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Hacking the Self: Quantified Self Workshop

There are dozens of widely available devices we can use to easily and affordably generate and track data about our daily activities. Steps taken, calories burned, sleeping patterns, our travelled paths, activity data on our computers, etc. This workshop will cover how to extract and look the data generated from a three different types of activity tracking devices and apps. With data in hand, we will explore the creative process of visualizing the information we have from a more data art stand point an a more pragmatic one.

Topics will include:

- Introduction to QS and data we have available
- Extracting and refinement of data (i.e. making API calls and processing the data)
- Introduction to the data visualization process

Requirements:

Workshop attendees will receive examples and complete source files we will be using in the workshop and they should have these files downloaded prior to attending the workshop (we will provide a link to download before the workshop). Students will also need to bring their own laptops with the latest version of Processing (www.processing.org) installed.
Students should have at least one week’s worth of data tracked for one of the following type of tracking tools:

1) Body Activity Tracking Device (Nike+ FuelBand or FitBit)
2) Geolocation Data using OpenPaths (www.openpaths.cc)
3) Computer activity tracking (we will provide an application for logging key press and mouse click)

The list of devices may change and we will be sure to notify participants if it does. Also, API keys for each device will be required and we will send out instructions on how to obtain an API key for any device we use in our workshop.