Megan Taylor

The Washington Post launched a new blog yesterday, written by Ezra Klein.

That's how the e-mail I got introduced it too. "a blog by Ezra Klein." Pardon me, but who the @#$% is Ezra Klein?

Klein comes to The Post from The American Prospect, where he quickly built a dedicated following and became a widely recognized voice.

OK, nice credentials, but I still have no idea who this guy is.

Apparently he is going to write pretty extensively on "legislative issues at the top of the Obama administration’s agenda, including economic recovery, reviving the banking system, cap and trade, and health-care reform."

Important stuff. Why didn't you lead with that, instead of expecting me to recognize a by-line?

The blog itself is off to a pretty good start, even if Washington Post PR isn't.

• A section called "Think Tank" will be updated with articles, studies, and policy briefs.
• Ezra Klein is on Twitter.
• His blogroll links outside of Washington Post blogs.

No word on how much he'll interact with his readers, so I'll withhold judgment on that point.

Oops, Ezra didn't write his own About page:

Beatblogging.org has what Ezra needs to know to make his blog rock: Creating the perfect beatblog.

More about Ezra Klein:

Related articles by Zemanta

Political Blogger Ezra Klein Joins The Washington Post (readwriteweb.com)

Ezra Klein to WaPo (outsidethebeltway.com)

I'm confused. I feel out of the loop.

I get that Obama is the first black president.

I get that he represents a new era in our history.

I get that he represents changes that a lot of people want to see.

I get that his use of social media and technology during his campaign implies some very cool things during his presidency.

But why is everyone going apes**t!?

Why do I keep seeing articles about what the Obamas ate for lunch, or the kids' first day at school or his physical appeal?

Why did a whole bunch of people stand around in the freezing cold to listen to other people talk, and musicians with numb hands try to play?

Why are there iPhone applications devoted to this man and his inauguration?

I remember Bush's inauguration as a bad day, because my family disagrees with his beliefs and policies. I don't remember Clinton's. And before that, I wasn't paying attention to anything other than my skinned knees.

But I've asked around, and no other inauguration has been compared to Woodstock.

I really don't get it. Do you?

For me, the great thing about YouTube isn't finding new music, disturbing advertisements, or hilarious miscellany.

The great thing about YouTube is how it creates avenues for discourse.

For the second time, YouTube is hosting the Davos Debates - but this year, whoever uploads the best video response to one of the session questions gets a free ride to Switzerland.

YouTube has partnered with the World Economic Forum to open up debates from this year's Davos annual meeting. We're inviting people to record a video answering one of four session questions, and whoever uploads the most original, creative and popular video will win a reporter's pass and fully-paid trip to Davos at the end of January. Along with that, the best videos received will be played in the relevant sessions to Davos attendees.

Go to http://youtube.com/davos and check out the submissions. Submit your own response. Whether you win or your video is chosen for viewing at Davos doesn't matter. Getting involved in the discussion does.

The questions:

• Are you confident that global growth will be restored in 2009?
• Should company executives have a code of ethics similar to doctors and lawyers?
• Will the environment lose out to the economy in 2009?
• Will the Obama administration improve the state of the world in 2009?

What do you think?

The Ideas for Change in America competition is winding down, with today being the last day for voting.

The top 10 ideas will be presented to the Obama administration on Friday.

You can vote for 10 ideas

From the site:

The Ideas for Change in America competition was created in response to Barack Obama's call for increased citizen involvement in government. The final round of voting began on January 5 and is comprised of the top 3 rated ideas from each of the 30 issues in the first round of the competition, which collectively received more than 250,000 votes.

The top 10 rated ideas from the final round will be presented to the Obama administration on January 16th at an event at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, co-hosted by the Case Foundation. At the event we will also announce the launch of a national advocacy campaign behind each idea in collaboration with our nonprofit partners to turn each idea into actual policy.

A few days ago the Washington Post put together a section looking back on George W. Bush's presidency.

It's a bit soon, but given the zeitgeist, totally understandable. Hopefully as time goes by we'll get more analysis of what the effects of the past 8 years really are.

The section puts me in mind of Jeff Jarvis' "Topic Theory." Whether we can call topics the "building block of journalism," topic pages are an important way for users to keep track of a paper's coverage, catch up on unfamiliar stories and gather context on an issue.

The Post's Legacy page includes "video interviews with Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporters Bob Woodward and Barton Gellman, a timetable of significant news events and policy decisions, and opportunities for users to submit their own views." (from the press release I forgot I had received) There are also graphs, articles, and photo galleries.

I have a complaint, though: clutter. There is so much stuffed into this one page, with no clear hierarchy. It's just a bunch of stuff on a page, when it could have been designed to lead a reader through the events of the presidency.

Awhile ago I realized that somehow I ended up on the Washington Post's press release e-mail list. I'm not complaining, it's a good way for me to find out about what they're doing.

Today, the World section launched an app has has been around for a bit (I think they had a elections version) in beta. It's called TimeSpace: World.

It's pretty freakin' cool, although sadly loading page page also loads a ginormous ad above the application. This is not quite what people mean when they talk about making web apps pay.

From the e-mail I got:

Using innovative technology, TimeSpace: World compiles all world news content from The Washington Post, washingtonpost.com, PostGlobal, Foreign Policy magazine, and partner sites including The Associated Press and Reuters onto one, customizable map.

Here’s how it works: coverage is collected into clusters around hot-spots on an interactive map. By clicking a cluster, users can view articles, blog posts, photos, videos, and even reporter twitter feeds (without leaving the page). A timeline below the map illustrates peaks in coverage and allows users to customize news searches to a specific day or hour.

They also made a widget for the app, and individual items have unique URLs for easy sharing. The content includes articles, blogs, photos and video.

I really like the idea, though unless you're looking for something specific, it can get overwhelming to look at. The map is designed really well, with a neat sliding timeline function that also shows how much content there is for a specific time. Looks like there are some tracking possibilities here.

I don't remember people's reactions when Clinton was elected. I remember being angry, in a trendy "Everyone hates on Bush" way, after the election in 2000. In 2004, I almost left the country. But in none of those elections did I understand, as I only begin to now, the chain of events that starts with this one crazy night. I wanted to try to document the range of emotions I've seen people around me go through as the election ended and in the past day or so.

The day of the election, while I was bouncing off the walls with excitement and anxiety, people at the office seemed really calm. Someone even said to me, "I wonder who will win, but really, it's not like it can get any worse."

When it was all over, I could hear people outside my apartment screaming, honking, and generally celebrating. Even though you could see the same happening on the TV, it was cool to know that people around me were so emotionally involved in this election.

Yesterday a friend told me that when he looks at the people around him, they seem happier. They have hope.

This morning I got into a conversation on the train with a middle-aged black woman. She spoke about how she never thought she would see a black President of the United States. About what this means for everyone, "but especially for minority kids." She was practically glowing as she spoke of a friend who is 106 years old, and has lived through so much radical change.

I often hear people complain about how hard emotions are to read off a computer screen. I find it rather easy. Everything I read seems to be charged with the energy of change. Whether its because he's black, a Democrat, Internet-savvy, or just the lesser of two evils, a lot of people seem to be thinking happy thoughts.

Now all we need is some pixie dust.

Last night was one of most exciting of my life. I got to watch America do something special.

I got home around 6:30, right after the first polls closed. I stayed hooked to television and computer until just after President-elect Barack Obama's acceptance speech. It was an amazing experience.

During past elections, information was sought largely from television news. This time, I paid more attention to a large selection of Web sites than to the obnoxious commentary of political analysts. Apparently, so did a lot of other people:

According to Akamai, which is the content delivery network for most major news sites including CNN (which had a record day on its own), NBC, Reuters, and the BBC, global visitors to news sites peaked last night at 11 PM with 8,572,042 visitors per minute.
That is double the normal traffic level, and 18 percent above the previous peak of 7.3 million visitors per minute achieved during the World Cup back in June, 2006. (The third biggest peak to news sites was last March during the first day of the U.S. college basketball playoffs when it hit 7 million visitors per minute).(TechCrunch)

Most of the links below aren't to news sites, though. These are passionate and creative people who found different ways to reflect on what we all saw last night. A little bit of meta-coverage, if you will.

Mark Luckie put together a time-lapse video of the NYTimes home page from last night. It starts while voters are still at the polls and ends with Obama's victory. "In the Hall of the Mountain King" was an inspired musical choice.

Mark Newman and his cartogram software showed how skewing the normal red/blue map according to population or electoral votes is a better graphical representation of how America voted.

Daily Kos collected headlines and newspaper front pages in the US and elsewhere. Excellent collection with some really creative designs.

My friend Matthew Gonzalez grabbed some screen shots from news Web sites' home pages. I really love the NYTimes treatment.

Designer Robb Montgomery collects his best picks of front pages. I have to agree, the Chicago Sun-Times front is amazingly powerful. He also brings us "a video tour and spot critique of top U.S. media Web sites and their election graphics at the moment when Sen. Barack Obama won the 2008 presidential election."

ReadWriteWeb put together a really cool slideshow of election coverage online, showing resources from Twitter to Ustream, news sites and more.

Mindy McAdams put together her own slideshow of voting maps and home pages.

I recently joined the Spot.us group on Facebook. I've met David Cohn and heard him talk about Spot.us as well as following his blog for quite some time now. His idea is intriguing, and I've been pretty excited to see how things might work out for him.

From his message to the group, here are three successfully funded stories:

The first example of Community Funded Reporting came from a fantastic reporter Alexis Madrigal who examined the infrastructure of ethanol in the state of California. I feel confident that it is the most exhaustive look at the subject to date.

The second example is ongoing: The SF Election Truthiness Campaign. We raised $2,500 from 74 small donations (average $33) to fact-check political advertisements for the upcoming SF Election.
Just today PBS' MediaShift blog wrote about it.

Our most recent success story is underway right now: Chris Amico will look into the environmental concerns of cement kilns in the Bay Area.

Sounds like things are going really well for David so far, (congrats!) and I hope to see the project grow and even expand to other areas!

This is amazing. Must memorize. Where did I hide my index cards?

• Comments are worthless vitriol and they degrade the work of journalists.

• Never link to your competitors, you’re just giving them traffic!

• Social media is a fad. Investing in it now will be a waste of time and money when it all goes bottom-up.

• A blog is not a tool for journalism, it is for people in robes writing about their cats.

• Citizen journalists suck. They’re biased! They have opinions and everything. Act like they own politics.

From:

The ultimate guide to newspaper curmudgeon talking points — Eat Sleep Publish.

Every semester the board of The Independent Florida Alligator accepts applications for editor, print managing editor and online managing editor (formerly managing editor for new media). All current editors have to re-apply.

So today was the board meeting, and having welcomed a new editor and print managing editor, I moved to the other side of the table for my own interview. Happily, I was voted in again. And the board approved changing the title from "new media" to "online."

The Alligator doesn't publish during school breaks, so there won't be many changes to the site until January. But today I launched a map of gas prices in Gainesville, accompanied by the 10 cheapest gas stations in town. Super cool, cause I've been trying for half the semester to do that.

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

For my 21st birthday (which was a month and a half ago now) my mother promised to buy me a Blackberry Pearl as soon as I qualified for the T-Mobile discount, which would be sometime in October. Well, October is here. This means, that despite not having a laptop, and my MacBook Pro not being delivered in time, I should be able to blog my way through SNDBoston (Society of News Design conference).

So, this is my tentative plan:

On Thursday, I'll be attending the Student Sessions, which promise advice but are a little vague on structure and content.

Friday

9:30 am You can judge a book by its cover
Described by USA Today as “the closest thing to a rock star in graphic design today,” Chip Kidd revolutionized book design. Kidd shows how to tell and sell stories using conceptual thinking, visual puns, and found images.

11 am Brainstorming workshop: design
Inspiring examples and practical tips for fresh approaches to design. Robert Newman (Fortune, Real Simple, Vibe, Entertainment Weekly) and Kate Elazegui (art director, New York magazine).

And at this point I'm conflicted. At 2pm, there are two fantastic looking sessions:

Roundtable: The elections
Print and online designers, graphics artists, and picture editors discuss fresh ways to cover the upcoming elections. Panel includes Elliott Malkin (nytimes.com), Paul Nelson (Design Director, The Virginian Pilot), and Dan Wasserman, editorial cartoonist for The Boston Globe.

and

It’s the little things
Recent innovations in presenting stock tables, sports agate, and other small information. The panel includes Dennis Brack (The Washington Post) and typographer Matthew Carter.

Input anyone? Onward, then.

3:15 pm Multimedia, the next frontier
The next place for great design and photojournalism is multimedia argues Brian Storm founder of MediaStorm and former head of multimedia for MSNBC.

Oh, poppycock, more conflicts:

Brainstorming workshop: graphics
Inspiring examples and practical tips for fresh approaches to infographics Archie Tse (New York Times) and Javier Zarracina (The Boston Globe).

or

Typography roundtable
A discussion on trends from readability to revivals with typographers Matthew Carter and David Berlow.

And Friday ends with

6 pm ‘Helvetica, The Movie’
It’s the 50th anniversary of the typeface you love—or love to hate. Director Gary Hustwit’s documentary has been drawing rave reviews on the film festival circuit. The Chicago Tribune enthused that the film “sharpens your eye in general and makes connections between form and content, and between art and life.”

Saturday

9:30 am Reinventing The Guardian
Mark Porter, creative director of one the 2005 SND World’s Best-Designed newspapers on reinventing the print and online versions of one of Britain’s leading newspapers.

11 am The future is now
A look at new and emerging technologies from The New York Times R&D team. Interface designer Nick Bilton and futurist-in-residence Michael Rogers demonstrate the handheld Times Reader and discuss interactive newspaper technologies in development.

This conflicting sessions thing is really obnoxious. I need a time machine!

2 pm Reinventing page one
Long the most traditional page of the paper, panelists Jeff Hindenach (San Jose Mercury News), Gayle Grin (National Post, Canada) and Søren Nyeland (SND 2006 World's Best-Designed Newspaper Politiken, Denmark) show how to build memorable fronts with photography, graphics, teasers and a strong design voice.

or

2pm Storytelling in print and multimedia
Jenn Crandall (washingtonpost.com's onBeing) project and Kelli Sullivan (Los Angeles Times projects including the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Altered Oceans") show how words and images can be combined to create compelling narratives.

At 3:15 I'll be having my portfolio reviewed. I'm really nervous about this because this Web site is in dire need of a redesign (which I'm working on) and I can't really print out a lot of my work.

The (for me) icing on all this newsy cake is a session at 4:45 with Adrian Holovaty.

Making data webby
Adrian Holovaty of washingtonpost.com shares philosophy and strategies for making data browsable online. He’ll touch on several of his past projects, including chicagocrime.org and Faces of the Fallen.

I'm working on a couple of database projects this semester and probably will be working with Django next semester, so I'm looking forward to satisfying my fetish for the geekier side of journalism.

Applied Fact Finding was a great class for me.

In class we reviewed news stories that were seeded or based entirely on analysis of public records. I learned how to find local and state records on all topics: "campaigns and elections, property, business, health care, court procedures, environment, education, online and library research, FOIA requests, computer-assisted reporting, and Excel." (from her description of the class)

I was amazed and a little perturbed by how many parts of people's lives are available through public records and how easy they are to find once you know where and how to look. I'm all for open access, but not to my life.

I love nothing more than to think of a question and use the Internet to find an answer. For this class, my questions were more specific, and limited to the life of one person (who despite numerous marriage licenses was extremely boring). And occasionally, we had to use actual books.

I was further intrigued by the possibilities for journalism that can come from analyzing and tracking public records.

But my favorite segment of the class focused on Web search. Of the two choices available for a book review assignment, I read John Battelle's "The Search". I now recommend it to my friends along with "Atlas Shrugged" and "Stranger in a Strange Land".

This is a class I would take over again if I could. In my mad rush to learn everything, sometimes I'm unable to slow down and pay attention to something that needs and deserves a little patience. Because of this class, there are randomly scattered CAR (Computer Assisted Reporting) -related Web sites among my del.icio.us bookmarks and Google Reader. I only wish there was as much emphasis on CAR in journalism education as there is on multimedia.

Here's the resource Web site from the class.

I'm always on the lookout for different ways to keep track of the political realm. It is an area that is very hard to cover well, concentrating on the issues without getting caught up in the "who has more money." I believe it is an area that newspaper have so far failed to cover well. So I turn to the Internet.

The Washington Post has a Campaign Tracker, which lists and maps the campaign events of the 2008 presidential candidates. For each candidate, it lists the state and city with the most events, as well as the top state for fund raising. You can see the results by candidate, date and state, and there's also an RSS feed. This is a nice start, but its focusing on the least important aspects of the campaigns. I'd like to see the issues candidates represent, whether or not they are being consistent, what groups are they getting support from, and links to every article in which they are mentioned.

EDIT: Derek Willis of the Post pointed out that I totally missed the candidate profiles, finance filings, and primary information linked to the Campaign Tracker.

WashingtonWatch reveals the costs behind proposed U.S. federal legislation and regulation. The site also asks for comments, allows responses to a poll and allows Bill summaries to be edited. The cost of a bill is broken down into "cost per family" which makes it easier to digest. Just looking at some of those costs makes me wince.

I may just be getting cool enough for people to send me press releases, cause I got this in my inbox the other day from the Congresspedia Associate Managing Editor:

• Get an early look at Congresspedia's new legislative section

• What’s McConnell Hiding?’ Win $500 for getting Sen. McConnell to answer on the record

• LOUIS—a new database of documents from the Congressional Record, congressional bills and resolutions, congressional reports, congressional hearings, GAO reports, presidential papers and the Federal Register.

• MAPLight.org federal money & politics search engine launched (so far only California and U.S. Congress)

• Open House Project delivers recommendations to increase transparency on Capitol Hill

I really like some of these ideas: pinning politicians down, easy search of Congressional documents, following paper trails and shining a light on Capitol Hill are all great things to put out there. And not necessarily things I expect from my newspaper.

I grew up in Coconut Grove, and my parents still live there. It was a great place to grow up: very little traffic, winding streets, trees and bushes and the best neighbors a kid could ask for.

It wasn't until recently that I started to pay attention to the adult world in the Grove. While looking for ways to keep up on my 'hood, I found the Coconut Grove Grapevine.

I don't have any idea who the blogger is, but I trust the source. Both of my parents are involved in local politics; the facts check out. I'm even pretty sure the blogger is someone they know. Another reassuring point is the amount of community interaction that goes on in the comments. Letters from commissioners and local bigwigs as well as outspoken Grovites have appeared. People I know, know of, or don't know at all are talking back, adding information and opinion to the mix.

My parents kept me up-to-date on commissioner elections a while ago, but I was only getting their point of view. While the CGG blogger is clearly biased toward the Grove, not all commenters were of the same opinion. I enjoyed getting to see the different sides of issues that affect a place I love, even if I no longer call it home.

This blog is how I found out that my idyllic little oasis is in trouble. Over-development has been a problem everywhere is South Florida, but it never seemed to hit the Grove - until now. I cheered Grove residents on as they campaigned against Home Depot. I kept a close eye and crossed fingers over a project that would allow more condos to be built on the water, obstructing the view and adding unwanted traffic. The Grove lost both wars.

While the Grapevine focuses on politics, I've also seen announcements for local festivals and even a "Paris Hilton goes to Jail party."

For anyone trying to figure out what hyper-local is, this is it. Coconut Grove is a tiny area in big, busy Miami, and is often overlooked by television and print news. This blog doesn't just keep me in the know, it makes me feel like I'm still a part of the community.

A while ago I wrote about a number of online political projects, including the Sunlight Foundation's Congressional Web Site Investigation.

Today I got an e-mail from Bill Allison:

...we investigated 536 congressional Web sites--supported by taxpayer dollars--and found that a staggering 499 members have sites that do not offer basic information about their official duties in Washington.

Members didn't bother to mention the names of the committees on which they serve, or link to the bills they introduce into Congress, or, in a few cases, even an email address to write them. Not a single member offers or links to the disclosure forms they're legally required to file on their income, junkets and office expenditures. And just a handful offer information on their daily schedules or the earmarks they sponsor.

Included was information on their next project, Congresspedia.

Now, we want to add the results of the investigation to each member's "permanent record" - their Congresspedia profile. Below is a link that will take you to the complete results of the survey for each member of Congress you investigated. We've set up an easy-to-use, semi-automated process by which you can add the results for Congresspedia's tens of thousands of daily readers to see when they look up their member of Congress. Hopefully this will help educate citizens about how transparent their members are and serve as a powerful incentive for members to improve their transparency for the next time we conduct this investigation.

I think this is a great way to provide interested citizens with information about their representatives in government. Head on over to Congresspedia for more information.

Will CAR (Computer Assisted Reporting) also stand for Citizen Assisted Reporting? Or will we just stick to calling it citizen journalism?

My hometown cops, the Miami Dade Police Department, is on MySpace. They have a theme song, videos and safety tips. Apparently, the Department is in a relationship and its zodiac sign in Capricorn. I hate to say, it could be legit.

Even better than the Washington Post's Congress RSS feed: OpenCongress brings together official government data with news and blog coverage to give you the real story behind each bill. OpenCongress is a joint project of the Participatory Politics Foundation and the Sunlight Foundation. They have a Digg-like visualization and RSS feed for "Most Viewed Bills," "Bills Most Covered in the News" and "Bills Most Covered in Blogs." You can also look at issue areas by popularity and the home page displays the Most Viewed Senator and Representative: right now, Barack Obama and Heather Wilson.
This is really awesome, and a must-see for those politically inclined.

The Sunlight Foundation is also host to the Congressional Web site Investigation Project. They asked volunteer Web surfers to analyze and grade the official Web site of each member of Congress. I did one a week or so ago, to see the rubric, which unfortunately I can't pull up now. But basically we were asked to find whether or not a member posted certain information (required by law or not) on their Web site. The results of the study will be publish within the next 10 days.

United States Patent and Trademark Office Goes Social from 901am by muhammad saleem. The Washington Post has more.
United States Patent and Trademark Office Home Page
No sign of these changes yet.

The New York Times has staff blogging about:

• Bits - newest gadgets and trends
• First Look - new features and services
• Carpetbagger - movie awards
• The Lede - news stories
• The Caucus - elections
• Pogue's Posts - technology
• DealBook - business
• The Pour - wine, beer and spirits
• Diner's Journal - restaurants
• The Public Editor's Journal - responds to reader complaints/comments
• Dream Home Diaries - the epic tale of home construction
• Screens - Web video and media
• The Empire Zone - politics in NY, NJ, And Conn.
• Tierney Lab - science
• The Fifth Down - fantasy football
• Wheels - cars

In addition, this article reports that newspaper blog traffic has tripled from 1.2 million viewers a year ago to 3.8 million in December 2006.

Blog pages accounted for 13 percent of overall visits to newspaper sites in that month, up from 4 percent a year earlier. Total visitors to the top newspaper sites rose 9 percent to 29.9 million.

Lookin' good!

Congress got the day off to watch the Championship game.

At the end of the 3rd quarter, the score is 34-14, Gators.

I'm not a fan of the football, but an extra day off would've been nice.