One of the most (possibly unintentionally) offensive things that I have been asked on occasion about information published here: “Is that true?”.

As if I have nothing better to do than knowingly publish rumors and false information, waiting for the libel lawsuits to roll in.

For those who wonder how Real Hartford, not being a traditional media source, finds out some information, there are two upcoming free workshops that could demystify this.

Jack Dougherty and Veronica Armendariz from Trinity College; Sabina Sitaru, Chief Information Officer, and Brett Flodine, Project Leader, from the City of Hartford; Tyler Kleykamp, Chief Data Officer, State of Connecticut; and others to be announced will be leading the Open Data Visualization workshops on July 10th and July 22nd.

This is a hands-on introduction to open governmental data sites, showing how to access information on everything fromĀ  Capital Improvement Project price tags to the seating capacity of restaurants. Part of the workshop will demonstrate how to turn this information into graphs and charts.

The first workshop will be held at the Hartford Public Library’s downtown branch, 3-5pm on July 10th. The second is from 12-2pm on July 22nd at Gallows Hill on the Trinity College campus.

This is free, but sign up online. Sessions will be tailored to meet needs of those attending, so this advance sign up gives presenters the information they need to modify the workshops.