Alter.Nation
Community news, customer stories, and more!
It’s a new year, and with the change in the calendar we’re also bringing some changes to how we regularly share information with you in the community! In the past, we’ve had a monthly blog for Community Highlights, as well as a separate blog for our Community Release notes. After some thinking on that, we decided that may be too many pieces of content coming your way and we don’t want you to miss important updates, so we’ve decided that we’re merging them into a new hybrid blog! @KylieF and I are gonna be teaming up to bring you a new version chock full of stuff that you won't want to miss.
We’ll be opening each month with community release and upcoming platform changes, as well as things to be aware of. Then we’ll follow up with community news and things that you might have missed, as well as some things to keep your eyes peeled for. And we’ll be wrapping up with a roundup of our content from the previous month (think of it as a reading and listening list just in case anything slipped through the cracks). Essentially, we’re making sure you get all of the relevant information in a single place instead of peppered throughout various pieces of content. So, without further ado, let’s get into it!
Need to Know
Today's Updates:
Our development team has been hard at work on new features for you, our fantastic users! These new updates include optimization to our Media, Forum and Private Messaging systems as well as a few updates for our partner certifications.
We’ve also updated our partner display so both their rank and status display, allowing for the best of both worlds with the return for partners to engage with our ranking system.
A new board has also been launched, our fantastic Data Science Mixer podcast is now available under the Blogs & Podcasts category, though more on that below.
Coming Soon:
Big changes are on the horizon and we’re excited to give you all an update on a few.
We love the way our community looks, we do, but sometimes there’s nothing better than a fresh coat of paint to really an area shine. And so that’s what we plan to do to our favorite home page! Soon we plan to push a new home page and navigation to make it easier for users, both new and old, to get to where they want to be and solving faster.
While we are cleaning up the final touches though, check out this preview!
We are also currently in internally testing our new Single Sign On, SSO, feature for the community. As we get closer to the official update, we’ll make sure to remind users as there will be changes to the log in, as well as user settings.
Finally, with the help of our fantastic Data Science team, we are excitedly working on a new recommendation engine. This will provide customized article and post recommendations to users on the home page so you can find new articles and discussions relevant to you. This engine will also refresh on a 24-hour basis so you will always have access to new and interesting content.
Here’s a sneak peek at what this will look like on the current home page.
Community News
Here's where you'll want to tune in each month for all of the news and updates that you need to know and might have missed out on. There will be a solid mix of funny, interesting, and exciting updates to share here, so let's get into it!
We've got some awesome news from the ACEs from January that I just have to share. Congratulations to @cgoodman3 for passing his Expert Certification! This is no small feat, and requires a lot of work and preparation, so let's all throw some kudos his way. There was also a webinar that six of our ACEs (starring @estherb47, @mbarone, @Aguisande, @andrewdatakim, @Nezrin, and @AbhilashR) worked on to share how to succeed in 2021. Check it out here for a great watch!
February always seems like a drag. It's wet, cold, and grey; and conversation hearts taste like chalk so the holiday candy can even be lacking. There's just not a whole lot to keep oneself occupied. BUT, our User Groups are here to help fill the gaps and give you something to look forward to! We've got 5 upcoming February meetings in India (2/13), Research Triangle & Twin Cities (2/17), St Louis and Austin (2/24). Plenty of opportunities to level up your skills and meet other users!
Never forget that the Alteryx Community is truly a worldwide experience. Our international communities are bustling and a great environment to jump into if you're multilingual. In January, there were some great relaunches of the learning paths in the Portuguese, Spanish, and French communities. Our French community started the Question for a Tool game (it's like a weekly Alteryx Quiz to keep you sharp). The German community started a new series as well called Tuesday Tipps where useful information is shared on a weekly basis. And the Top contributors of 2020 were share in both the French and German communities, not a bad way to start the year!
And now some BIG news. Data science is one of those topics that we just can’t get enough of, and thankfully the Community loves it too! There’s so much to learn in the data science world, so we thought we’d open a brand-new channel specifically to help you learn about data science... without your brain feeling exhausted afterwards.
Introducing Data Science Mixer, a brand-new podcast from the Alteryx Community, focused on the best data science out there. This podcast is best enjoyed with some top shelf beverages and snacks so you can join in on the happy hour vibe that our host @SusanCS will have with each of her guests. Subscribe to Data Science Mixer right here on the Community, Spotify, and Stitcher so you don’t miss any of the fun. And listen through to the end for bonus resources and a Cocktail Conversation where you can join in on the Community and share your thoughts.
Listen to the trailer below.
We can’t wait to have you tune in. Cheers!
Read and Listen
A new year always brings change, but our January blog posts met change with curiosity about what’s to come! We saw predictions from Alteryx leadership about 2021, a willingness to embrace organizational change with the help of data, and a way to find new sustainable places to live with an analytic app. New tools from aiWARE brought us mindblowing ways to use our curiosity to find insights in unstructured data. Challenges to use Alteryx for bingo, speed up macros, monitor record count and standardize workflows brought creative solutions. We introduced Alteryx Open Source, making it possible for anyone curious about these tools to find and contribute to them. And finally, we saw how childhood curiosities led some of our favorite data professionals toward their careers — just some of the many people who have found themselves curious about analytics and data science.
To further encourage curiosity in the new year, the Alter Everything podcast shared a special bonus episode of the Data [in the] Sandbox mini-series titled, Can my TV read my mind?!, perfect for kids out there who ask questions about machine learning and artificial intelligence. We also heard from Jamie Beason with JLL in episode 77: Reset and refresh, where she shared tips on how Alteryx helped her towards a more sustainable work/life balance. It’s perfect listening for those looking for a fresh start in the new year!
Parting Thoughts
With a new year comes new changes, and we're definitely excited about this one. Getting to bring all the news into one place lets us tell you a cohesive update about the community (and have fun with a theme each month to go along with it). If you have questions about anything you read here or want more clarification, add a comment to the blog and we'll be sure to get you an answer as soon as possible! Have a great month, and until next time, remember that David Bowie loves you!
