Entries from October 2007 ↓

I really like these videos. They are how I explain to my non-typophile friends why typography is interesting. The ability to convey so many meanings with different fonts is fascinating, I’ve been trying to think of a project I could use the technique for.

This weekend is The Fest, an annual punk rock show that brings in fans from all over the country. The Independent Florida Alligator has never really covered this event and the majority of students living in Gainesville don’t know it exists.

So my staff and I decided to remedy that. We set up a page just for The Fest. Put up a map and schedules, created a Twitter account and asked people to tag photos so we could display them. Then we took a walk with the video camera.

Yesterday was the first day, and in the early afternoon we set out to get some video at the Fest Flea Market. Anthem tattoos was set up in the back of a conference room, so we approached them to ask if we could tape the process.

Me: “Hi, my name is Megan, I’m from The Independent Florida Alligator. We were wondering if we could get some shots. (holding up the camera)”

In-charge-looking guy: “Sure, come around through here.”

Bystander: “But The Alligator is a newspaper!

Me: (sort of shocked and weakly): “We have a Web site…” (then joking) “We’re gonna print the video.”

WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!

I need new examples. I’ve seen chicagocrime.org at least a dozen times. I’ve explored it on my own. The same goes for many other sites that are presented during classes and conferences: MediaStorm, Google maps, NYT infographics, Onbeing…

I go back to those same sites when I need an idea. When I need to be inspired. I try to figure out how I can do what they did. But I want more.

I want a website with resource links to all kinds of online journalism: databases, video, maps, graphics, design, you name it. Constantly updated so I can find new things.

Wait. It exists. It’s updated every day by hundreds of people. And it’s not limited to online journalism.

Del.icio.us.

Though it’s been 6 years since I walked into high school for the first time wearing ragged jeans and my younger brother’s T-shirt, my taste in clothing hasn’t changed. I’m most comfortable in the shirt and jeans that have gone through the washer so many times they hang together by three threads.

Which is one of the explanations for why last weekend was so challenging.

On Thursday, I had job/internship interviews with The Miami Herald and The St. Petersburg Times. An event that requires the full pantsuit and heels. The interviews went very well, in fact, the best I’ve had yet.

Friday evening was the cocktail event for the Alligator’s 2nd Century Celebration. A little less formal, but military boots paired with a skirt: Not cocktail material. I met some really interesting people and I had a great time, but at midnight I was really glad to walk home in my socks.

Then on Saturday, the Celebration was in full swing. As the new media managing editor, I had to sit up on the dais. I know everyone was too busy talking and eating to look at me, but I’m not the most graceful eater…so I kept my mouth shut.

My parents would be delighted to learn that I’ve finally entered the realm of professionalism, I can dress myself without being an embarrassment and I’ll keep the heels on until midnight. (Which is when I assume everyone is too tired or inebriated to look at my feet.)

I understand that appearances matter and that I’ll never get rid of the heels for good. As one of my professors pointed out: I’d hate to lose a good job to a moron who dressed up because I dressed down. But I don’t have to like it.

This week, I ran into a professor who had seen all three versions of “dressed-up me.” “Now, there’s the Megan I recognize.” As much as I look forward to life after college, I’ll enjoy my jeans and t-shirts as long as I can. Mom always did warn me not to grow up too fast.

I had a great time at SNDBoston, and I learned a lot. Unfortunately, one of those things made me really sad.

Friday night, SND goers were bused over to a club in the Theatre District, Felt. Somehow, three floors of pool tables and dancing space were reserved just for us.

After milling around to see if anyone I knew (from the blogosphere or otherwise) was there, I settled into a conversation with a couple of older journos hanging out in the back. One of them was very receptive to my explanations and enthusiasm about online journalism. But the other kept asking me, “So, you want to be a tech?”

After some probing, I discovered that a “tech” is someone who shovels content onto the Web site. Ugh.

It came as a surprise, surrounded as I am at school by people who “get it,” or are trying to, that my geeky tendencies would relegate me to something so distasteful. My reporting skills are fine, I just happen to enjoy coding as much as I do writing.

with Adrian Holovaty! This is the highlight for me, since my background is more programming and I’m defenitely a huge geek. Seeing Adrian speak was the deciding factor in coming to SND.

How to take data and make it efficient in terms of how the hypertext is laid out. Example: Wikipedia = Serendipity

Journalists are essentially collectors of data.

Rant #1 No serendipity in online journalism. Bullshit!
Data browseability: people want it and expect it. (IMDB, Amazon.com)

Serendipity increases stickiness and usefulness.

It all starts with structure. Have a structured list of data (facts) like an Excel spreadsheet. Journalists take clean data and turn it into a story. Computer programs can’t read the story. News orgs have the infrastructure to collect data, edit and verify the data and get the data to people. But they don’t leverage the data!

Lesson #1 Structure your data
Everything has structure. Sports. Obits. Even photos: subject, photographer, where, when, camera, size, colors (Flickr)

After the structure, the easy part.

Lesson #2 Give your data “the treatment”
Example: crime data
Step 1: lists fields (date, time, type, address, location, arrests, case number)
Step 2: key concepts (what data is useful? date, time, type, address, location)
Step 3: make breakdowns (list all possible values for each field)
Step 4: make list pages (pages for each value in each field)
Step 5: detail pages (pages for each crime)

Things to note
- Permalinks for concepts (distinct URL) linkability/bookmarkability
- SEO
- Serendipity

Example sites: chicagocrime.org, Faces of the Fallen, Video Game Reviews, Mixed Messages.

Kelli Sullivan from the Los Angeles Times and Jenn Crandall of onBeing from the Washington Post.

Tell stories with graphics (example: show how trailer sways occur, graphics in print, flash online; break stories up into sections for layout)
- instead of scattered graphics, use sequentially to tell story
- figure out goals of editors and find creative ways to achieve them
- work closely with photo editors
- keep communication flowing: make sure you have the space you need, communicate with Web people as you learn things

Edit ruthlessly: edit for redundancy, keep it simple, let photos help pace the story
Build on the unique aspects of the story
Are graphics accessible, do they forward the story?
Develop multiple versions if there is time
Can breaking design rules help the project?

Solicit feedback!! But maintain independence/objectivity.

Jenn Crandall is freaked out by not being a designer, too! She’s a still photographer and videographer.
Oh yes! My favorite OnBeing character, Gio Escalante. Cute little kids for the win.
Focus on the characters: clean design, make it all about the person.
Lots of questions about this project: editing, equipment, traffic and response, transfer to print (there is currently not a print version).

I’m beginning to understand and appreciate the “these are my designs” trend. I think it depends on how the lecturer explains the design. Thinking about how to take some of this layout stuff online. Also, how to work more closely with various editors to anticipate online projects. onBeing is a perfect example that newspapers need to provide more than what we normally define as news.

with Nick Bilton and Michael Rogers from the New York Times R&D team.
R&D: Engineers look ahead (18 months to 5 years) for new technological advances. R&D is a state of mind and a commitment of resources.
“I always wear a tie because with a title like ‘futurist’ you need all the credibility you can get.”

How will content be delivered?
- Paper is hard to compete with as a display device.
- E-Ink: flexible, long battery life, no energy to display page, can hold 180 books, only black and white
- Polymer vision: about the size of a cell phone, updates wirelessly
- OLED: OLED screen is vibrant, great with color
- Google vision

The next audience: Millennials
Fears: a) no interest in news, b) no interest in paper
Were you seriously following the news at age 17? College students read campus news on paper: its still convenient.
Millennials have no habits that revolve around news. They have mobile phones!

Wireless everywhere!
- WIFI: laptops shipped with it
- 3G
- WIMAX: wifi on steroids, global standard

Devices?
Laptops will get smaller, smartphones get better, until they merge. Times Reader: Windows-only right now. Navigate, resize, edit and annotate text, send annotations to others. Lays itself out to fit size of screen.

Print to Mobile
- Reefers
- Interact with paper via text messages
- 2d barcodes for cellphones to Web site
- shifd.com: communication between phone and TV, phone and computer

Devices are becoming more aware of our location and the content we seek. More and more data comes in automagically tagged with extra info (Geotagging).
How do we create new value out of existing content without expending human effort? (Algorithms, Google Earth!)

Virtual News Delivery: SecondLife

Brian Storm, founder of MediaStorm.

Bloodline: AIDS and family by Kristen Ashburn and Kinglsey’s Crossing by Olivier Jobard - good photojournalism can transate into cinematic (web) space, blending video, audio, text slides, infographics and photos.

Storm also showed the “Creep” Flash animation for Radiohead, an animated collage of life in Cuba, and, of course, Ivory Wars (in collaboration with National Geographic).

Newspapers think that video can save them, but photography is still a powerful medium. So get audio. Do audioslideshows.

Storm doesn’t believe in the “2-3 minute YouTube rule.”

Production and distribution costs are affordable and simple.

MediaStorm aggregates a bunch of different types of media, they are sponsored by The Washington Post, uses Brightcove for playback, relies on viral products (music, photos, video, books, podcasts etc), “reducing the friction.”

Can license projects to clients to premire content, media companies can bid. Media companies can also hire MediaStorm to produce specific content.

Coverng elections is a serious design challenge: fairness, impartiality, dense content, BORING?! Designers can make the content interesting and visually appealing.

Paul Nelson, The virginia Pilot

- Work with ad vertising to ensure enough space
- Handle news based on value and not on previous coverage
- Get opinions from community (reaction pieces on debates, etc.)
- Create ways to make the good stuff stand out (local connections to issues, adwatch - are candidates telling the truth in ads?)
- At-a-glance info
- Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert
- illustrations, graphics, multimedia, embed from YouTube etc.
_ reefers to Web site
_ prepare multiple fronts

Dan Wasserman, Boston Globe

- Cartoons for election campaigns: has to fill the same size rectangle 4-5 times a week.

Eilliott Malkin, information architect, New York Times interactive

- 2004 election coverage: infographic reefer, liva data from AP
- 2006 coverage: modular inforgraphics, came up with structure 6 months in advance: results page for each section
- 2007: blog caucus, full column infographics, live data, results by various categories
- 2008: homepage, politics section front, blogs, election guide (evergreen), topic pages via nyt navigation and google searches (SEO), timelines