Masters. Teachers. Innovators. Meet the Tableau Zen Masters.

November 8, 2012 - 8:40am

By Ellie Fields

On Wednesday on the main stage at TCC a select and special group of people walked across the stage. They are the first class of Tableau Zen Masters, members of the community who are masters of Tableau and of the principles of information design, teachers to others and innovators. And they capture the spirit of questioning and helping that is at the heart of the Tableau community.
Who are these extraordinary people? Glad you asked.

Craig Bloodworth

Craig is well known to anyone who loves great visualization. He’s stretched Tableau as a tool for information design and we’ve learned a lot from him. Craig’s with his new baby in York, England and couldn’t be at the conference today.

Richard Leeke

Richard is, in the words of Andy Cotgreave, a “long long time forum expert and geo-hacking jedi.” Richard has been helping people in the forums for years with knowledge and patience. Richard lives in New Zealand.

Joe Mako

Joe almost needs no introduction. He’s helped thousands of people on the forums, and won Tableau’s user community award last year. He’s one of the top rated users in the forums.

Andy Kriebel

Andy runs the Viz Wiz blog and provides thoughtful insight on the art of information visualization, weighing in on debates like stacked are vs line chart and providing practical tips like passing filters in a URL.

Jonathan Drummey

Jonathan is a relatively new member of the Tableau community, but he’s made a big impression. His posts are thoughtful and his ideas innovative. He’s another top-rated contributor to the Forums, and has helped thousands of people with a patience and wisdom that shows he is a true teacher.

Chuck Hooper

Chuck is the offline community warrior. His teaching usually takes the form of a sit-down conversation (with occasional colorful language) but Chuck has touched thousands. He is passionate about helping people with data and one of the most well-respected people in the community.

Ryan Robitaille

Ryan has been innovating with the Tableau product and amazing us back in Seattle with some of his work. Notably, he is also the author of the famous Metallica and bigfoot vizzes.

Tableau Zen Masters will have access to the Tableau dev team and other people within Tableau. They get gifts and schwag. And they are recognized as Zen Master in the Tableau community and can use the title in professional profiles and their resume, marking them as some of the best in the world at working with data and information design.

Andy Cotgreave, who has long been a champion of the idea of honoring our highest-contributing community members, did the presentation. He outlined the program and its benefits, then introduced each of the Zen Masters. And then he said, “What do we ask of you in return? Just keep on being amazing.”

Tableau Zen Masters: From every single person that you have helped or inspired, thank you for your immense contributions to the Tableau Community.

Comments

#1

Congratulations to all of the newly anointed Zen Masters. Thanks for all of the help over the years. It's always appreciated. Thanks also to Andy Cotgreave, Elissa Fink, and the Tableau staff for recognizing your indescribable awesomeness. You make the Tableau user community feel like a family and I'm honored to be able to be a small part of it.

#2

That's very kind Matt! I know I speak for all of us when I say we're completed humbled by this honor. It's pretty overwhelming. But without people like Andy and Elissa and the development staff, we wouldn't have such an incredible product to play with every day. It has completely changed my life and for that I'm forever indebted to Tableau.