R for Rob

Who are you?

I’m Rob Grant, 30, Open Data Lead at the Office for National Statistics.

My job at ONS is to build a tool called Customise My Data, which will give users much more control over how they consume ONS data. You can read more about it here. My job involves raising awareness of the new tool throughout ONS, making data fit for entry into the system (often using R) and conceiving of new ideas for how to take it forward.

Before my current job I worked at Reach PLC (formerly Trinity Mirror) for five years, using spreadsheets, Tableau, scraping tools and other software to dig out stories.

So where does R come in?

I first heard about R in 2015. My former colleague Patrick Scott in particular has made great use of it. But it was only recently that I started learning R. After getting over the initial learning curve I began to realise what a powerful tool it is.

Why are you writing this blog?

I couldn’t find many resources like this: R for beginners. There’s a site called Scoop.it in the United States that does some great work, but I couldn’t find much else. I want this site to be a resource for journalists and other interested people to see what you can do in R, and if they want to, learn enough to get started.

Disclaimer

I’m running this site separately from my work at ONS, so any opinions expressed are here are entirely my own. Also, I’m not this Robert Grant.

Contact

You can email me at the following address: robgrantuk[at]gmail.com or send me a direct message through Twitter.