I provided a bit of the backstory for Silvrback in the companion article on programmers , so I won’t rerun that here. Silvrback is a great blogging platform for data analysts and data scientists.

This piece is targeted toward the growing field of data science. It really is an enhanced role from the more humble one of the data analyst, a job description that’s been in organizations for decades now. There is debate as to the difference, but we don’t need to get into that for our purposes here.

With the shift to cloud computing, the rise of increasingly large data sets, and the desire by organizations to extract meaningful information out of all this data, big data and data analytics are the rage today. The people who can extract this meaning get a new name as well – data scientists. They formerly and variously were called statisticians, data analysts, or some variation thereof.

What do data scientists do? Taking a definition from the site simplilearn.com, we get this: The data scientist is “a person who combines sound business understanding, data handling, programming, and data visualization skills to drive better business results.”

Silvrback: Blogging Platform for Data Analyst and Data Scientists

The natural connection between data science and programmers will be evident in the blogging support they need to deliver what they seek. Data scientists write code. They are statisticians and mathematicians. Their task involves transforming data into visually interpretable and directly actionable information for organizational leaders. Pretty heady stuff, and fascinating.

You can check out a couple of blogs on Silvrback that are of this genre.

https://thedatateam.silvrback.com
http://blog.districtdatalabs.com
https://jdatascientist.silvrback.com

Silvrback has positioned itself as blogging platform for data scientists and data analysts. Here are some of the tools and support these writers need.

1) Markdown Editor

No question that this is the most popular syntax editor out there for programming, a key activity for the data scientist. It’s sturdy, reliable and allows the programmer to get the work done in a simple clean manner. Now, Silvrback has since launched a what-you- see-is- what-you- get (WYSIWYG) editor, but for most Markdown is still the preferred tool to write with.

If you’re going to sell a blogging platform for data scientists or data analysts, or nearly any STEM writer for that matter, it’s got to do Markdown.

2) Code Highlighting

Silvrback uses Pygments to support code highlighting. Pygments supports dozens of languages and uses. A blogging platform for data analysts must have this feature.

3) Mathjax

While most programmers will not use math formulas in their posts, data scientists often will as they use coding to manipulate data to get it into usable form for even more manipulation. This may be involve the use of statistics and other mathematical modeling to derive useful information for users. This is an important tool for data scientists.

4) Collaboration Tools

The capabilities here have continued to evolve. There is always some debate as to how extensive the rights for collaborators should be relative to account holders. Currently, Silvrback allows multiple collaborators to be added to user accounts. Collaborators have extensive rights, including editor selection and article editing and posting rights. Right along with this feature, guest writers can be accommodated without giving collaboration rights.

5) File Formats

Currently, Silvrback supports jpg, jpeg, gif, png, bmp, and pdf file formats for uploading. This is updated as demands change. This is an important feature for a blogging platform for data analysts.

6) Github Support

Entries on the popular Github site is directly uploadable to Silvrback. This makes the writing on Github readily accessible to blog writers.

7) Tagging, Search and Post Recommendations

Getting readers to a blog is tough enough, but keeping them there has its own challenges. Silvrback helps the reader navigate the writer’s content and as a result, is able to keep readers on site. Tagging articles, content search options, and the writer’s ability to suggest other articles to the reader work to keep readers engaged in the content. This is particularly in contrast to some sites which do everything to move readers off the user’s site by providing content to other sites on the writer’s blog; e.g. Medium. For Silvrback, the writer is the focal person.

8) Minimalistic Style

Perhaps the most important is the lean, minimalistic style that attracts data scientists to Silvrback. This clean approach to presenting a writer’s work places the emphasis on the writer’s presentation – on the writer’s work. If you didn’t, check out the way these writers write about data. A blogging platform for data analysts must have a clean space to work, without distraction.

9) Platform Reliability

Nothing is more annoying than to have someone tell you your site is down. While this can happen to any SAAS provider, Silvrback is built on the industry’s most reliable providers. Names like Heroku, Amazon, and Adobe should ring a bell. Call it good bones. That’s Silvrback.

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