8 The R community
Written by Annie Collins and last updated on 7 October 2021.
8.1 Introduction
Once you’ve gotten a basic handle on coding in R, there are plenty of ways to extend your learning and practice beyond the classroom. R has a global network of users of all levels and backgrounds, and these users have established a myriad of outlets for connecting with each other and sharing their R expertise, projects, and discoveries.
In this module, we will look at three resources for participating in the R community: R Weekly, R-Ladies, and R Meetups.
8.2 R Weekly
“R is growing very quickly, and there are lots of great blogs, tutorials and other formats of resources coming out every day. R Weekly wants to keep track of these great things in the R community and make it more accessible to everyone.”
R Weekly is a (you guessed it) weekly summary of all things R related: educational resources, new packages, videos, podcasts, examples of real world R use, and much more. All features are compiled and posted each Monday on RWeekly.org as well as delivered in the form of an e-newsletter to email subscribers. R Weekly is a great resource for keeping up to date with developments in the broader R community, as well as share your own projects with a large audience of R users of all levels.
8.2.1 Get involved
- Check out the current and past iterations of R Weekly on their website.
- Subscribe to the R Weekly mailing list.
- Follow R Weekly on their various social media accounts: Facebook and Twitter.
8.3 R-Ladies
“R-Ladies is a worldwide organization whose mission is to promote gender diversity in the R community.”
R-Ladies focuses on increasing the proportion of underrepresented genders in the global R community through encouraging, inspiring, and empowering minority gender (cis/trans women, trans men, nonbinary, etc.) R users. Their efforts involve creating a global network of R leaders and learners via local meet ups, a directory of individual speaker profiles, and community and network-focused online communication channels (Twitter, Slack, GitHub, etc.).
8.3.1 Get involved
- Follow @RLadiesGlobal on Twitter.
- Find your local R-Ladies chapter and meet-ups (R-Ladies Toronto is co-organized by the University of Toronto’s own Monica Alexander!).
- Contribute to the R-Ladies Global GitHub.
- Join the R-Ladies community Slack channel.
8.4 R meetups
Online or in-person meet ups are a great way to meet like-minded individuals, exchange knowledge and experience, and develop your R skills and network. As mentioned previously, there are R-Ladies-specific meet ups, as well as a worldwide network of R User Groups, both of which have been sponsored by the R Consortium.