Data science, analytics, visualization and related fields tend to have more gender equality than other areas of computer science. Not coincidentally, many of the most interesting data personalities on Twitter are women. Below are 15 of our favorites to follow, listed alphabetically.
Cherny, an independent consultant, is one of the most prominent voices in data on Twitter, particularly in the area of visualization. She also tweets about programming in R, Python and Javascript.
Wanted: machine learning alg to monitor twitter for friend and social/political emergencies when i'm not reading it
— Lynn Cherny (@arnicas) February 17, 2014
De Choudhury, an assistant professor at Georgia Tech’s School of Interactive Computing, is a key member of the computational social science community. Previously, she helped create connected systems in the neXus group at Microsoft Research.
.@gnip data story on our research using social media to understand depression is live today! http://t.co/WIYS98UjQL
— Munmun De Choudhury (@munmun10) December 4, 2013
Haverty is a user experience designer at security software company Tripwire, but her personal account is an adventure into the philosophy and aesthetics of information.
@PsychScientists @inkblurt media statements abt research findings should come w/ "empirical signal strength indicator" like mobile phones
— Marsha Haverty (@mjane_h) February 26, 2014
Holm, the evangelist for U.S. federal data portal Data.gov, also teaches knowledge management and system design at UCLA.
Holy moly! Check out Rutgers risk terrain models to work at decreasing crime with US #opendata http://t.co/uA07vjGnf6 #safetydata #opengov
— Jeanne Holm (@JeanneHolm) January 14, 2014
Lee, a former Code for America fellow, co-founded Textizen, a mobile data-driven civic engagement platform. Previously, she worked as a designer for Google’s Maps, Flu Trends and Docs teams, where she created Google Forms.
Talking change aversion with the fire dept: "This sucks. We can't use this. We're all gonna die."
— Michelle Lee (@mishmosh) February 19, 2014
Lloyd is the creative director of the New York Times R+D Lab. A designer and thinker, she has worked on some of the news organization’s data visualizations.
For those who missed it, you can watch my #lift14 talk on Designing Conversations with Algorithms here: http://t.co/VxvI2BWQmY
— Alexis Lloyd (@alexislloyd) February 10, 2014
Lowe, a data and visualization scientist, conducts research at Columbia University’s Spatial Information Design Lab and teaches the Math for Artists class at New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program. She also co-founded New York’s School for Poetic Computation.
https://twitter.com/datatelling/status/435863212521566208
Manik-Perlman, a 2013 Code for America Fellow, is also founder of Postcode.io, a data and technology company for local governments.
So so great to see a stage full of women talking data-driven government. #cfasummit
— Tamara Manik-Perlman (@TamaraMP) October 16, 2013
Martin, a senior advisor to U.S. CTO Todd Park, was also the first entrepreneur-in-residence at the U.S. Department of Education. Martin is an active speaker in the area of using open data and government APIs to drive innovation.
OH: "I have an API for my soul."
— Marina Martin (@MarinaMartin) January 22, 2013
Mason, the former chief data scientist at Bitly, has become an informal figurehead for the data science community. She is currently a data scientist in residence at venture firm Accel Partners.
The data I'm looking at right now says the highest avg price per cheeseburger by city is in Santa Clara, CA. Sorry friends at #strataconf!
— Hilary Mason (@hmason) February 11, 2014
Rogati is the vice president of data at San Francisco-based wearable technology company Jawbone. Before that, she was a senior data scientist at LinkedIn.
Italians love soccer, Californians hike & the Dutch bike — and everybody's pumped on Mondays. @Jawbone data stories: http://t.co/htavz1kzP7
— Monica Rogati (@mrogati) February 7, 2014
Simpson, an applied social scientist and domain expert, uses data analysis to conduct research on topics such as counterinsurgency, political violence and illicit networks. She is the CEO of Caerus Associates, a consulting firm working in these areas.
It's pretty amazing to see the front lines of conflict emerge in Aleppo through bread prices. Hyper-local data FTW. http://t.co/np7kzIPNuA
— EM Simpson (@charlie_simpson) February 19, 2014
Stodden is a professor of statistics at Columbia University.
My new article "Resolving Irreproducibility in Empirical and Computational Research" http://t.co/K93JXEPNp8
— Victoria Stodden (@victoriastodden) December 5, 2013
Wei is a news app developer at public interest journalism site Pro Publica. She has built applications to help users explore Pro Publica’s databases, including the Dollars for Docs and Nonprofit Explorer projects.
There was a moment today where I nearly burned my fingertips. My first thought was, "Ow." My second thought was, "HOW WILL I PROGRAM?"
— Sisi Wei (@sisiwei) February 25, 2014
Wu is the New York Times’ developer advocate. An active member of New York’s data community, she tweets on data journalism, programming and many other topics.
That moment when your quantified self collides with your fashion cop.#NYE
— Chrys Wu (@MacDiva) January 1, 2014
Photo: Flickr User Christopher S. Penn