Free to anyone who wants to come out. The 3 hour workshop will be held at the Golden Nugget the Friday morning before the SBR Bash starts.
There is no charge, and I will be leading it.
We are going to cover the basic "how to's" of building a database from scratch.
All participants need to bring a laptop with Microsoft office (Excel and Access) installed, as well as have internet access for scraping data. The hotel sells access for around $12 a day, and air cards work as well.
The database we will be building will be an NFL one for the 2009-2010 season, but the techniques covered will be readily transferable to college hoops and foots as well as MLB. It is all data gathering and formatting to meet the questions you want to answered.
Topics covered will include
1) Data gathering and scraping (copy and paste variety)
2) Formatting the data and combining data from different sources. For example, you may need to gather quarter scores from one source and point spreads from another and merge them. We will cover how to do that.
3) Setting up your database to answer the questions you want answered.
4) Using the database to predict possible outcomes as a percentage opportunity.
This workshop will be geared towards beginners. A basic familiarity with office would of course be helpful, but hopefully not necessary. We promise everyone attending will have a database of all of last year's NFL games in their possession at the end of the three hours, either by hook or by crook (if necessary).
I have had a lot of people over the years ask me if I would sell or give them databases for various sports. My answer has always been that "if you can't build it, you probably shouldn't use it, because you won't fully understand what the numbers mean." Well, this workshop is my opportunity to give people a database, along with the knowledge of how to build one and understand the limitations of the data gathered. "Give a man a fish, feed him for a day, teach him to fish, feed him for a lifetime" and all that.
If you have any questions and/or would like to sign up, please do so below. Thanks to SBR for letting me do this and sponsoring the event. I know the Bash is basically a party, but if if we can educate each other a bit in the process as well, why not?
I do not know if we will have 3 people or 30 people attending. Either way, it will be participatory, so bring your ideas and questions along. Coffee will be on us!
There is no charge, and I will be leading it.
We are going to cover the basic "how to's" of building a database from scratch.
All participants need to bring a laptop with Microsoft office (Excel and Access) installed, as well as have internet access for scraping data. The hotel sells access for around $12 a day, and air cards work as well.
The database we will be building will be an NFL one for the 2009-2010 season, but the techniques covered will be readily transferable to college hoops and foots as well as MLB. It is all data gathering and formatting to meet the questions you want to answered.
Topics covered will include
1) Data gathering and scraping (copy and paste variety)
2) Formatting the data and combining data from different sources. For example, you may need to gather quarter scores from one source and point spreads from another and merge them. We will cover how to do that.
3) Setting up your database to answer the questions you want answered.
4) Using the database to predict possible outcomes as a percentage opportunity.
This workshop will be geared towards beginners. A basic familiarity with office would of course be helpful, but hopefully not necessary. We promise everyone attending will have a database of all of last year's NFL games in their possession at the end of the three hours, either by hook or by crook (if necessary).
I have had a lot of people over the years ask me if I would sell or give them databases for various sports. My answer has always been that "if you can't build it, you probably shouldn't use it, because you won't fully understand what the numbers mean." Well, this workshop is my opportunity to give people a database, along with the knowledge of how to build one and understand the limitations of the data gathered. "Give a man a fish, feed him for a day, teach him to fish, feed him for a lifetime" and all that.
If you have any questions and/or would like to sign up, please do so below. Thanks to SBR for letting me do this and sponsoring the event. I know the Bash is basically a party, but if if we can educate each other a bit in the process as well, why not?
I do not know if we will have 3 people or 30 people attending. Either way, it will be participatory, so bring your ideas and questions along. Coffee will be on us!
