Helpers:
Suvayu Ali, Candace Moore, Dafne van Kuppevelt
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General Information
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.
The course is aimed at PhD candidates and other researchers affiliated with Dutch research institutions.
There are no pre-requisites, and the materials assume no prior knowledge about the tools.
Where: This training will take place online.
The instructors will provide you with the information you will need to connect to this meeting.
When:
May 30 - June 02, 2022, 9:00 - 13:00 CEST.
Requirements:
Participants must have access to a computer 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).
Accessibility:
We are dedicated to providing a positive and accessible learning environment for all. Please
notify the instructors in advance of the workshop if you require any accommodations or if there is
anything we can do to make this workshop more accessible to you.
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.
To participate in
a Data Carpentry
workshop,
you will need access to software as described below.
In addition, you will need an up-to-date web browser.
If you haven't used Zoom before, go to the
official website
to download and install the Zoom client for your computer.
Set up your workspace
Like other Carpentries workshops,
you will be learning by "coding along" with the Instructors.
To do this, you will need to have both the window for the tool
you will be learning about (a terminal, RStudio, your web browser, etc..)
and the window for the Zoom video conference client open.
In order to see both at once,
we recommend using one of the following set up options:
Two monitors: If you have two monitors,
plan to have the tool you are learing up on one monitor and
the video conferencing software on the other.
Two devices: If you don't have two monitors,
do you have another device (tablet, smartphone) with a medium to large
sized screen? If so, try using the smaller device as your video
conference connection and your larger device (laptop or desktop)
to follow along with the tool you will be learning about.
Divide your screen: If you only have one device
and one screen, practice having two windows
(the video conference program and one of the tools you will be using
at the workshop) open together.
How can you best fit both on your screen?
Will it work better for you to toggle between them
using a keyboard shortcut?
Try it out in advance to decide what will work best for you.
This blog post includes detailed information on how to set up your screen to follow along during the workshop.
Data
This workshop uses a tabular interview dataset from the SAFI Teaching Database and teaches data cleaning, management, analysis and visualization. We use a single dataset throughout the workshop to model the data management and analysis workflow that a researcher would use.
Clicking the this link will automatically download all of the files to your default download directory as a single compressed
(.zip) file. To expand this file, double click the folder icon in your file navigator application (for Macs, this is the Finder
application).
Spreadsheet program
To interact with spreadsheets, we can use LibreOffice, Microsoft Excel, Gnumeric, OpenOffice.org, or other programs.
Commands may differ a bit between programs, but the general ideas for thinking about spreadsheets are the same. For this workshop,
we recommend using either Microsoft Excel (paid software) or LibreOffice (free and open source). Other spreadsheet programs may
not have all of the features we will be exploring in this workshop.
To install LibreOffice, go to their download page. The website should
automatically select the correct option for your operating system. Click the “Download” button. You will go to a page that asks about a
donation, but you don’t need to make one. Your download should begin automatically. Once the installer is downloaded, double click on it (you may need to open your Downloads folder) and LibreOffice should install.
OpenRefine
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.
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., 3.9 is fine).
We will teach Python using Jupyter Lab,
a programming environment that runs in a web browser (Jupyter Lab will be installed by Anaconda). 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 Anaconda for Windows installer with Python 3. (If you are not sure which version to choose, you probably want the 64-bit Graphical Installer Anaconda3-...-Windows-x86_64.exe)
Install Python 3 by running the Anaconda Installer, using all of the defaults for installation except make sure to check Add Anaconda to my PATH environment variable.
Download the Anaconda Installer with Python 3 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 and navigate to the directory where
the executable is downloaded (e.g., `cd ~/Downloads`).
Type
bash Anaconda3-
and then press
Tab to autocomplete the full file name. The name of
file you just downloaded should appear.
Press Enter
(or Return depending on your keyboard).
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 (or Return)
to approve the default location
for the files.
Type yes and press
Enter (or Return)
to prepend Anaconda to your PATH
(this makes the Anaconda distribution the default Python).
Close the terminal window.
To install the packages we’ll be using in the workshop, type the following in an Anaconda
terminal: