GDJ Fall 2020

For my data entry shift, I collected/checked data on Oregon, Texas, Idaho, New Hampshire and Arizona. It was amazing to see the great team work and the organization these folks have. When I was involved in a massive data gathering project at my prior job, there was no collaboration whatsoever, and I had the sole responsibility of updating the data of multiple departments. It is a huge company with thousands of assets throughout the country.

Looking back, I wish my department could have used Slack or a similar channel to make all departments accountable for updating their portion of the data. The project was usually a mess because I would get a gazillion spreadsheets from different people, and would have to manually enter the info vs. having a single place where everyone could do their own data entry. Timing of deliverables also varied widely across departments, so using Slack and a “date” column would have been great to know the overall timing of the project.

Data entry is usually a hassle, but seeing the collaboration and constant communication definitely made it more bearable. I also felt I was part of a team and that incentivized me to do my best. On the downside, it was a sad to see states where hospitalizations and deaths increased. When you’re checking and entering the data, you only see numbers, but it hits you that these are actually people going through an awful virus or people who passed and left families behind. Also, it shows the complexity of tracking the pandemic in such a huge country with so many states that each report the information their own way. The website layout and how the data was categorized varies widely from state to state. It is smart to track in the notes the quirks and idiosyncrasies of each state so the person in the next shift knows what to expect.

Now I understand these types of projects can’t be a one-man job. I admire the commitment the journalists at The Atlantic have, and their understanding that it is in everyone’s best interest to collect and report all this information.