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D3 for Data Scientists, Part I: A re-usable template for combining R and D3 to build interactive visualizations

The path to D3 mastery is dark and full of terrors. D3 itself is a JavaScript (JS) library and on top of that, you’ll need a basic understanding of HTML (Hypertext…

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Interviewing with Tech at Civis Analytics

Let’s be real. Interviews can be weird, challenging, awkward, confusing, and complicated all at the same time. At Civis, we want to make this experience as best as possible for…

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Introducing Flexible Cloud Storage

We are excited to announce our latest offering — Flexible Cloud Storage — which lets you leverage the full power of Civis Platform, our cutting-edge data science platform, on top of…

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Making Interactive Maps of Public Data in R

For a version of this post with interactive maps, check it out on GitHub. Introduction Oftentimes, when working with public data, there will be a geospatial component to the data —…

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How Los Angeles taps its 311 call data to bring more power to the people — and build more trust with city hall

It’s been 25 years since 311 non-emergency telephone services launched in the U.S., bringing citizens a dedicated three-digit number for accessing municipal information, lodging complaints, and making neighborhood maintenance requests.…

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How often does it get *this* cold in Chicago? A statistical exploration with TensorFlow and open government data

This short post is going to talk about an interesting statistical distribution, the Gumbel distribution, and how to use TensorFlow and SciPy to fit that distribution on historical weather data provided…

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Open Data, n.

Open data is public information that can be freely used, reproduced, or redistributed by anyone, and often refers to scientific, biological, geographic, or civic databases.

How Our Civis Platform Data Workbench Evolved in 2022 — and What’s Ahead for 2023

Civis Analytics never stops working to improve Civis Platform, our flagship all-in-one data warehouse and analytics engine. With 2022 winding down and 2023 on the horizon, what better time to…

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Open-source Software Release: Introducing async-graph-data-flow, a Python Library for Efficient Data Pipelines

Imagine a champagne tower. You pour champagne into the top glass until it fills up, then the champagne trickles down and fills the glasses below. The process doesn’t stop until…

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How to Create an Analytics Tech Stack That Maximizes the Value of Your Organization’s Data

The modern analytics tech stack features a range of software tools to help nonprofit, advocacy, and political organizations better leverage the data they collect and make more informed, data-driven decisions.…

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Understanding Satisficers

Survey participants are sometimes dishonest in their responses, inattentive while answering, or in a rush to get through the questions. This behavior is called satisficing. The following post explores how satisficing affects survey results, how Civis neutralizes its impact, and which measures must be taken to address increasingly poor respondent data quality.

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Team-building takeaways: three things a hackathon taught Civis about collaboration and creativity

Civis Analytics has a long history of applying its engineering acumen to solve urgent client problems. Members of the Civis government team recently put that same acumen to use to…

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FDNY Case Study

In 2017, the New York Fire Department set out to recruit a more diverse group of applicants for the firefighter exam than ever before. This mission was made more difficult…

Case Study
How data helped Houston Food Bank nourish the community during the Texas power crisis

When the snow and ice paralyzed southeast Texas, Houston Food Bank leaped into action.  The nation’s largest food bank in terms of distribution, Houston Food Bank presently serves about 124,000…

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Civis Platform Helps LCV Scale and Accelerate Their Fundraising Program with Clean, Accurate Data

Data warehousing with Civis Platform increased revenue by 390 percentage points over a five-year period. Linking person-level data using Identity Resolution to more effectively segment donors. Eliminated sync issues and…

Case Study
The more you know: how third-party data delivers a complete QSR customer picture

How well do you know your customers?  We mean, really know them.  Not just how they behave when interacting with your quick-service restaurants, but what they do when they’re out…

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A Guide to How Civis Identity Resolution Works

Today's modern fundraising, outreach, and advocacy programs require reaching your target audience across many different platforms. You have to meet them where they are, and they are all over the…

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How Civis simplifies data centralization for federated nonprofits

Data that is fragmented — siloed, duplicated, and scattered like leaves — is data without purpose or impact.  A clear, comprehensive understanding of the data at an organization’s fingertips is…

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The Opportunity Project: A new model for civic tech

As part of our public sector work, Civis is always on the lookout for pro bono projects. Not only does this offer us a way to contribute to civic good,…

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Bringing Big Data to Big Macs: Lessons from McDonald’s Successful Adoption of Data Science for Personalized Marketing

Background: Civis began a data technology partnership with McDonald’s North America Marketing and Data Science teams in late 2017, and — after a year and a half of keeping our…

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Three lessons from the Biden paid media team for more impactful, authentic messaging

More than 80 million Americans voted to elect Joe Biden, a record turnout fueled by a data-driven paid media campaign that delivered simple, authentic, and powerful messages to the exact…

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