Short for weblog, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary describes a blog as a website that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and hyperlinks provided by the writer. Recently, there has been an outcropping of blogs about statistics, so Amstat News asked a few statistical bloggers how they got started in both statistics and blogging.

Name: Nathan Yau

Current affiliation: University of California, Los Angeles, Department of Statistics

Degree(s), and from where: Currently a PhD candidate at UCLA; EECS BS from UC, Berkeley

Website: http://flowingdata.com

When was FlowingData started?: June 25, 2007

Why did you start FlowingData?
I moved to Buffalo, New York, with my wife two years into my PhD. FlowingData was a way for me to kind of keep in touch with people who were also interested in statistics and visualization, because I’ve had to do the bulk of my studies remotely. Then, about a week into it, I found it was a great way for me to document my experiences as an intern and at workshops.

Has creating FlowingData advanced your career? If so, in what way(s)?
Definitely. Because my focus is in visualization, it’s been a great way to get my work out there. If the work is good, it tends to spread, and, from there, people will at least know about what you’re capable of. At this point, I’m still focused on finishing my PhD, but I’ve been able to freelance on the side, which is a good break from dissertation work every now and then. It’s also been a great way to make contacts, simply because people follow what I do.

What skills did you have to learn to produce FlowingData?
I had already been into building websites before FlowingData, so I didn’t have to learn much. I use WordPress, which is an open-source blogging platform. It’s practically a one-click setup. Probably, most of my time in the setup was designing the site using something called themes. That is just my preference, though. There are a lot of free themes that you can download. I just like to customize when I can.

What is most interesting or challenging about maintaining FlowingData?
I can get so involved with maintaining the site that it distracts me from dissertation work, so finding that balance is tough sometimes. Especially in the beginning, I was always checking views and subscriber counts. However, now that the readership has grown to about 37,000, it’s always fun to read comments and interact. I’ve found that a lot of the time, you can learn quite a bit from your readers, so it’s not just you spouting off on your soapbox.

Where do you find the material you cover?
I subscribe to a lot of sites and blogs. I also use Twitter. In the beginning, I used to find everything myself through these sources, but readers also send in a lot of suggestions nowadays.

What, specifically, do you wish you had known when you started FlowingData?

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