Feeling data illiterate? Take this Data Society online course

To become a member of the Data Society, you won’t necessarily have to stand on a table. But you’ll be required to think outside of the box when it comes to data visualization.
The WeWork Chinatown-based online teaching platform is seeking students for its inaugural course, a four-weekend-long (24 hours) introduction to data science.
Through this and future courses, Data Society will try to transmit “the holy grail of data literacy: understanding how to approach data and then applying that knowledge in a real world,” the head of recruiting and outreach Merav Yuravlivker told Technical.ly DC in an email.

Our mission is to make data science less intimidating.

The company is targeting professionals in the growing number of industries that now have to grapple with analyzing, stocking and visualizing data.
“Our mission is to make data science less intimidating,” said Yuravlivker, so “professionals across various fields can use it to make better data-driven decisions.”
The company’s cofounders themselves met across diverging paths.
Founder Dmitri Adler, a Russian immigrant, met the company’s academic advisor Joshuah Touyz, who hails from South Africa, in elementary school.
Both used data analysis in their respective careers — Adler in his past life as a JP Morgan investment banker, and Touyz as a current Ph.D. candidate in statistics at the George Washington University and the founder of Data Driven DC.
The two will be leading a workshop on social media mining this Friday at Foster.ly’s Collaborate conference.
Yuravlivker is “a first-generation American from an Israeli family who used data to teach elementary special education in New York City public schools,” she added.
The introduction to data science course will cost $499 — or $399 if you sign up quick — and will be held on Saturday and Sunday mornings from Feb. 7 to March 1.
In the future, Data Society plans to build up to more advanced courses and also “create a video-on-demand option for students who prefer to learn at their own pace,” said Yuravlivker.