Developing my personal website

“What do you do?”, this is a common question I have received countless times. I have had to explain my roles to individuals who did not know that data analysis and data science are careers. In Kenyan context and more so in rural areas where I was born and raised, data science and GIS are jobs that are still new to many. Don’t get me wrong, I am passionate when explaining my job, its diverse application across sectors and more so how evidence-based decision making is important in every aspect.

In the growing digital space and the revolutionary technological breakthroughs, all aspects of remote sensing, GIS and data analysis are evolving. It is therefore key to keep up and be innovative. I believe this personal website will not only show others what am working on but will also give me a chance to network with others and better the products.

The main reason I procrastinated getting started on the website, was because R was my first programming language to learn and I don’t have a programming background. Websites are traditionally created using languages like java, HTML, CSS among others and for someone without a programming background, this scares you from working on your personal website.

Some months ago, during my catch-ups on twitter, I saw a meetup post by R-Ladies Tunis on “Introduce yourself online with blogdown & Hugo Apéro - by Dr. Alison Hill”. This caught my eye and revived my quest to have a personal website. Though my plans to attend the session failed, I later caught up with the You Tube recording. In this talk, Dr. Alison explains the steps to get started and how to customize to personal preference. Her step-by-step explanations are thorough and simple making it easy to follow through. This website has been created fully using R by following the steps outlined in the recording. The syntax is easy as Dr. Alison did the heavy lifting while and creating the package. Thank you Alison and R-Ladies Tunis for organizing the meetup.

For anyone who plans to create their personal website, check the recording. I hope that this personal website will help grow my network and better my skills through feedback.