Gameiac Maniac

 

  

“There is no such thing as information overload, only filter failure.” 

Digitize your life: use digital tools + services to manage your day without drowning in e-mails, status updates, blogposts, etc. 

Digitize your journalism: use technology to improve productivity + make journalism more meaningful to audience 

Your Digital Life: 

• Organize e-mail

              – “Inbox Zero” — look at each e-mail message only once 

              – Spend two minutes or less per e-mail 

              – If you can’t reply in less than two minutes, file it for later 

              – Goal — zero e-mails in inbox after e-mail session 

• Find right personal productivity tools:

              – Develop a strategy 

                 * What you need to manage + the right tools to manage it = personal productivity 

                 * Variables to consider when using tools: 

                     1. How much are you willing to pay? — many solutions are free 

                     2. Do you need to integrate with other systems or with a mobile device? 

                     3. Do you need an offline solution? 

                 *Investigate possible solutions: 

                   1. Office suites: Google, Office Live, Zoho  

                   2. Specialized solutions: Instapaper, Remember The Milk, Oh don’t forget, Evernote, Jott, Dropbox, Backpack, Basecamp, Socrata, MindMeister 

                   3. Latest tips and info: www.lifehacker.com, www.43folders.com, mashable.com/category/productivity-lists 

              – Bring order to your contacts: 

                 * Use digital, not paper-based, information storage systems 

                 * News organization can build reader database from e-mail addresses from readers/by advertising and inviting readers to join 

                 * Reader networks used effectively in many situations, especially when sources or feedback are needed 

              – Bring order to your work: 

                 * Project management programs allow you to assign tasks, share files, establish deadlines and include notes (Basecamp, Zoho) 

                 * Can be used to track all kinds of projects 

                 * Take courses/read books on project management 

Data-Driven Journalism: 

* Using databases, spreadsheets and other forms of structured or fielded data in news coverage or story development 

* Almost any assignment can be broken down into datapoints + organized for customized manipulation 

* Most daily newspapers have event calendar databases; visitors can access most recent information at any time; event planners can add events directly into database 

• Why is data-driven journalism important?

              – News organizations are making their Web sites data destinations, providing information to audiences in a searchable database format while streamlining their own operation and cutting down on data entry 

• Every story is a field of data — can break any story into separate fields for analysis and entry into a spreadsheet or database online
• Telling stories with data:

              – Use data to create “alternate story form” for print edition 

              – Break down information into common parts — subject, location, date, action — build information resource that grows as you gather more 

              – Databases can help solve problem of slowly developing stories    

              – Helping reporters do their jobs: 

                 * Computer algorithms sort through databased information much more quickly than human investigative reporter 

                 * Reporter can use database to discover potential story leads that might never have been found 

                 * Often leads to great stories  

              – Sharing data: 

                 * Application Program Interface (API): allows anyone to tap into data and build tools and Web pages; connection of data and technology between two different Web sites 

                 * Closed systems + absolute control over content don’t work in digital information ecosystem 

                 * U.S. government created Web site at USASpending.gov  that allows journalists to mix and mash all that data with other information sources according to their own specific focus 

Building Spreadsheets, Databases: 

•   Creating a spreadsheet easy

               – Often easier to use a spreadsheet as first step to creating database 

               – Sometimes a spreadsheet is all you need 

               – When setting up a spreadsheet, include as many fields as possible 

               – Fielded data is key to sorting efficiently + being able to group items 

               – Use Excel or Google Docs to create spreadsheets 

Moving from spreadsheet to relational database: 

• Turn”flat” list into relational database
• “Relational” — one type of information relates to another
• Database allows you to view each record as its own page
• Software solutions can help build database once information is in spreadsheet (Microsoft Access for Windows + FileMaker for Mac;  free online solutions Socrata, Zoho or Grubba)

Map Mashups merge data from different sources: 

* Product of taking physical location data (addresses, points on a map) and organizing them based on a category/information type 

* People have created map mashups with Google, Yahoo and Microsoft maps for everything from pub crawls to tracking buses in Bangalore 

• Map mashups tell stories, too:

              – Heavy on manual labor 

              – Homicides: example of ongoing stories that benefit from use of data visualization + power of capturing information + sorting it into right buckets 

              – If structure for data done correctly, computer software makes it easy to update + produce 

• Applications in breaking news:

              – Databases and maps can be used for breaking news stories 

Build An Interactive Map With Data: 

* Build own map mashup with actual code or third-party service 

* Free online services will build map for you (MapBuilder.net, ZeeMaps, MapAlist.com, UMapper, and Google’s My Maps) 

• Think beyond single-use maps:

              – News organizations discovering power of building entire data ecosystems from geographically based journalism, data and user-submitted content 

              – Some local newspapers have projects that display several types of news and information based on geography 

              – Instead of a single-use map mashup, Web audience can see data feeds + recent news stories based on location 

              – The best allow audience to contribute information to share with the neighborhoods — a one-stop shopping for news and information tailored to your geography  

• Location-aware devices changing the game:

              – Displaying information, or interacting with audience, based on geography is powerful new frontier for many local news organizations 

              – Can reach growing portion of audience that carries GPS-enabled mobile phone depending on where they happen to be 

              – Location changes everything: inputs + outputs

              – Locative technology demands different presentation (non-linear) because it’s a different experience for the user 

Better Life, Better Journalism: 

• “Data literacy more important now”
• “Beat reporters should know how to obtain, analyze and write about data on their beats”
• Get the most out of data — store electronically then convert, organize, update and enhance 

 

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 19th, 2011 at 11:55 pm and is filed under briggs, Comm361. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.