Data Communities
Data Services is an enthusiastic member of our data communities. Some of the community groups we are involved in or support include:
WashU Groups | Local Groups | National and International Groups
Want to keep up-to-date with the latest in Data Services and our Data Communities? Sign up for the Data Digest Email Newsletter to see what’s happening.
WashU Groups
Data Users Group (DUG)
Data Users (formerly the GIS Users Group) come together from various academic backgrounds and skill levels to learn, share, and network around various data-related topics, such as management, using 2D and 3D data, text mining, network analysis, and, of course, GIS. The group meets monthly during the school year and is involved in planning our annual events, GIS Day (November) and Love Data Week (February).
WashU Tableau User Group (WU TUG)
The WashU Tableau User Group (WU TUG) welcomes any member of the WashU community interested in learning about data visualization and Tableau software. Their meetings are not formal training workshops; they come together as a supportive group to show and tell current projects, share helpful tips, and discuss additional data-wrangling resources on campus.
Local Groups
The Missouri Geographic Systems Advisory Council (MGISAC) is a statewide committee formed under Missouri’s Chief Information Officer to foster cooperation between state agencies in geospatial technologies. The group holds monthly meetings, occasional conferences, and trainings to set standards for the production and use of spatial data in the state and advise on the direction of the Missouri Spatial Data Information Service (MSDIS). MSDIS is an important spatial data resource for many WashU students and researchers.
The purpose of R-Ladies St. Louis is to promote gender diversity in the R community through regular meetings and provide support for gender minority R users through conference participation, continuing education, and R package development. The local chapter of R-Ladies holds monthly meetings on various R topics, such as data visualization, data wrangling, and app development.
St. Louis GIS Users Group (SLUG) is a group of GIS professionals across all disciplines in the St. Louis area who meet quarterly to discuss applications of spatial technology and solutions. DS staff attend these meetings and other related events to interact with GIS counterparts and receive training. This organization also links DS staff and organizations from which WashU users frequently request spatial data.
The Women in Geospatial Technology STL group is open to all women in the St. Louis area interested in geospatial technology. This group is for networking, building support, changing the world, and helping each other achieve success.
National and International Groups
The Community Standards for 3D Data Preservation is an international community of 3D data and data curation experts working to ensure that digital 3D data is preservable, sharable, findable, and usable long-term. DS staff are co-leading this effort.
The Data Curation Network is a professional network of data curators, research data librarians, academic library administrators, directors of international data repositories, disciplinary subject experts, and scholars. The Data Curation Network represents academic institutions and non-profit societies that make research data available to the public.
The Research Data Alliance (RDA) was launched in 2013 as a community-driven initiative by the European Commission, the United States Government’s National Science Foundation and National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the Australian Government’s Department of Innovation. Its goal is to build the social and technical infrastructure to enable open sharing and re-use of data.
The Society of Women Geographers is an international data community that supports women who know no boundaries by encouraging research and exploration, providing opportunities to share ideas, and promoting intellectual exchange.