R, also called GNU S, is a strongly functional language and environment to statistically explore data sets and make many graphical displays of data.

R is widely used for statistical software development and data analysis. R is part of the GNU project, and its source code is freely available under the GNU General Public License, and pre-compiled binary versions are provided for various operating systems. R uses a command line interface, though several graphical user interfaces are available.

Ed Borasky will provide an introduction to R this Saturday at Cubespace from 11Am-3Pm. Please come prepared with a laptop and the requisite software (link to come soon). If you have any issues installing the software, or need help before the meeting, feel free to arrive at 10:30 Am.

Software Downloads Updated to get ready for the upcoming class. There will be a few more pages coming. The first will be on installing GGobi, and the second will be on CRAN Task Views.

Click on http://groups.google.com/group/pdx-visualization/web/getting-started-with-the-r-programming-language - or copy & paste it into your browser's address bar if that doesn't work.

Here's an abbreviated "Getting Started With GGobi" guide. Please try this stuff out and let me know where it's broken. I just ran through the Windows part and the "Testing on a Social Network Dataset" part and that much of it works. :)

Click on http://groups.google.com/group/pdx-visualization/web/getting-started-with-ggobi - or copy & paste it into your browser's address bar if that doesn't work.

I added a couple of links to articles on using GGobi with social network data.

Click on http://groups.google.com/group/pdx-visualization/web/getting-started-with-ggobi - or copy & paste it into your browser's address bar if that doesn't work.

About R

R was created by Ross Ihaka and Robert Gentleman at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, and is now developed by the R Development Core Team. It is named partly after the first names of the first two R authors (Robert Gentleman and Ross Ihaka), and partly as a play on the name of S. The R language has become a de facto standard among statisticians for the development of statistical software.

More information: http://www.r-project.org/

Join the Portland Data Visualization Google Group for more updates: http://groups.google.com/group/pdx-visualization?hl=en.

OHSU Center for Health & Healing Room 3171 (Conference Room 1A) (location details at end)

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Main talk: "Spatial Analysis with R" Ben Stabler

Lightning talk: "R Therapy" Everyone

Social hour (following talks): Le Hana Japanese Bar & Grill 3500 SW River Parkway

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Talk descriptions:

"Spatial Analysis with R"

Ben will share some recent work he did using R for spatial data visualization. He will discuss how to read shapefiles and rasters into R, how to join and process data related to those shapes, and how to generate dynamic animated map products.

"R Therapy"

Do you have a problem that you are trying to solve with R that you just can't get to work? A model you can't seem to specify? A graph you can't tweak? A dataset you can't tame? An interface you can't bridge? A bug you can't trap? Well, try some group theRapy.

Bring your laptop, problem, and/or dataset and we will try to tackle the problems you are having as a group. If there are multiple problems, we can break into smaller groups. Don't have any current unresolved problems of your own? Then maybe you can help someone else, or at least learn from their problems before they are yours.

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Speaker bios:

Ben Stabler is a Supervising Modeler at Parsons Brinckerhoff. Parsons Brinckerhoff "provides strategic consulting, planning, engineering, and program and construction management services to both public and private sector clients ... in multiple market sectors, including transportation, power, buildings/facilities, water/wastewater, environmental, and urban/community development."

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Location information:

OHSU's Center for Health & Healing South Waterfront district http://www.ohsu.edu/xd/about/visiting/locations/chh.cfm 3303 SW Bond Avenue Between Moody Ave. and Bond Ave., Whitaker St. and Gibbs St. At the base of the Portland Aerial Tram Streetcar stops: SW Moody & Gibbs (coming from downtown) OHSU Commons (heading to downtown) On-street parking available Bicycle parking around Gibbs and Bond near base of Tram

Room 3171 (Conference Room 1A) Take elevator to the 3rd floor, follow signs to the Conference Center

Le Hana 3500 SW River Parkway Corner of River Parkway and Curry Street One block south and one block east of the Center for Health & Healing