Thank you for listening and please keep in touch!
Presented during FOSS4G SoTM Oceania, November 21, 2018.
@hannahdormido | [email protected]
Here is the video of the presentation:
I am Hannah, and I see myself as a full-time journalist, part-time mermaid, and a QGIS sorceress in training. I am a journalist by training and profession, but learned mapping using QGIS as I specialized on data visualization.
Why am I a sorceress in training?
Sorceress: Because when I first encountered QGIS and all that came with it, I asked myself “what kind of sorcery is this?”
In training: Because every single time I feel like I’ve mastered QGIS, something new comes along, or someone else does something cool that of course I want to learn how to do. So never a master, always in training! Don’t you fret, it is a good thing!
This was me doing a freelance gig a while back—way before my GIS days. Those were the days when I had no clue what a shapefile was, or what a kml was for.
2. I followed GIS people on social media and joined groups. Even though I am based in Hong Kong. QGIS Australia has kindly adopted me into their community. You can find us on Twitter and check out the website. You can also join The Spatial Community on Slack. There is a channel for #QGIS, among other spatial-related topics.
3. I read a lot of blogs, like Anita Graser’s Free and Open Source GIS Ramblings. I also bought and read books on QGIS, mapping and data visualization.
Choking on Our Harvest
(Can’t take all the credit for these three gorgeous maps, I had design help from my colleague Adrian Leung in Hong Kong).
If you are someone who wants to learn more about QGIS but don’t know where or how to start, please feel free to message me. I would be more than happy to share what I know, and help however I can. QGIS and mapping might appear intimidating at first, but you are not alone in learning—there’s a huge QGIS and open source GIS community that have your back: all you have to do is reach out!
Thanks,
Hannah
@hannahdormido
[email protected]
Data Journalism PH is still underway — and for week three of our remote skill share session, Nika Aleksejeva introduces us to Infogr.am, a fun and powerful web-based data visualisation tool. That is quite a combination! Another plus is, you can sign up for free.
Nika did not stop at showing us what Infogr.am can do, but discussed with the participants the do’s and don’ts of dataviz.
My favourite takeaway? The reminder to keep it simple. This is the dataviz version of news writing’s keep it brief and concise. Chart junk is my weakness, but I’ve been more conscious about this, thanks to reading the Strunk and White of dataviz aka Edward Tufte’s The Visual Display of Quantitative Information.
Simplicity is the way to go. #datajourn15ph #infogram @infogram pic.twitter.com/STrXjveX9C
— Hannah Dormido (@hannahdormido) August 28, 2015
Nika’s presentation drove the point ‘less is more’ home. The impulse is to include everything and anything, but instead of telling a story, you might end up just confusing your readers.
“Less is always more.” #datajourn15ph #ddj #infogram @infogram pic.twitter.com/VsBd3TuKi5 — Hannah Dormido (@hannahdormido) August 28, 2015
After the skill share, it was hands-on time. I always feel so giddy about the hands-on part I feel like a child in a sweetshop. Here are my first couple of charts, but this is a work in progress!
I’m playing around with Infogr.am and trying to figure out how to customise the increments (if I can). Ideally, I’d like to keep them between 4-8 (this is my FT persona talking) so it would be simpler.
Here is the remote session recording if you’re interested to learn more.
If you want more dataviz discussion and tips, Data Journalism PH has a resource page where all our skill shares are accessible.
Hx
I know this might sound very amateur-ish, but this is my first treble-column frontpage graphic for the Fund Management section – so this is an achievement for little newbie me.
