_{To learn more about the Open Visualization Academy, visit https://openvisualizationacademy.org}

It’s been months since the latest update of this newsletter, but we’re back to share some exciting news about the Open Visualization Academy(OVA), our many collaborators, the first batch of free courses that we’ll launch at the beginning of 2026, and much more.

Let’s jump right in.

First, an update on one of the upcoming OVA-sponsored conferences: On December 11-12 I’m hosting the Computation+Journalism Symposium at the University of Miami. We recently closed our call for submissions and, between talks, panels, and workshops, we’ve received more than a hundred proposals.

That’s far beyond my expectations (we’ve accepted around 30% of them) but we’ll try to get the review process done very soon, so we can announce the full schedule by the end of September or beginning of October.

For now, see our three keynotes and a few confirmed speakers, and go here to register. I’ve done my best to keep the registration cost really low, $150 for professionals and academics, $30 for students; also, weather in Miami is lovely in December, in case you hadn’t heard…

The Open Visualization Academy will launch on January 31st 2026. In the introduction video I recorded for our new website —designed by Vinicius Sueiro, Melissa Strong, and Michela Effendie,— I describe its three main components:

First, a core video master class (5-6 hours), which I’m working on at the moment, and that is based on my courses at the University of Miami, covering the elementary principles of information design and data visualization. If you're a newbie, this will be the place to start.

Second, a series of software tutorials and master classes about specific topics, such as cartography and mapping, dashboard design, accessibility, data feminism, ethics, AI, R, Python, and more. The authors of these courses are well-known scholars and professionals in the information design and visualization world; if you’re part of our community, you’ll see many familiar faces in our website.

Third, a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) that I will lead myself every year. More news about this later this year.

And this is just to get started; after we release the first batch of materials in January, we’ll begin working on the second, to be published in the second half of 2026. After that, we’ll continue posting new materials every 6-8 months, as my goal is that the OVA will be a constantly expanding library of completely free educational resources about visualization design.

Subscribe to our newsletter to stay up-to-date.

Besides coordinating the Open Visualization Academy, contributing to The Trans News Initiative (I’ll write about it in late October, when it officially launches,) chairing the Computation+Journalism Symposium, and co-organizing a few other conferences that I’ll announce soon, I’m working on two new books. That’s a lot, but I’ll do my best to write for this newsletter at least once a month.

That said, as I want to increase its frequency, you’ll soon see others writing for it: Melissa Strong (our web developer,) Michela Effendie (one of our designers,) Yestin Gochuico (a data science student of mine,) and others. I’m certain that you’ll enjoy their articles.

A tradition in this newsletter is to close with some music. Today I bring you “Toda una vida”, the classic bolero by Osvaldo Farrés, played by the sublime Katie James and María Cristina Plata. Enjoy and see you soon: