The publication of this post, which also happens to be on my birthday, is dedicated to reminding me that even if I haven’t done exactly all the things I had planned to do, I have done many things, and I have learnt from each and every one of them, and that’s what really matters!
These are all the things I haven’t done, and most importantly what I’ve learned from the things I have done.
1. I haven’t participated every week in #MakeoverMonday…
But I have participated 33 consecutive weeks. It has given me the opportunity to analyze data and learn things about a variety of topics that I would otherwise not have got the chance to work on. That includes sports, penguins, James Bond, cricket, happiness, greenhouse emissions, tourism, women’s unpaid work, war, remote working and pizza, just to mention a few. I’ve received plenty of useful and constructive feedback, and the opportunity to learn about everyone else’s visualizations of the same topics. I have also learnt not to get discouraged when something doesn’t go my way, because data visualizations that at first didn’t make any sense, became some of my favorites, just after a few changes.
2. I haven’t participated in every #ProjectHealthViz…
But I have participated in 2 projects, and The Geography of Social Capital in America: Obesity and Other Socioeconomic Factors became my first #VOTD! And thanks to the feedback of @FlerlageKev and @ZenDollData, I learnt so much about parameter actions, highlighters and jitter plots in Tableau.
3. I haven’t participated in every #TheSDGVizProject
But I have visualized the data and had the opportunity to learn about five Sustainable Development Goals: No poverty, zero hunger, good health and well being on maternal mortality, quality education, and gender equality on female managers. I have learnt to choose what to visualize when the subject is very broad and that it is not always necessary to analyze everything. I’ve learnt from the kind feedback of the organizers @VinodhDataArt, @BMooreWasTaken, @jaxx084 and the other participants, and from the fantastic visualizations with which others have contributed to this great project.
4. I have not participated in every #IronQuest…
But my first and only #IronQuest – Quantified self, about my own WhatsApp messages during the COVID lockdown is without a doubt, one of the analysis that I have enjoyed the most, because it includes language detection and text mining using R, and data visualization.
Plus I’ve done a few things that I hadn’t planned…
I’ve participated in 3 #vizforsocialgood amazing projects, Kiron Migration Stories, Academics Without Borders and Bridges to Prosperity in Rwanda. In each of these projects I have learnt new visualization techniques, including data densification to visualize curves, random distribution of points in a circle and long formats. I have also started a Luxembourg Chapter of viz for social good in order to introduce this great project to volunteers and local associations here in Luxembourg.
I have met Fondation Follereau Luxembourg and got to learn about a difficult and previously quite unknown subject to me, the female genial mutilation. A very important issue that affects millions of women around the world, and that is not sufficiently discussed in order to stop it. As a result, I decided to work on this viz about the situation in Mali.
And so much more!
I’ve got the opportunity to share the ideas behind my vizzes in several online events and listened to many trainings, webinars and conferences with speakers from all over the world.
I’ve had the privilege of facilitating a fabulous international team of participants on the #womenindata hackathon, analyzing COVID data.
I have participated in the Tableau mentoring program and met @ProfDrKSchulte, and even if we haven’t worked on all the projects I had planned, it has been a fantastic learning experience.
And last but not least…I started writing this blog after months of hesitation. Of course I don’t write as often as I had initially planned and have plenty of draft posts but…
Just for a change, on my birthday, I decide to focus on all the things I’ve done, and not on the things I planned and didn’t do. Happy Birthday to me!
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