Data Wrangling with OpenRefine and Other Tools

OpenRefine is rad but also slow and buggy. I like it for some uses but most of the time, even with reporters, I like to invest the time teaching some command line basics and using csvkit. A nice case in point was last time I gave a data cleaning workshop I worked with a USA Today guy and we struggled mightily to get his data processed with OpenRefine, which kept crashing. Then I showed him csvkit's tools. He was rocking and rolling in under an hour and used the data in a story!

During this talk you'll learn how to use OpenRefine, it's limitations, and how to use other tools like csvkit to wrangle your data when OpenRefine falls down.

About David Eads

David Eads builds news applications for NPR Visuals. Until recently, he built news apps for the Chicago Tribune. He speaks and teaches about technology, organizes a community data journalism workshop, developed the Tarbell publishing platform, and helped start FreeGeek Chicago.

His work connects journalism, data, and social issues. He builds and teaches simple, direct solutions that help journalists effectively tell their stories on the web. He contributes to and organizes projects that strive for democracy, diversity, and sustainability.