The data expedition toolkit of Ecole des données is a set of documents that helps making the organisation and facilitation of data expeditions much easier. It was born as a desire to streamline the process to set up new data expeditions and allows anyone to be able to pick up the job, were the usual organisers not available. The toolkit is a living document, and will evolve along the way, following the changes in the way we organise data expeditions. Comments and suggestions of improvements are very welcomed. All the documents are shared under CC-BY-SA
The list of document contained in the toolkit is as follows:
Cheat Sheet: In 25 questions and some additional notes, this document makes sure that you remember the essential steps to making your data expedition a sucess. For events where there is little logistics involved, this two-page document - that can printed into a two-sided sheet - is enough to support the organisers, experienced and new ones alike.
Organisation: This spreadsheet serves as a control base for the planning of the data expedition. Everything is in there, split into tabs, from an overview of all the tasks to the attendees listing. Feel free to tweak it to your needs.
Group report template: Rather than having to sum up yourself everything that the attendees have done during your event, this template allows participants to write it down themselves. Less writing, easier sharing.
Skill Sheet: This document is a tweak of the original skill sheet proposed by School of Data (http://schoolofdata.org/data-expeditions/guide-for-guides/). The modifications are explained by the cultural differences and the experience gathered by Ecole des données. It is shared as a display of how we adapted the original formula rather than a template to use as is. Feel free to tweak it using the Adobe Illustrator document included to fit your needs.
Profile of attendees: What is the average level of participants for all skills? What This spreadsheet answers this question and more. It can be used to track some statistics about your data expeditions over time, and to produces graphs like this one: http://bit.ly/dataexp_attendees_graph. The end goal of this tool is to feed a database where the data will be combined with other data we have about the participants (job..) and the events themselves to create performance indicators.
Survey of attendees: Gathering feedback is essential to improve, and this survey serves this purpose. It is short on purpose, allowing the participants to fill it quickly at the end of the event if possible, or in a few minutes at home.
Internal Report: What went well and not so well this time? This simple document helps as a reminder that writing down an internal report is as important as writing a public one.