A week ago, I was assigned the task of building the story package for a series on mortgage fraud. This had been in the works at The Miami Herald for quite some time, and the investigative team was finally ready.

When we found out that Congress was working on legislation relevant to the series, the package was fast-tracked. I had one week to build this thing.

It launched yesterday morning and if I do say so myself, it’s wicked cool. We have profiles and documentation for 4 major offenders, a flash graphic, a couple of static graphics, a slide show and a video, in addition to all the stories.

I even got a credit line in the footer!

I learned a lot about coding fast - quick and dirty sounds good, but it pays to take just a few extra minutes to do it right. It was also a good team experience. It’s so much harder to put things together when no one know what anyone else is doing, it almost justifies meetings! (Except that’s why we have instant messenger and Twitter.)

And guys, I forgive you the millions of revisions and changes. Everything turned out great.

Check out how they did the story.

So what’s next? I have a bunch of different projects on my plate, but I’ll give you a few hints: Video, Flash, ActionScript 3, XML, Twitter, database, Django, Python. Not another word! You can’t drag it out of me!

I’m doing an independent study on Computer Assisted Reporting with Professor Cory Armstrong in the Spring. I was told at a couple of job interviews that I need CAR experience, but the University of Florida takes data no further than the Fact Finding class.

So I’m going to find a dataset, explore it, and hopefully be able to produce a story package.

Right now I’m doing some research on different datasets currently available, but I’m having trouble narrowing down my subject.

I’ve been looking at some PEW studies for ideas on what sort of data to look at, as well as the IRE Database Library.

Some ideas so far:

• Campus Crime: compare Florida colleges or SEC colleges or just look at UF crime
• Walter Reed: I’m not sure how to find this data, or if it is readily available. But it was one of the seriously under covered stories listed by PEW. This could be taken more broadly: reduced funding in VA hospitals, funding vs. number of troops vs. number of living vets, 2001 to present for all kinds of money issues, number of wounded, currently enlisted, vets no longer enlisted, maybe also insurance
• Fluctuating Gas Prices
• Tasering Cases in Florida

Edit: I’m also trolling the Sunlight Foundation’s “Insanely Useful Web Sites.”

That’s it so far. (Thanks to Mindy for the help.)

Picking a subject has always been the hardest thing for me. I just want to look at everything!

Suggestions, as always, are welcome.

Al Tompkins posted this great interview with David Simon, assistant city editor at The Frederick News-Post, about the Forgotten Soldiers project.

The project tells the stories of soldiers who have been unaccounted for in 5 wars.

The project began with a simple press release about an American Legion dinner to honor the county’s sole Vietnam War veteran who remains unaccounted for. He’s been featured in our paper a number of times, but we began wondering if veterans of other wars might be unaccounted for.

The interview is inspiring, and the project is very comprehensive, if a little disorganized.

The entire project includes maps, databases, articles, timelines, individual stories, a guestbook, AND a pretty big multimedia package.

Like most huge projects, there’s an organization problem. What do I click on first? Where do I start, where do I finish? How do I know if I’ve already read this part? Etc.

It makes me want to go digging around in public records and databases. I just need a topic to start with.

Looks like I had good timing. Check out some of these posts for more on CAR.

• Journalism’s Future
• Do numbers make your head hurt?
• The next step after multimedia and interactivity? Just add data.

My affinity with numbers is pretty weak. My education in Excel is elementary. I’ll be looking for a tutor soon.

The Scoop is an amazing Web site where Computer Assisted Reporting is documented and then sorted into categories by any means your geeky heart could desire.

Today’s entry is from the Florida Times-Union, a piece called Homicide 360.

Writers Jim Schoettler, Paul Pinkham and Steve Patterson researched the 364 homicides - whether criminal, accidental or justifiable - that occurred between July 1, 2003 and June 30, 2006. That included learning the backgrounds of victims and killers.

Schoettler and Pinkham studied police investigative reports, prosecutors’ files and autopsy findings, then recorded the information in a computer database. They interviewed killers and cops, prosecutors and defense lawyers, judges and academics, crime witnesses and victims’ families.

With support from Duval County’s chief judge, homicide suspects’ confidential juvenile court files and pre-sentence reports were opened. Patterson coordinated and analyzed database records of each killing and collected other records. He also developed a database that tracked homicide suspects’ prior arrests and the outcomes of those cases.

I just finished a course on public records last semester, and it’s really cool to see what can be done with some patience and an affinity for numbers.

The feature is also a great example of how news stories should work online. From any one place in the story, you can move to any other place. Beautiful.