Revolutions

New R User Groups in Ankara, Toronto

Two new local R user groups to report this week.

In Turkey, the Ankara R Users Group has just started up. No meetings are scheduled yet, so be sure to suggest a meeting time/location when you sign up.

The Toronto-based R Matlab Users group focuses on financial services applications. Created by Bryan Downing (who also produces the QuantLabs blog), the group will hold virtual meetings for R and Matlab users in the financial services industry worldwide. There will also be social meetups in the Toronto financial district, the first of which will be held July 9.

Both groups are now listed in the Local R User Group directory, which is always available from the link in the right column of the Revolutions blog.

 

June 29: The Royal Statistical Society talks R

On June 29, the Royal Statistical Society will host six hours of presentations about R, under the banner "To R, or not to R, that is the question". Speakers include R Core member Prof Uwe Ligges, Dr Wayne Jones (from Shell UK), and Dr Peter Nash (from Imperial College London), among others. 

The event takes place June 29 at the RSS's historic headquarters in Islington, London. Advance registration with payment is required, and costs £35-£45 for RSS members and £60-£85 for non members. You can find more information and a booking form at the link below.

Royal Statistical Society: To R, or not to R, that is the question (via Dave Giles)

New R User Group in Cologne, Germany

The latest local R user group to join the fold is the Köln R User Group, now the sixth R user group in Germany. Their first group meeting will be on July 6, with presentations on ANOVA, ggplot2 graphics in Deducer, and writing R code with Emacs's Org-mode. If you're in the Cologne area, this would be a great group to get involved with.

MeetUp: Köln R User Group

New R User Group in Montréal

The Biology Department at McGill University in Québec, Canada has been running a series of R workshops since 2010. Past topics have included Generalized Additive Models, Linear Mixed-effects Models and a four-part Intro to R series -- follow the links and look at the bottom of each page for some very useful course notes.

Over the past year the workshops have welcomed an increasing number of participants from beyond the McGill, and so the organizers (led by Bayesian biologist Corey Chivers) have relaunched as a general R users group in Montréal. Last week's meeting was on Maximum Likelihood and Model Selection; the next topic will be Introduction to Bayesian Methods on March 26.

For more information on the group, or to RSVP for future workshops, visit the MeetUp page at the link below.

meetup.com: Montreal R User Group

 

New R User Group in Milan

Italy now has three local R user groups, thanks to the recent formation of MilanoR in the city of Milan. Founded by R consulting company Quantide's Andrea Spanò, R-core member and University of Milan professor Stefano Iacus, and quantitative consultant Daniele Amberti, MilanoR will be a forum to "exchange knowledge, learn and share tricks and techniques, and provide R beginners with an opportunity to meet more experienced users". 

The first meeting will be on May 8, and will feature a talk by Stefano Iacus on the "Past, Present and Future of R". The group is looking for suggestions for future talks and presenters, so if you're in the Milan area (or know another R user who is), please get in touch via the MilanoR website.

New R User Groups in Lithuania, Birmingham, Taiwan

Three new local R user groups to add to the list today: from Lithuania, Taiwan, and Birmingham (UK).

The Chinese Academy of R Software (CARS) serves R users in Taipei (Taiwan). It has been approved by the Ministry of the Interior of Taiwan, and has more than 500 "likes" on its Facebook page.

The Birmingham R Users Meeting (with the apt acronym, BRUM) is a new R user group for R users in Birmingham (in central England). The first meeting will be on March 20 in the Jekyll and Hyde pub.

For R users in Lithuania, VilniusR will host R user group meetings in Vilnius (Lithuania's capital). You can help organize the first meeting at their Google Groups forum.

Lastly: anyone interested in an R user group in Pittsburgh or Phoenix? Follow the links for contact info of local R users looking to set up a new group.

Revolutions: Local R User Group Directory

New R User Group at Berkeley

There's a new R user group in Berkely, CA: The Berkeley R Language Beginner Study Group.

Join this small group for a step-by-step approach to learn the language R. Each session will be filled with examples and participants are welcome to suggest and present topics. If you have just started with R this is the perfect chance to find out about data analysis with a group of people rather than on your own. The first sessions will be based on tutorials available on r-project.org.

The meetings are limited to a small number of participants, but there are still a couple of spots open for upcoming sessions on Data Manipulation in R on Feb 21 and Feb 27.

Meetup.com: The Berkeley R Language Beginner Study Group

A new local R user group in Cambridge, UK

It turns out there's another local R user group in Cambridge, UK. It's called CambR, and organizing committee member Laurent Gatto described its history to me in an email:

After meeting repeatedly at several R related conferences (Bioconductor meetings, useR 2011), some R enthusiasts thought Cambridge deserved a local R user group and founded CambR in September 2011. Since then, we gathered 70+ members (and growing) that registered on our google group. In early 2012, we organised our first meeting, aiming at getting to know each other and set future plans. 16 people showed up; feedback of the participants was positive and we decided to organise a second, larger meeting in April/May 2012.

CambR is joinging forces with the organizers of the nascent Cambridge RUG to be the "official" local R user group in Cambridge.  If you're in the area, be sure to join their Google Group to be informed of upcoming meetings.

CambrR: Cambridge R User Group

New R User Groups in Austin, Adelaide

It's awesome to see so many local R user groups kicking off in 2011! Yet another is the Austin R User Group in Austin, Texas. They've already held their first informal get-together, and the first formal meeting on February 23 will be devoted to data management techniques in R. Props to Sandy Donlon for organizing the group!

And I'm so pleased to report that a local R user group has started in my old hometown of Adelaide, South Australia. Organized by Jonathan Tuke at the University of Adelaide (my alma mater), the Adelaide R-users Group has already had several successful meetups and their next meeting is on February 28. Australia now has an R user group in every major city except Perth, which I'd venture makes it the country with the most R groups on a per-capita basis. (And yet, ironically, still no groups in New Zealand -- c'mon Kiwis!)

MeetUp: Austin R User Group

New R User Group in Cambridge, UK

Yet another new local R user group has launched this month, this time in Cambridge, UK. Cambridge RUG was created by data analyst Andrew Caines to promote the use of R in the Cambridge area. 

The group aims to encourage people try the R language, act as an advice centre to help people get where they want to with R and host an annual gathering for R-based talks and workshops. The group's just getting started, if you're interested you can join the group email list to be notified of upcoming events.

Update Feb 10 2011: Cambridge RUG has joined forces with CambR, which is now the official local R user group in Cambridge.

RUG Cambridge: About