Developed PaulConley.com, a business website for media consultant Paul Conley based on a previous minimalistic design using modern Web standards. Design by Kyle Mitchell. Launched 2/18/2010.
Skills: CSS, JavaScript, XHTML, PHP
Medium: Web
CMS: WordPress
Interviewed NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen about ExplainThis.org, an open system for asking and answering questions that journalists can use for story ideas.
Jay Rosen's Explainthis.org Would Have Journalists Answer Users' Questions
If you listen to Rebooting the News, a podcast done by Jay Rosen, a journalism professor at NYU, and Dave Winer, often described as the father of blogging and RSS, you've heard their ongoing discussion about the importance of context and explanation in a new system for news.
Building on those ideas and several existing projects, Rosen has developed an idea that could make journalism better by allowing more people to participate in the process: ExplainThis.
Published January 8, 2010.
Publication: Poynter E-Media Tidbits, a Poynter Institute blog about the intersection of news & technology.
Skills: Reporting, Writing
Medium: Text
Interviewed six college students who are teaching themselves a combination of journalism and programming as part of a series on the "programmer/journalist" trend.
How Programmer/Journalists Craft Their Own Study Programs
Remember the sidewalk scene from "Reservoir Dogs" that showed a group of tough guys walking down the street? They're all out to do the same thing, but none of them are what you'd expect. The same seems true for aspiring programmer/journalists.
I spoke to six college students who are combining self-taught programming with elements of journalism education. Most work at their student papers, but only two are journalism majors. These students are putting what they know and love together in ways their formal education -- and in some ways the industry as a whole -- hasn't caught up with yet.
Published December 2, 2009.
Publication: PBS MediaShift, a blog that tracks how new media -- from weblogs to podcasts to citizen journalism -- are changing society and culture.
Skills: Reporting, Writing
Medium: Text
Interviewed several journalists about how they use RSS for research and reporting and wrote about tips for keeping on top of a beat using RSS.
Journalists use RSS to track rivals, news, tweets & other info
RSS is an incredibly useful way for journalists to keep track of beats by watching what is being published online, whether on news sites, blogs, Twitter, saved Google search terms, etc.
I spoke to three journalists about how they use RSS for research and reporting. They also each gave one really good tip for diving into RSS.
Published December 1, 2009.
Publication: Beatblogging.org, a blog about how journalists can use social networks and other Web tools to improve beat reporting.
Skills: Reporting, Writing
Medium: Text
My credit line for Live By Request: John Fogerty
I worked with Connect Infinity to handle Twitter, Facebook and YouTube postings and requests for Live By Request: John Fogerty, a PBS pledge drive event for 3 weeks up to and during the show.
October 13 - November 7
Skills: Community Development
Medium: Social Media
I broke this story about a local park where renovations were delayed due to the discovery of heavy metals contamination.
Heavy metals have been discovered at Harris Field in Bedford Park during the park’s reconstruction, the Norwood News has learned.
The Parks Department declined to answer specific questions about what heavy metals were found, the levels of contamination, or the steps taken to make the site safe. Although the agency claims proper procedures were followed, further questions were referred to its legal department and the Norwood News has filed a Freedom of Information Law request to obtain the information.
Published October 22, 2009.
Publication: Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper serving the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, North Fordham and University Heights.
Skills: Reporting, Writing
Medium: Text
How do you merge the culture of the programming environment with the culture of the newsroom? Part of a series on the "programmer/journalist" trend.
Can Programmers, Journalists Get Along in One Newsroom?
"You need to go do what you're being asked to build," he [Matt Waite] said. "Spend a night on the sports copy desk taking high school football scores and you'll get an idea of what a football score taking app should do, no matter what the editor is telling you."
Similarly, journalists would do well to sit with a programmer and watch their ideas get turned into an app.
Published October 19, 2009.
Publication: PBS MediaShift, a blog that tracks how new media -- from weblogs to podcasts to citizen journalism -- are changing society and culture.
Skills: Reporting, Writing
Medium: Text
New York street performers Tic and Tac began their careers at the age of seven, break-dancing in the subways. In The Art of Attraction, Tic and Tac catapult themselves into New York's iconic home of street-artists, Washington Square Park, where they pull crowds and big money with their neck-crushing acrobatics.
My role in this project was as a volunteer, transcribing all the audio.
Produced September 19 - 25, 2009.
Publication: MediaStorm creates cinematic narratives for distribution across a variety of platforms. Utilizing animation, audio, video and the power of still photography, we publish diverse narratives that speak to the heart of the human condition.
Skills: Transcribing
Medium: Text, Audio
I interviewed the three winners of the Sunlight Foundation's "Apps for America" context about how they chose to visualize data made available on the Data.gov website and what news organizations can learn from their work.
'Apps For America' Shows Innovative Ways to Display Government Data
The Sunlight Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to greater government openness and transparency via the Internet, recently announced the winners of the "Apps for America 2: The Data.gov Challenge" development contest. There is a lot to learn from the winners: Datamasher, GovPulse and ThisWeKnow.
News organizations have been putting data online for years, but not many of them have been doing it well. (Think data ghettos.) As government agencies and third parties place a high priority on sharing information that's key to public discourse, news organizations may benefit from observing how they put data online.
Published September 21, 2009.
Publication: Poynter E-Media Tidbits, a Poynter Institute blog about the intersection of news & technology.
Skills: Reporting, Writing
Medium: Text
Spoke with several programmer/journalists to determine what the ideal skillset might be for an aspiring student. Part of a series on the "programmer/journalist" trend.
In Search of the Perfect Skillset for a Programmer/Journalist
Web development is probably the biggest distinction between CAR skills and programmer/journalist skills, though there aren't any hard-and-fast distinctions. To try and further define the skillset of the programmer/journalist, I posted this question on Twitter: "What skills does a programmer/journalist need?"
Brian Boyer, a graduate of Medill's journalism for programmers master's track and now News Applications Editor at the Chicago Tribune, responded with this list:
"XHTML / CSS / JavaScript / jQuery / Python / Django / xml / regex / Postgres / PostGIS / QGIS"
Holy alphabet soup!
Published September 8, 2009.
Publication: PBS MediaShift, a blog that tracks how new media -- from weblogs to podcasts to citizen journalism -- are changing society and culture.
Skills: Reporting, Writing
Medium: Text
A Google Map of Bronx City Council Districts, created from the Department of City Planning's shapefiles. Clicking on each district results in an info window which contains a mugshot of each candidate and links to their profiles on the New York City Campaign Finance Board website.
An Interactive Guide to the Bronx's City Council Races
Related blog post: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love GIS
Published September 8, 2009.
Publication: Bronx News Network, a nonprofit organization founded by Mosholu Preservation Corporation and the Norwood News to provide news and information in underserved Bronx neighborhoods.
Skills: Google Maps API, GIS, KML
Medium: Google Map
Researched and interviewed journalists regarding computer-assisted reporting and the evolution of the programmer/journalist. Part of a series on the "programmer/journalist" trend.
How Computer-Assisted Reporters Evolved into Programmer/Journalists
I see a very clear progression from CAR to the programmer/journalist trend via the web. CAR is meant to be invisible. You analyze a database as part of the reporting process, but you don't want to clog up a story with too many numbers. The ability to add details online has changed this process. Data has become a part of the story. And that's the key connection between CAR and programming in journalism: data.
Matthew Waite, the developer behind PolitiFact, told me his evolution from computer-assisted reporter to programmer/journalist was "the natural evolution of someone who just keeps going with CAR skills."
Published August 7, 2009.
Publication: PBS MediaShift, a blog that tracks how new media -- from weblogs to podcasts to citizen journalism -- are changing society and culture.
Skills: Writing, Blogging, Reporting
Medium: Text
After the Associated Press released a controversial statement about a "news registry" that would help the organization track use of its content, I did some research to find out exactly how it would work.
How AP's News Registry Will (and Won't) Work
The Associated Press's announcement of a news registry to "track and tag all AP content" to "assure compliance with terms of use" has stirred a lot of discussion. From techies to journalists, it's unclear how the registry will work, whether it will do what AP claims, and how it will fit in with copyright law and the culture of the Web.
The news registry was announced as part of the AP's initiative to "protect news content from misappropriation online." Bloggers worried that AP was after them, spurred by AP CEO Tom Curley's statement to The New York Times that the registry would be used to regulate even the use of a headline and a link to an article. Others at the AP, however, have said that the news organization has no problem with people quoting its content in the course of blogging.
Published August 7, 2009.
Publication: Poynter E-Media Tidbits, a Poynter Institute blog about the intersection of news & technology.
Skills: Writing, Blogging, Reporting
Medium: Text
NYPD Buys Guns, but Residents Doubt Effects
Nearly 20 other Bronx locals who were asked about the program agreed with A.J. that gun crime would not be significantly affected by programs like the gun buy-back event, which coincided with 13 shooting incidents in the borough that weekend.
Published in the May 14, 2009 edition of the Norwood News.
Skills: Writing, Blogging, Reporting
Medium: Text
Developed Bronx Youth Heard website for student journalism program run by the Bronx News Network. Launched 4/10/2009.
Skills: CSS, Design, PHP
Medium: Web
CMS: WordPress
60 Seconds: See them. Know them.
I collaborated on building this XML-loading Flash video player in AS3 with Stephanie Rosenblatt. Published to The Miami Herald.
Skills: XML, Flash, AS3
Medium: Web
Interviewed Andrei Scheinkman and Derek Willis of the New York Times about Represent, and wrote about how they built the application and what its implications are for journalism as part of a series on innovative journalism projects.
Represent Helps New Yorkers Track Their Politicos
Represent is a look at the future of online journalism -- focused, local and geographically relevant. It's a different way to group and browse information based on an individual's political districts.
Published: March 18, 2009
Publication: PBS MediaShift, a blog that tracks how new media -- from weblogs to podcasts to citizen journalism -- are changing society and culture.
Skills: Writing, Blogging, Interviewing
Medium: Text
Washington Post's 'Web Ninjas' Build Map-Timeline Combo
TimeSpace, a Washington Post project, is a coverage mapping framework that displays content from multiple sources in space (via a map) and time (via a timeline).
Skills: Writing, Blogging, Interviewing
Medium: Text
BronxRhymes Uses Locality, Maps to Track History of Hip-Hop
BronxRhymes is an attempt to raise awareness of the history of hip-hop in the Bronx, the northwestern borough of New York City where the musical style is thought to have originated.
Skills: Writing, Interviewing
Medium: Text
ProPublica Puts Spotlight on Tracking TARP Money
ProPublica's Show Me the TARP Money is a simple map and chart reflecting the recipients of money provided through TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program), a federal program that authorizes the U.S. government to buy assets from struggling financial institutions in an effort to remedy the subprime mortgage crisis.
Skills: Writing, Interviews
Medium: Text
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