My new blog

Over the last few years, I have been increasingly interested in how we can get people coding. I don’t mean advanced coding as a discipline in itself, but using coding to help in everyday life, in the same way as we would use a word-processor or a calculator.

One of the difficulties has always been the high ‘barrier to entry’ of installing the correct software and learning the basics, which must be done before the beginner can see how coding can be used in interesting ways.

Whilst testing Filament, Euan Wielewski and I have seen how easy the platform makes it to quickly set up analyses and produce interesting visualisations. This has also been my first foray into using Python, which has impressive tools for reading and handling data. I have therefore decided to start a blog showing how some simple Python scripts can be used to help understand interesting data.

My aim is to post, about once a fortnight, a short piece showing an analysis of a topical subject. I am not aiming to replicate the work of experts on these subjects, but to give inspiration to others to get coding and see what you can discover. I hope you enjoy, and, of course, all comments are welcome!