Lab Session for Learning Data Science as a Lawyer or Other Non-Techie
I've long wanted to do a hands-on introduction to data and compute for lawyers and other non-techies. An invitation to be a guest lecturer in Tanina Rostein's Iron Tech Lawyer class at Georgetown Law School has provided the chance.
This repo contains notes for a roughly 2 hour, interactive, hands-on introduction to data and compute from the perspective of a developer/data scientist.
It does not matter if you have never programmed or used the command line. Only basic omputer skills are required.
This session is an introduction designed to give non-techies "Aha!" moments with data and the cloud. It bravely uses the command line. Basic command line skills empowers you to take full advantage of virtualized computing assets.
Watching a video of downhill skiing doesn't give you the excitement of the flying down a mountain. Reading about Skype does not communicate the power of a free video call with an old friend overseas.
Open data, big data, and the cloud (virtualized compute and storage) is effecting everything we do. Reading about these trends is easy, but they also seem too technical and complicated for a "non-technie" to do directly. Sadly, that leaves many executives, managers, policy makers, and researchers without those "Aha!" moment for data and the cloud that they have had for the web, social media, and smartphones.
If you subconciously think data and cloud computing is highly technical and compliated -- you'll subconsiously act that way, too. You will treat data and cloud computing as rarities; expensive and precious reources instead of increasingly cheap commodities designed for daily, disposable use. You will turn critical decisions and actions over to expensive experts instead of empowering yourself and your staff to experiment, learn, fail, and finally innovate value-added product and services from these cheap, powerful utilities.
The goal of this lab is to create a viceral experience that data and cloud compute are as accessible to you as the supermarket.
The session is designed to be instructor led to answer questions and explain things.
You can try the material on your own. It is not very step-by-step, however. Get set with the checklist.md. Then jump back and forth between outline.md and snippets.md and you will probably learn something. Tell me how it goes.
The brain has evolved to find and digest patterns from a complicated, busy world. You need to feed it those patterns repeatedly to develop a new skill. You can't learn to tie your shoes only by watching someone else do it. You've got to practice with your own hands.
In other words, TYPE THE EXAMPLES. What first seems bizare soon becomes recognizable patterns, understanding and muscle memory. Eventually, the commands are as second nature tying your shoes.
Typing is control, too. This lab introduces essential key strokes that will make you super powerful and save you time.
It's frustrating finding and correcting errors in long, complicated commands. When this arrises, combine typing with copy and paste. Copy and paste the long command into a plain text editor. Then on a new line right below, type the command character by character. Do this one or more times to grok the command. Then copy and paste what you typed into the command line to avoid typos.
Get your computer ready for the lab with checklist.md.
Print yourself out a handy reference with commandline-cheatsheet.md.
The data files you need are listed in urls.md.
My notes for teaching the lab are in outline.md.
Command line steps are captured in snippets.md.
Please use the repo's issues and for feedback and questions.
I started up the Sunlight Labs and was the first Chief Data Officer at the Federal Communications Commission. I speak on this stuff all the time. Contact me at gregelin@gitmachines.com to arrange for an awesome, inspiring group training with your staff on data science and cloud computing.