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talks: 47

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rowid title speaker time day room url datetime abstract image
47 How a File Format Led to a Crossword Scandal Saul Pwanson 2:30 PM May 9 2019 Fuller Hall https://csvconf.com/speakers/#saul-pwanson 2019-05-09T14:30:00 In 2016 I designed a plain-text file format for crossword puzzle data, and then spent a couple of months building a micro-data-pipeline, scraping tens of thousands of crosswords from various sources. Then, having all those crosswords in a simple format, I wanted to see if there were any common grid patterns--and discovered egregious plagiarism by a major crossword editor that had gone on for years. This talk would cover the file format, data pipeline, and the design choices that aided rapid exploration; the evidence for the scandal, from the initial anomalies to the final damning visualization; and what it's like for a data project to get 15 minutes of fame. https://csvconf.com/img/speakers-2019/spwanson.jpg
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