It's been a long while since the last meet up and I'm glad to announce there'll be an event at 7.30pm on Tuesday 27th November at The Skiff, Brighton.

Your host, Peter Cook, will review the latest and greatest in the data visualisation world over the past year, including looks at new tools and interesting visualisations that have been published in 2018.

There'll also be a show and tell section where members will have the chance to talk about anything data visualisation related, be it a visualisation/tool you've seen, made or would like to make, or anything else.

Photo: Christmas at Grandma's by Mark Turner.

Tiziana Alocci is a data/information designer who studied at the renowned DensityDesign lab and currently works for Beyond Words Studio in London. Likewise Piero Zagami is a data/information designer who's worked with agencies such as Information is Beautiful.

Their passion for data visualisation has led them to start an independent print magazine Market Cafe Magazine which aims to bring in-depth articles and interviews with data visualisation practioners/academics such as Valentina D'Efilippo & Density Design's Paolo Ciuccarelli.

In this evening's event Tiziana and Piero will tell us more about the magazine, why they started it, the story of the magazine to date. They'll also (hopefully!) share some of the insights they've gathered from interviewing some of the leading data visualisation designers.

The third issue of the magazine is due to be launched the day before so this'll be one of the first opportunities to grab yourself a copy!

This is our last meetup of 2017 so it'll be a chance for us to look back on the year and share our thoughts/work/ideas/tools/news etc.

If you've been involved with data visualisation this year, we'd love to hear more about it. For example, you might've been learning how to use Tableau or how to code in Python/R/D3.

You might've come across an amazing data visualisation that you'd like to share - or one that does a terrible job!

Have you any thoughts on where the industry is going, are there any new tools you've found useful, are there any you'd like to see?

Likewise, if you'd just like to come along, have a mince pie and listen in, you're most welcome to come!

Talks/demos can range between 1 minute and 15 minutes.

Maps are probably the most used visualisation day-to-day but as philosopher Alfred Korzybski said: "the map is not the territory". In other words, a picture of a thing is not the thing. It is a simplified model of the world that we use as a tool.

Moreover there is another layer of simplification beneath it: the data.

OpenStreetMap is the free and open map of the world. It is also the queen of open data as it gives us the opportunity to experience how map makers model and visualise the world.

This workshop by Jez Nicholson is a practical introduction to collecting, modelling and mapping.

There will be:

• some slides

• some map making

• some discussion &

• maybe a quiz

There'll also be some hands-on work so bring a laptop or share with a neighbour.

As part of this year's Brighton Digital Festival, Data Visualisation Brighton is delighted to present Valentina D'Efilippo, author of The Infographic History of the World and more recently the designer behind OddityViz (a visual deconstruction of David Bowie's Space Oddity).

Valentina is a London based, award winning information designer whose work spans print, digital, exhibitions and theatre. She'll be joining us for the evening to talk about her creative processes when working with data and will discuss her recent projects such as OddityViz and Poppy Field.

As well as awards at the Information is Beautiful Awards and Malofiej22 Valentina's work has been featured in Wired magazine, BBC, The Guardian and .Net magazine.

This is a special event as part of Brighton Digital Festival and is sure to be a highlight of Data Visualisation Brighton's year.

Tableau Public is a free desktop app (Windows/Mac) for creating and sharing data visualisations and July's Meetup will be our second opportunity for us to collaborate and learn more about it.

(Some of the visualisations made by our group last time we explored Tableau include: bicycle daily flow, election share of the vote, vegetation health and Brighton & Hove city council payments.)

It doesn't matter if you've never used Tableau before as we'll be meeting to explore together. Likewise if you're experienced with Tableau do come along as it'll be an opportunity for you to show off your Tableau skills!

We'll also have one of last month's speakers data/information designer Caroline Beavon helping out. Caroline has used Tableau Public for some of her client projects and you can see some of her work in her gallery.

This month we have two exciting Brighton-based data/information designers talking about their work and processes. It promises to be a fascinating evening where we'll get an in depth look into how an information designer works!

To start the evening we have Giulia De Amicis who's had work published in Wired magazine and Italian newspaper La Lettura. Giulia has a particular interest in applying information design to environmental and humanitarian issues and has worked with the Marine Megafauna Foundation. She's also just published her first infographic book for National Geographic Kids.

Her work combines the presentation of complex information with a strong sense of style. Giulia will talk us though some of her past projects, explaining the process she takes from data to published article.

Giulia will be followed by Caroline Beavon who specialises in infographics design and data visualisation (she's equally at home in Illustrator and Tableau) and has produced work for the likes of Oxfam, Alzeimer's Society, University of Oxford and UCL. Her background in journalism means that she focuses on communicating a strong message through the visual form.

Caroline will be talking though some of her projects, her design process and how she works with clients to help them untangle the world of data visualisations and infographics.

Tableau Public is a free desktop app (Windows/Mac) for creating and sharing data visualisations and April's Meetup will be an opportunity for us to collaborate and learn more about it.

You can see some of the visualisations made by Tableau Public at its gallery.

It doesn't matter if you've never used Tableau before as we'll be meeting to explore together. Likewise if you're experienced with Tableau do come along as it'll be an opportunity for you to show off your Tableau skills!

For maximum benefit please bring a laptop with Tableau Public installed (go to http://public.tableau.com for a download link).

This event is independent, collaborative and open.

This month we're having an informal meet-up where we'll discuss anything related to data visualisation.

A the beginning of the session we'll write down anything we'd like to discuss on post-it notes and we'll vote on which to talk about.

Some ideas to get started:

I've some data and am having trouble deciding how to visualise it

I'd like to share an interesting data visualisation

I'd like to learn D3/R/Tableau, what's the best way?

Hope to see you there!

Our first event of 2017 will see local developer Berl Steiner present an innovative data visualisation tool which he’s planning to release soon. While most data visualisations are two dimensional there haven’t been so many cases of using 3 dimensions to effectively enhance visualisation.

Berl has developed a compelling web application called 3D Data Explorer which can visualise a generic data set (such as a CSV file output by Excel) using 3 dimensions.

3D Data Explorer also has a number of operations which allow the dataset to be explored and I’ve seen myself that insights can be found that may otherwise have been missed.

Apart from the usefulness of the application, it also looks fantastic!

This’ll be the first time 3D Data Explorer has been demonstrated in public so If you’d like to be the first to see this innovative data visualisation tool do come along.

This month we're excited to have local designer/developer/artist Mike Brondbjerg of Kultur Design coming to talk about data driven generative systems.

Mike's work ranges from analytical information design & data visualisations through to data illustration, animated data visualisation, and generative/data art & design.

In this meet up he'll talk us through some of the techniques he uses to create illustration, motion graphics and generative logo systems.

For anyone interested in the more artistic and conceptual side of data visualisation this is an evening not to be missed!

This month we'll be holding a show and tell session where members will have the opportunity to show off their work.

So far we'll have short talks on:

• interactive data visualisation

• data art

• a brand new data visualisation book

For this month's session we're lucky to have local graphic designer and illustrator Clare Plumley (@interpl8) facilitate a session related to her sensory data work.

Clare has recently been exploring the more intangible forms of data such as our emotions and has been looking at ways of conveying them in print and other media.

We'll start by looking at some of the pieces Clare is working on then in small groups explore different approaches to visualising her data.

No previous experience is required, just an enquiring mind and an interest in data, visualisation and/or visual art. We'll be working mainly with pen and paper, so no need to bring a laptop. (But do feel free to bring one to look up ideas etc.!)

See some of Clare's work at Behance.

We hope to see many of you there!

This month we're having an informal meet-up where we can discuss anything related to data visualisation.

A the beginning of the session we'll write down anything we'd like to discuss on post-it notes and then we'll vote on which we'd like to talk about. (Thanks to alt.net Brighton for this format!)

Some ideas to get us started:

I've some data and am having trouble deciding how to visualise it

I saw this amazing/terrible data visualisation the other day...

I'm looking for a tool to...

I'd like to learn D3/R/Tableau, what's the best way?

etc.

Hope to see you there!

This month we'll be looking at data supplied by Brighton based Jez Nicholson who runs openplaques.org, a database of commemorative plaques round the world. Started in 2009, the database consists of over 35,000 records and documents historical links between people and places.

The aim of the session will be to look at different ways of visualising the data. We'll start by establishing what we'd like to find out from the data. (For example, we might want to know which historical figures have most plaques dedicated to them.) We'll then explore ways to visualise the data in such a way to answer our questions.

We'll work collaboratively and at times might split into smaller groups. Paper and pens will be provided for sketching out ideas (do feel free to bring your own) and this will be an interactive session. No laptops required.

No prior experience of data visualisation is required or expected: just come with an enquiring mind!

This month we're having an informal meet-up where we can discuss anything related to data visualisation.

A the beginning of the session we'll write down anything we'd like to discuss on post-it notes and then we'll vote on which we'd like to talk about. (Thanks to alt.net Brighton for this format!)

Some ideas to get us started:

I've some data and am having trouble deciding how to visualise it

I saw this amazing/terrible data visualisation the other day...

I'm looking for a tool to...

I'd like to learn D3/R/Tableau, what's the best way?

etc.

Hope to see you there!

This evening will be a chance to get together with others interested in data visualisation and we'll:

• look at, discuss and critique data visualisation found in print or on the web

• look for interesting datasets and discuss how they can be visualised

• explore data visualisation tools such as Raw, Tableau & CartoDB

• explore coding approaches such as D3

Depending on who turns up we'll decide which of the above to focus on.

The hope of these sessions is that we can meet and accompany each other on our data visualisation travels.

Looking forward to seeing you!

This month we've got something slightly different but very exciting to offer.

Dimitri Denisjonok will be running an introductory data science workshop. He'll be taken us through an example of a Naive Bayesian Classifier which can be used to classify text into categories, for example email into spam/non-spam or tweets into relevant/not-relevant.

In order to explain the underlying concepts, he'll be using Excel to implement the classifier and you're invited to bring a laptop with Excel or an open source equivalent (such as OpenOffice) so that you can follow along.

This is an ideal opportunity to dip your toes into data science so do come along if you're at all interested.

The next few sessions will be an opportunity to bring your laptop (or even pen and paper), some questions, possibly some data and to start designing and building a data visualisation.

No matter what stage you're at, whether you've never worked with data before, you've never coded before or you're a D3 ninja, do come along.

The hope is that we can help each other in our data visualisation journeys.

Hope to see many of you there.

The next few sessions will be an opportunity to bring your laptop (or even pen and paper), some questions, possibly some data and to start designing and building a data visualisation.

No matter what stage you're at, whether you've never worked with data before, you've never coded before or you're a D3 ninja, do come along.

The hope is that we can help each other in our data visualisation journeys.

Hope to see many of you there.

The next few sessions will be an opportunity to bring your laptop (or even pen and paper), some questions, possibly some data and to start designing and building a data visualisation.

No matter what stage you're at, whether you've never worked with data before, you've never coded before or you're a D3 ninja, do come along.

The hope is that we can help each other in our data visualisation journeys.

Hope to see many of you there.

Tonight's meetup will be an opportunity to look at and discuss examples of data visualisation. As we found out in July's meetup this is a really useful exercise in learning about data visualisation design.

I'll bring a list of data visualisations for us to look at but if you have any suggestions please bring them along. If you're also happy to stand up and talk a little bit about the piece, that would be fantastic.

Likewise, if you've made a data visualisation and would like to show it off, please bring it along too.

Hope to see you there!

It's safe to say that the recent advances in web browser technology has resulted in a wave of interactive and innovative data visualisations – just look at what the New York Times has been up to recently.

Peter Cook, freelance data visualisation designer and builder (and organiser of this Meetup) will give an overview of browser-based tools and technologies now available for creating browser-based data visualisations.

He'll cover the technologies found in modern browsers such as Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) and the Canvas element, online authoring tools such as Raw and JavaScript libraries such as D3.

If you're at all interested in peaking under the hood of web-based data visualisations then this is the talk for you!

This will be an informal workshop for learning and sharing knowledge related to data visualisation. It'll be a chance to do any of the following:

• share knowledge

• explore data visualisation tools

• work on your own project

• get technical help

• explore existing data visualisations

• blog about data visualisation

• design a visualisation, be it in code or on paper

There are no pre-requsites except an interest in data visualisation. If you're new to data visualisation and don't know where to start or you're just interested then this'll be a good evening to come along. Likewise if you're a seasoned D3 developer with a desire to share your knowledge!

I'll also bring along some resources such as links to useful tools as well as some books for inspiration.

Data artist Stefanie Posavec will talk about her unique approach to visualising data. Eschewing the usual tools used for data visualisation she has evolved a unique approach which is both immersive and beautiful.

Stefanie’s work includes hand-crafted visualisations of Jack Kerouac’s On The Road (Writing Without Words) and has been featured in Wired UK and Information is Beautiful. Her work has also been exhibited at Somerset House, the V&A, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

This evening is part of the Brighton Digital Festival.

This meeting will be more informal than the previous ones and it'll be a good chance for us to get to know each other better.

At the beginning we'll collate a list of topics to discuss and we'll do our best to cover each of them.

Ideas include:

• what is data visualisation best practice and how can I learn about it?

• what are the best tools for data visualisation?

• I'm working on a visualisation but feel stuck

• is there anyone who can help me with my data?

• could we organise a workshop/hack-night/etc.?

• I've seen/made a data visualisation and would like to hear some opinions on it

So if you have anything data visualisation related that you'd like to discuss please come along. Likewise if you're just interested in the subject please do come along.

There's a huge number of tools for creating data visualisations, ranging from Excel & Tableau, to programming environments such as Processing, R, Python and JavaScript, through to interactive environments such as NodeBox and it's not always easy to select the right one for the job.

Therefore we'll give an overview of these toolsets with members of the community talking about their tools of choice. We will also start looking at the processes for transforming data into a visualisation.

(If anyone has a particular expertise in any of the mentioned tools/environments and would like to give an overview lasting 10-15 minutes then please get in touch.)