General Information

COBALT, the Collaborative for Bioregional Action Learning & Transformation, is a global group focused on developing pathways for a more just, equitable and regenerative future on our planet in the face of massive social and ecological change. We are closely aligned and separate from SustainaMetrix team that has been conducting collaborative work in coastal communities across the globe for over 20 years including in the Arctic, Europe, Africa, Pacific Island, Caribbean, Latin America and North America.

This purpose of this workshop is to use tools and curriculum from The Carpentries to begin to launch a Bioregional Data Lab for the Casco Bay Bioregion.

The Carpentries project comprises the Software Carpentry, Data Carpentry, and Library Carpentry communities of Instructors, Trainers, Maintainers, helpers, and supporters who share a mission to teach foundational computational and data science skills to researchers.

Want to learn more and stay engaged with The Carpentries? Carpentries Clippings is The Carpentries' biweekly newsletter, where we share community news, community job postings, and more. Sign up to receive future editions and read our full archive: https://carpentries.org/newsletter/

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.

For more information on what we teach and why, please see our paper "Good Enough Practices for Scientific Computing".

This is a pilot workshop, testing out a lesson that is still under development. The lesson authors would appreciate any feedback you can give them about the lesson content and suggestions for how it could be further improved.

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Who: This is a workshop for people who are interested and curious in creating dynamic and useful displays of spatial data for broad audiences as relates to the goals of COBALT. No prior experience with R or GIS is necessary, although some comfort with computers and all of the problems they throw our way will be necessary. You don't need to have any previous knowledge of the tools that will be presented at the workshop.

Where: 314 Forest Ave, Portland, ME 04101. Get directions with OpenStreetMap or Google Maps.

Where: online at 314 Forest Ave, Portland, ME 04101. The Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education (OML) is located on the Portland campus of the University of Southern Maine. It occupies the three-story building at the corner of Forest Avenue and Bedford Street (314 Forest Avenue; Portland, ME 04101); it is attached, on the first floor, to the seven-story Albert Brenner Glickman Family Library. The public entrances — to the reading room, the gallery, and the Cohen Education Center — are all off the arcade that runs across the front of both library buildings.For those driving here are the directions including guidance on visitor parking.

When: January 10-12 2024. Add to your Google Calendar.

Requirements: Participants must bring a laptop 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 committed to making this workshop accessible to everybody. For workshops at a physical location, the workshop organizers have checked that:

• The room is wheelchair / scooter accessible.
• Accessible restrooms are available.

Materials will be provided in advance of the workshop and large-print handouts are available if needed by notifying the organizers in advance. If we can help making learning easier for you (e.g. sign-language interpreters, lactation facilities) please get in touch (using contact details below) and we will attempt to provide them.

Contact: Please email jarrett.byrnes@umb.edu or gpage@sustainametrix.com for more information.

Roles: To learn more about the roles at the workshop (who will be doing what), refer to our Workshop FAQ.

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Code of Conduct

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.

Report a Code of Conduct Incident

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Collaborative Notes

We will use this collaborative document for chatting, taking notes, and sharing URLs and bits of code. We will also use this collaborative markdown editor for some additional code snippets.

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Schedule

There will be regular breaks between lessons to give you time to absorb the information and let your brains re-align.

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Setup

To participate in a Data Carpentry workshop, you will need access to software and data that are listed here. In addition, you will need an up-to-date web browser.

We maintain a list of common issues that occur during installation as a reference for instructors that may be useful on the Configuration Problems and Solutions wiki page.

The setup instructions for this COBALT/Data Carpentry Geospatial workshop can be found at the workshop overview site.