Today marks the first day of a week-long celebration called
#BlackinDataWeek. Its aim is to amplify Black voices in #informatics, #datascience, and #coding around the world. The goals are to:
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Providing community and a support system for Black people in data across the Black diaspora.
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Encouraging growth in our professional and academic learning paths.
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Elevating the voices and experiences of Black people working in data fields.
Read on to find out more about what events are planned, and how you can engage with
#BlackinDataWeek.
Events
| date | hashtag | purpose |
|---|---|---|
| 2020-11-16 | Giving Black people in data a space to introduce themselves and their work. Introducing and valuing intersecting parts of their identities. We welcome contributions from a wide spectrum of Data Fields including but not limited to Informatics, Technology, Data Science, Coding, Social Science and Data Analytics. | |
| 2020-11-17 | Further fostering community for Black people in data, by encouraging them to share their varied journeys in data. | |
| 2020-11-18 | Discussing the skills Black people in data have learned, communal sharing of resources and advice for skills development. | |
| 2020-11-19 | Creating space for Black people in data to share their work in the form of favourite data visualisation images. | |
| 2020-11-20 | Hosting forums for learning and discussion of bias in the data field (and possible paths to address biases in data). | |
| 2020-11-21 | Join us for career development and mentorship events! |
How to engage in #BlackInDataWeek
Day 1, Monday: #BlackInDataRollCall
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If you identify as Black, join in the roll call today by introducing yourself and sharing what you do in data. Include the hashtag
#BlackInDataRollCalland tag@BlkInData. -
If you do not, use today to amplify the voices in the
#BlackInDataRollCallhashtag by following and retweeting! -
If you haven’t already, follow the
@WeAreRLadiesrotating curator account. This week, Markia Smith will take over (Nov 16-20th) and Damilola Alex will be taking over next week (Nov 23-27). -
You can also follow the
@miR_communityaccount. MiR is a community for underrepresented minority users of R, founded by Dorris Scott and Danielle Smalls-Perkins.
Day 2, Tuesday: #BlackInDataJourney
There are three events on this day, check them out
here. Note that there will not be a
#TidyTuesday this week in order to create space and engage with the #BlackInDataViz hashtag on Twitter.
Day 3, Wednesday: #BlackInDataSkills
A great day filled with learning-oriented events, and don’t miss the 1-hour Introduction to R with Dr. A Nayena Blankson.
If you want to dive deeper into the tidyverse, the MiR Community recently hosted an hour-long introduction to the dplyr package by Daryn Ramsden. You can view the webinar on YouTube, and view his slides here ( source files here).
Day 4, Thursday: #BlackInDataViz
Again, several great events and talks, as well as a Black In Data Visualisation Challenge. The challenge, presented in collaboration with the Data Visualization Society, will “highlight data that shows Black people in a positive light.”
Day 5, Friday: #BlackInDataJustice
Webinars feature timely topics around algorithmic fairness and bias. The
last event is a live viewing/tweeting of
#CodedBias in honour of #BlackinDataJustice hosted by Anna Gifty,
@itsafronomics, a researcher interested in data bias and algorithmic fairness.
You can access the screening here: https://www.saltlakefilmsociety.org/comingsoon/coded-bias
(Note: tickets are not free, but you can follow along with the live tweeting without watching.)
Day 6, Saturday: #BlackInDataMentorship
The final day is all about careers and mentorship. Read more about the events here.
To sign up for events, click
here! To learn more about
#BlackInDataWeek, please see
their website,
twitter account, and follow along via the
#BlackInDataWeek hashtag.