Data & GIS Specialist
More Resources
More Data Sources and Repositories
More Training Resources for working with data
More Free Software available to students
See Office Hours and Student Peer Assistants available to help out
Resources for Data Journalism
Journalism in the Age of Data from Geoff McGhee on Vimeo.
The Data Journalism Handbook
A collaborative, free e-book introducing data journalism including case studies, and tips to find, understand and communicate data.
Data Driven Jornalism
A hub for news and resources from the community of journalists, editors, designers and developers who use data in the service of journalism. On our site you’ll be able to:The website is part of the European Journalism Centre’s Data Driven Journalism initiative.
Doing Journalism with Data
ProPublica Data Store
A small but growing collection of datasets made available from Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and other ProPublica reporting efforts.
Data & Visualization Tools
Data Cleaning & Transformation
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Data WranglerPowerful tool to transform spreadsheet data into relational format.
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Open RefineOpenRefine is a powerful tool for cleaning, transforming, and combining with messy data. Free download and installation. Great for combining csv, json, rdf or linked dataset formats.
Data Visualization & Dashboards
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TableauTableau can be used to create and share interactive data dashboards. Tableau Public is a free desktop, or web-based tool.
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Google Looker StudioCreate and share interactive visualizations and dashboards online with this free, easy and flexible tool from Google.
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Microsoft Power BIPower BI is a data dashboarding tool by Microsoft, that enables users to create and share interactive dashboards. This tool works as either a web-based tool, or downloadable desktop application.
Charts & Plotting Tools
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DatawrapperA free web-based tool to create visualizations from tabular datasets. A free account can be created to save hi-resolution images, a link or embeddable iframe code to connect to your visualization online.
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Plotly Chart StudioPlotly Chart Maker is a free, web-based tool to create charts using D3 and WebGL, with no coding required. A free account can be created to use the plotly chart maker online.
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Raw GraphsA free web-based data visualization tool. Raw graphs is useful for creating visuals in vector format (svg graphics), which can be further edited using tools like Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape.
Yet More Visualization Tools
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Timeline JSTimelineJS is an open-source tool that enables you to build visually-rich interactive timelines
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Flourish Data VisualizationA free, web-based tool to build data visualizations. This tools provides easy to use templates for creating interactive graphics from spreadsheet or tabular datasets.
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GephiGephi is free open-source desktop software used to visualize network datasets.
Web Mapping Tools
ArcGIS Online
A powerful web-based GIS platform for mapping and spatial analysis. Learn more about GIS and mapping resources at Cal Poly
Intro to Web Mapping
Infographic Tools
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infogr.amIllustrate your data with easy-to-use infographic templates including over 30 types of chars, maps and layout tools.
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ChartsBinWeb-based data visualization tool that will allow everyone to quickly and easily create rich interactive maps with their own data.
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Timeline JSTimelineJS is an open-source tool that enables you to build visually-rich interactive timelines
Data Hubs and Marketplaces
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DatahubDatahub provides a way to search for open datasets. DataHub began as a project by Datopian and Open Knowledge International
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Data at visualizing.orgA collection of datasets highlighted by the site visualizing data
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Center for Data InnovationA collection of datasets highlighted in the Center for Data Innovation blog
General Purpose Data Sources
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Statista This link opens in a new windowStatista is a statistics portal which provides direct access to quantitative data on media, business, finance, politics, and a wide variety of other areas of interest or markets. The database features unlimited downloads, source citations and direct use or export of results in PowerPoint, Excel PDF and Graphic (PNG) formats.
Users may need to disable ad blocking software on this site if search results links don't work. -
Social Explorer This link opens in a new window Social Explorer provides access to the entire US Census data from 1790 to 2010, the entire American Community Survey (ACS) from 2005 to 2011 and more data from a number of sources. Users can create maps and use data visualization tools and reports to illustrate, analyze, and understand demography and social change. Users can also graph and chart data, export, save, and print maps and reports, and create multi-map presentations with an interactive slideshow tool.
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State Statistics (formerly RAND California) This link opens in a new window RAND California provides information, research reports and statistics on the California economy and public policy issues, as well as access to selected policy reports, statistics, and information at the national and international scale.
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Google Dataset SearchSearch for data sources with Google's custom dataset search.
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Data.govA comprehensive index of datasets from the US government, including other state, local, and international agencies.
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Google Public Data ViewerVisualize, explore and share public datasets using the Google Public Data interface.
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World Bank Open DataNational and international statistical datasets on development indicators across many topics and sectors.
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QuandlQuandl provides a subset of free-to-access time-series datasets in areas of finance, economics, government, demography, sociology, energy and the environment. A free account is required to explore the datasets. API access also available under the free tier.
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The Guardian Data StoreAccess datasets used by the UK publisher in areas of government, education, population, and culture. (scroll to mid-page to see data links)
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Flowing Data BlogBlog postings on additional data sources from across the web.
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KaggleKaggle is the place to do data science projects.
