge of digital reporting. They'll offer everything from the basics on using spreadsheets, databases and online mapping to the latest technological advances. Learn from the best in the business in panel discussions and during hands-on training sessions. Bypass the budget issues in your newsroom by taking classes in free software. Get a look at what the biggest names in data-driven reporting are using to make a major impact online.

This event will take place from 23 to 26 February 2012 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA.

For more information, check the conference webpage.

VISIGRAPP 2012

2012-01-11T09:42:55+00:00

VISIGRAPP 2012 is the 7th International Joint Conference on Computer Vision, Imaging and Computer Graphics Theory and Applications. The purpose of VISIGRAPP is to bring together researchers and practitioners interested in both theoretical advances and applications of computer vision, computer graphics and information visualization. VISIGRAPP is composed of three co-located conferences, each specialized in at least one of the aforementioned main knowledge areas. These three conferences are GRAPP, International Conference on Computer Graphics Theory and Applications, IVAPP, International Conference on Visualization Theory and Applications, and VISAPP, International Conference on Computer Vision Theory and Applications.

VISIGRAPP will be held in conjunction with PECCS 2012 and SENSORNETS 2012.

The conference takes place from 24 to 26 February, at the Hotel Meliá Roma Aurelia Antica in Rome, Italy.

For more information, check the event website.

SXSW Conference and Festival 2012

2012-01-25T08:42:46+00:00

The first South by Southwest Music Conference and Festival (SXSW) was held in 1987 in Austin, Texas. As the city of Austin began to grow and diversify and film and high-tech companies started playing a major role in Austin's economy, SXSW, which was originally just a music event, added a film and interactive component in 1994 to accommodate these growing industries. The 2012 SXSW Music Conference and Festival will be in the same city once more, offering the three topics of Music, Film, and Interactive spanning from five to ten days. Some of the topics included in the Interactive part of the conference are 'The Bombastic Brilliance of Black Twitter', 'Digital vs. Print: Storyboard to Digital Delivery', 'Enhanced Interrogation: The Modern-Day Interview', and 'The Power of Visual Storytelling'.

This event takes place from March 9 to March 18, at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas.

For more information, check the SXSW website.

InfographICs 2012

2012-01-23T12:32:41+00:00

Under the theme 'Cut the Crap', InfographICs 2012 is going back to the roots of good 'information design'. Renowned speakers from different countries will demonstrate that long before the arrival of the Internet, groundbreaking work had already been done in the usage of colour, animation and 3D. The conference is going back to these roots to show that while all this new technology might be all fun and games, the real goal is to get the message across.

The conference features several speakers with different backgrounds, including Sean McNaughton, former senior graphics editor at National Geographic, and assistant professor in Visual and Interactive Communications at the University of Syracuse.

The InfographICs 2012 conference will take place on March 9, at Hotel Theater Figi in Zeist, the Netherlands.

For more information, check the InfographICs 2012 programme. (Please note that this website is in Dutch.)

ePSIplatform Conference: Taking re-use to the next level!

2012-01-11T09:28:29+00:00

With the progress the open data movement has made in the past few years, and the announcement of the European Open Data Strategy by the European Commission, we are reaching a new maturity level in the open data arena. We are ready to move to the next level, in terms of adoption by governments, in terms of the number and background of people involved, the mass and volume of data available for re-use, the business and distribution models, the size of the economic value involved, and the technology facilitating these developments.

Are you a public data holder, an application builder, a data journalist, a policy maker, a competition authority, an open data community member, a data portal owner, an advisor to re-users or policy makers, a long time commercial re-user, a start-up director, representing an NGO, or a researcher on these topics? Then you are cordially invited to the ePSIplatform.eu 2012 conference!

A few plenary, and many parallel sessions: On a wide variety of topics: changing local policy issues with local open data, data journalism, the internal business case for open data, increasing a sector's effectiveness with open data (such as international aid), data visualization, open data for participation and self empowerment, licensing, pan-European initiatives, PSI Directive review, data protection and privacy, combining public data and personal data: the Quantified Self, obstacles of PSI r-euse, (financing of) 'key registries', checks and balances: redress and compliance. And of course plenty of time to connect and network!

This event will take place on March 16, in Rotterdam.

For more information, check the ePSIplatform conference site.

Information Design Conference 2012

2012-01-31T14:31:09+00:00

For nearly thirty years, the Information Design Conferences have been a great place to discuss and debate information design.

The conference is organised by the Information Design Association, and in 2012, for the first time, they are in partnership with the International Institute for Information Design.

Information Design Conferences always feature intelligent debate, great networking, a broad set of approaches, and a blend of research and practice.

The conference will take place between 12 - 13 April 2012 and, as in 2007 and 2009, it will be held in the restoration grandeur of the University of Greenwich in London, in buildings designed by Sir Christopher Wren. And we will hold our traditional conference dinner in the historic Trafalgar Tavern, overlooking the Thames.

For more information and to apply, please visit the website.

Re:Publica 12

2012-01-31T14:53:18+00:00

This year seventeen States of the Arab world became part of the revolutionary Arab Spring, a protest movement that leveraged social media more than any before to connect, organize, and succeed beyond expectations.

Is Facebook the new common denominator of dissent?

Activists from countries as diverse as Spain, China and Israel have all begun to use social media to organize and seize political momentum.

Since the Arab Spring, Wall Street has become the cradle of the internationally adopted Occupy Movement, whose endpoint is – thanks to Twitter – just as undefinable as any appointed leadership of the often-cited 99%.

And eventually, 9% of votes were enough for the German Piratenpartei to gain maximum interest.

With so much action, the theme for the sixth re:publica was clear.

ACTION! means that digital society has manifested itself even more assertively this year, across many new social areas. The upcoming program of re:publica 2012 will be filled with international guests putting non-political things into action as well.

ACTION! means people who push technology further, rethink education, mobility or finance, develop interactive designs and games, turn thought patterns upside down, pimp conventional businesses, and who screw up things the right way as part of the DIY movement.

Three days full of boundless energy are waiting for you, so roll up your sleeves and get to work – we can’t wait to shake hands with all the makers!

For more information, please visit the website.

American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) 2012 Annual Conference

2012-02-08T13:36:46+00:00

AAPOR's Annual Conference features cutting-edge educational sessions, in-depth short courses, informal access to leaders in the field and an informative exhibit hall with representatives from key service and product providers.

The continued proliferation of new communication media and technologies presents increased opportunities as well as challenges for public opinion, marketing science and survey researchers. The conference theme focuses on evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of new methodologies and modes of data collection and exploring the implications for our profession.

This includes new methods of measuring opinion and behavior such as the analysis of social media content (e.g., Facebook), blogs, microblogs (e.g., Twitter), and internet searches. Paper submissions that explore the value of these emerging methodologies to public opinion, marketing science and other social researchers, including the reliability and validity of these approaches are encouraged.

The conference will take place at the JW Marriott Orlando Grande Lakes in Orlando, Florida from 17 - 20 May 2012.

For more information and to sign up, please visit the website.

Global Editors Network News World Summit in Paris

2012-02-10T09:40:54+00:00

Join the Global Editors Network in Paris for the News World Summit from 30 May - 1 June 2012. The News World Summit is the Global Editors Network annual event. It will host 400 Editor-in-Chiefs from all over the world. NEWS! will cover the latest innovations in and define the future of digital journalism with a special emphasis on connected devices such as ipTV, smart phones and tablets, new platforms that all news media must experiment with, even if broadcast is not in their DNA or product portfolio.

Speakers include media consultant Jim Chisholm, Per Mikael Jensen, President & CEO, Metro International (Sweden & UK), Alan Rusbridger, Editor-in-Chief, Guardian News & Media (UK), and more.

The 2012 Data Journalism Awards ceremony will take place in Paris on Thursday 31 May 2012, during the News World Summit. The ceremony starts at 19h30 and will be followed by a cocktail party. The location is to be announced.

For detailed information and to sign up, please visit the website.