Innovation, News, Technology
Data Collaboration Made Easier
A data collaboration tool that eliminates data disorganization for small teams without any IT lift
Accept it or not, every data science/analytics team has faced difficulty in managing, organizing, and collaborating datasets that they are working on. DataLogz is a free web tool that offers a zero-implementation cost solution for data science and analytics teams to organize data without complicated IT procedures. This tool can be used immediately without any hustle and bustle, which helps in understanding data faster to generate valuable insights and document data in a modern way instead of a traditional spreadsheet or word document, which of course, no one likes to read.
Before I jump into the working of the app, let me introduce the founder of DataLogz, Logan Havern. Logan is an engineering graduate from Texas A&M University currently working as an Associate Industrial Engineer at JetBlue Airways. While most people were playing the Houseparty during COVID19 lockdown, Logan created this app to pass his time, and now it has been listed on Product Hunt, Bubble, and many more.
Homepage
Let’s first get familiar with the home page.
As you can see, currently, I have two dataset details: Employee and UK Flight 2018. If you have several data details, the app provides a search bar to make our life even easier
Creating table
As the intention of the app is to make things easy, creating a table is easy as well. You just have to give a name to your table, add a description, and copy-paste the dataset column names from the spreadsheet.
Yes, that’s it. In 3–4 mouse clicks, your table is created. Now it’s time to add details to your table which give meaning to it.
Adding details to the table
Select the table which you want from the left pane, click on the Definitions tab on the top. Now you can add datatype and description to every column of your table.
You can also do a lot more things by clicking on the edit icon tab. On top of adding datatype and description, you can add or delete columns, export to CSV, copy table, and of course, delete the table.
Adding team members
Once you have created the dataset, you can add team members who can access the table to read, modify, and get notified of the changes. You can add a team member by entering his/her email ID or sharing the unique table code.
Choose the table name from the left pane, click the Users tab, and click Invite Users to launch a popup window where you can enter the email ID or copy the unique code.
Adding your analysis
Creating a table and adding details is just an alternative for traditional documentation. The main advantage of the app is adding your analysis. You can analyze the data on your local machine, which visualizations and add insights on the app so that your team can access, read, and edit if needed. The best part is each of your teammates can add their own version of the analysis. This can be done under the Analysis tab.
Notifying the changes
The full use of the app is only when your teammates can be notified of the changes made by any team member.
For example, you found out the datatype of a column is wrongly entered, and the team has already started working on the dataset. Instead of emailing everyone with the update, you can change the datatype in the app and click the Notify tab, where a popup window will appear to add the description and choose the method to notify your team. You can either choose to notify only on the app or both on the app and email.
Questions and Answers
My favorite feature is using the app, just like any other social media app, to post questions, and your team members can comment on your question. This is the best way to collaborate especially when working from home has become the new normal.
Consider a scenario where you want to know if anyone has completed the analysis part of the work. It’s a small question that could have been asked to your team leader, who would be sitting across the hall. Still, when everyone is working from home, you have to either email everyone and call your team lead. DataLogz has made this easier wherein you can post your question by clicking on the Q&A tab and wait for someone from your team to respond.
It will also be notified on the notification tab in the app, and also an email will be received by all the team members from the app.
Thank you for reading. I hope the article was informative. If you need any further information, contact Logan Havern.
