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Welcome to Kawan—our vibrant community of data heads and storytellers. We’re all about improving data literacy and sharing nuanced stories about Asia. Come hang!
Power in pettiness— issue #75
In the past year, it feels like Asia has bubbled over. News of major protests and uprisings came in waves, and disobedience takes different shapes. While the constraints across the region are not shared, the wit of protestors endures, like a cockroach that cannot be stamped out.
Exploring Desire Paths in Singapore
The team behind ‘A line of our own drawing’ shares deeper about their ideas, process, and experiences researching desire paths in Singapore.
Where got ghost in Singapore?— issue #5
Trick or treat! It's Halloween season! The ghouls and pumpkins fill store aisles across Singapore. But Southeast Asia has about as many ghouls as we have tropical fruits and types of spices. We're diverse like that. So step away from the usual stories and explore our
Humans of Kontinentalist: Rayson
A few weeks ago we caught up with Rayson, our summer intern. Rayson is a third-year university student studying for a Bachelor in…
A quick guide to ArcGIS — how do we begin?
What is GIS?
Humans of Kontinentalist: Dewi
Today we caught up with Dewi, our business development manager, and recently, writer! Her first story on Batik was released last week.
Did a four-eyed historian invent the Mandarin script? — issue #4
Hello，你好，வணக்கம் Singapore has always favoured linguistic pragmatism, where we learn a language for its utility. Increasingly, that language is Mandarin. People often tell me, "You should let your child take Mandarin as a second language. It's better for her." No offence is intended
Rayson’s Journey to the Maps: Interning at Kontinentalist
Rayson, who wrote this well-received story on rising sea levels, shares his intern experience at Kontinentalist.
Reduce API loading time: Never forget to Cache!
Kontinentalist serves quite numbers of traffic everyday, and thus user experience is really important for us. One of the UX factors apart… How did Kontinentalist reduce API loading time by using Cache
How to tell data-driven stories
We conducted a workshop for our writers recently, and below are some of the highlights.
Visualising a team bonding retreat
Inspired by the Dear Data project where two designers sent each other visualisations describing their week, our team decided to try…
Of piracy, deaths, and medicinal wildlife parts in Asia — issue #3
Ahoy! It’s been a really fruitful month for us, and we’re so proud to have collaborated with two different partners to shed light on crucial issues concerning Asia. Naomi collaborated with TRAFFIC - the wildlife trade monitoring network - to look at how traditional medicine practices and beliefs are fuelling
Playing House: the Rent-a-Family business in Japan
Our writer, Kathy, shares her thoughts on the thriving phenomenon in Japan
How are maps used in video and tabletop games?
In our new series, we sat down with Joceline, our UI/UX designer, and Griselda, our multimedia designer, to nerd out about maps and games!