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We are delighted to announce the 2015-2016 Tableau Zen Masters. Our community continues to amaze us. We recognize the hours of dedication put in by our biggest champions. The contribution might be on the Forums, on Social Media, in their blogs, User Groups, the Tableau Foundation, or anywhere else there are people needing new ways to see and understand their data.

I am a huge fan of doing things the right way instead of using workarounds or shortcuts. Tableau is an incredible tool for solving problems, and using the functionality within Tableau, I have rarely found a problem unsolvable. That being said, sometimes it just makes more sense to make the data easier to work with before bringing it into Tableau.

The Tableau Foundation is proud to announce a free software program for non-profit organizations. All non-profits with an annual operating budget under $5 million qualify for this program. We’ve also established the Tableau Service Corps, a volunteer network of Tableau team members eager to help non-profits see and understand their data. Any non-profit, regardless of size, can tap the help of the many volunteers listed on the Tableau Service Corps website.

Tableau 9.1 lets you ask and answer more explicit questions of your data. Take advantage of these visual analytics features to dig deeper.

Here’s proof that Tableau Zen Masters are much more than data viz whizzes. As part of our back-to-school series, we asked our Zen Masters to share tips for our community of data explorers. And what we got in return was a wealth of wisdom that range from data tips to life lessons. Here are their insights, which can benefit all of us—as data explorers and as human beings.

In its beginning days, cloud was seen as a cost-cutting tool. Now the top reason organizations embrace the cloud is business agility, according to a 2014 Forrester survey. Other factors like speed to deployment and lower costs now rank lower.

With the launch of Tableau 9.1, there are now four major areas of extensibility for developers to leverage to extend Tableau in new directions, automate tedious tasks, and connect to more data sources. We’ve also got a new home for developers to get everything they need.

An effective data visualization lets users see and understand the data at the speed of thought. You can visualize data from biology labs, accounting case studies, or any other subject you’re studying to find answers faster. Here are five ways to improve the overall value of your dashboards.