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Open Journalism & the Open Web
Week 1: Audio and chat log
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Here's the assignment: Find a story of reasonable length, go through it. Find & identify every person or source of info, either named or unnamed. Find all assertion of facts, connect sources to fact. Which assertions are supported/unsupported? Which are taken to be consensus? Then organize the data however you wish. Pry it loose from the narrative coil. There is a way to cheat on this. I encourage you to do so.
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Thanks all.
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thanks again!
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*clapclapclap*
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*clapping*
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clapclapclap
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clap clap clap.
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applause!
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Thanks, Chris for taking your time to be with us!
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(clap clap!)
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*Applause*
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Vitor, i'd say more helping people do that
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@david So, you think that, at least initially, someone should be in charge of the tagging/marking of the stories?
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Capi, but the software does permit those kinds of interfaces, it just deemphasizes very specialized tasks
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(so far)
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like anything it works well with a mix of people, some enter stories, some mark it up, some organize it..
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@david i expect good journalists to be familiar with photographic techniques, video-editing techniques, why not semantic techniques? on the other hand, having interfaces would mean these semantics can be re-used and are easier to share.
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As with any new technologies...
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Can anyone maybe post sort of the database gathering/organization options (i.e. wikis, freebase, etc)
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@david @capi I meant that I think the technology is still new, so maybe there aren't good editors yet. It might be easy to teach to a few non-technical people how to use it, but it might prove very difficult for a bigger company...
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*are
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And today's suggestions is a good start!
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@Josh--yes I think this is an opportunity to take some initiative! I am hoping to get some practical projects out of the class.
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Capi, not trying to be controversial, but i'm really against that.. the writer should be able to add their own reusable meaning as they go along
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any guidance on "reasonable length"?
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Can you add a programming element that will then make the information usable on the web?
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@vitor if you have a programmer on the team, and the programmer is sensitive to the needs of the team while working on a story, the programmer can develop a useful interface that enriches data with semantics, while still presenting a friendly interface for non-technical people. have designer on the team.
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Sounds like basic fact checking. What's the programming element?
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(progressive meaning someone can just use it as a text store, someone else can develop combinations of data)
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Fact checking time.
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Vitor, like anything else it needs dedication, but it's more progressive and can be used different ways
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I'm going to have to google that.
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@david Do you think that a semantic wiki is usable by non-technical people?
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nancy, yes, you can reuse data types and query them
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yeah. Cause I'm awesome like that
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@David, that's a good point. There is basic commenting ability but that could get messy.
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@rick did you just create the p2puopenweb delicious accont?
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Dibrewers?
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@Steve: Love the note-sharing notion for reporting teams! @Mai ... sounds like you could push things forward in your newsroom by taking that initiative and sharing your database method.
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Debrouwere
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the problem with google doc is you aren't adding meta data. you can bold text, but you can't say "what are follow up items from all our meetings".. you can with semantic data.
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David, if they are individually structured, will they be standardized enough to interact?
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Perhaps a starting point regarding what Josh asked about is to use a wiki or Google doc for note-sharing among reporters on a team.
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nancy, that's why structured wikis can be good, they're more freeform
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The data management systems need to accommodate unexpected information. Not the other way round.
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Jeff Severns Guntzel says: |
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@AmyJo I'm mostly on the reporting side, but I am trying to work towards just such a system!
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Speaking to my earlier point--I think maybe I need to take the intiative to make it available to the newsroom and maybe develop some data stuff. I'm known as the "tech gal" in the newsroom, so maybe I should take advantage of that and generate some data programs.
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I can talk about smw now
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I know people that use it with linked data, not just freebase data
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@Jeff Can you build in a system where editors pull you in on story pitches or cc you? Then if you see something you like, you could go from there?
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When you report a story, you don't always know what you'll get. You often know what you want but you don't always get it.
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@Josh to be honest, I don't think people in my newsroom think about
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@Josh Wilson: It's definitely controversial. I thought I would throw it out there and see what folks thought of it. But ultimately, I think that goes back to competition vs. collaboration in journalism.
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@Vitor, love Dropbox too.
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but it needs a resusable license, creative common is most commonly used
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@Mai: Like your database. Does your newsroom have the vision to systematize your data-entry system so that everyone uses it?
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the web by nature is "anyone can publish" semantic web makes it so anyone can publish data in a reusable way
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@Kay: The thing about that is, do you want to play all your cards at once?
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Jeff Severns Guntzel says: |
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@AmyJo Completely. I'm on my own for them moment. MinnPost is a very small shop with many writers who never show up at the office and where story meetings are often one-on-one between writers and editors.
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joined call just now, sorry; you're talking about Freebase Gridworks?
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one increasingly popular request I've seen among bloggers is for them to post complete (or near complete) transcripts of their interviews -- especially with high-profile interviewees. This essentially serves the same purpose as posting all data online. Other bloggers can comb through the transcript, repurpose parts of the interview, and form new narratives out of it.
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The fact is that editors are busy feeding the beast.. I'm just thinking that maybe for the hacks there's a real opportunity to take some initiative.
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@Jeff Guntzel on taking advantage of info gathered during the reporting ... For the programmer to get exactly what he needs (and know what his options are) he should be involved in the reporting process from day 1 ... it should be a collaboration. Just as reporters collaborate with photographers and page designers.
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to keep up with places, people etc that they report about
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@Maureen -- thanks for that re: Grid works. Have just looked at it recently, haven't used it yet. Would like to hear more about how you're using it.
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If all your info is in your computer, wouldn't a company's Dropbox or similar tool be good for archival purposes?
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Oh! I also really like NYT's Times Topics
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consider a restaurant review, it includes lot of data. RDF would enrich that content by allowing programmers to query the data (thousands of reviews) and easily extracting lists of ingredients, rate of vegetarian servings, etx.
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cool I have been spending way too long cleaning data
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I find evernote great, but it's a little bloated
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What is the name of the tool - Freebase?
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Evernote pretty good for web clippings on a certain topic.
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I mentioned delicious.com, but Publish2.com might be even better for journalists
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I'm unmuted :)
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To gather clips on different topics
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@Jeff, I've tried out Evernote
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Analogous in that reporting and programming can occur in a collaborative context ... and if so, what is it that programmers do procedurally that can be ported over to reporting?
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RDF is a way to enrich content with semantics.
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I find that using a hinting form that helps people add to things in the database already can add structure to things nicely.
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Jeff Severns Guntzel says: |
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It seems like the most productive conversation topics are those that erase the line between hack and hacker. An example would be what we're talking about here: how do we take full advantage of information gathered during reporting? Sadly, my most reliable tools at the moment: Evernote and DEVONthink are not open source.
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RDF is a way to make content reusable across systems.
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Still a lot of different data that isn't quite organized
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@josh what do you mean by analogous to reporting?
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Integrating a public LDAP system with a wiki or extending with another database is a good way to keep track of contacts. Then you also get phonebook capability for free.
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Steve. thanks! But I'm still a work in progress!
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"...drupal natively supports RDF." Does everyone know what that means? I don't.
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sorry.. i'd really like to review semantic wikis in depth
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Can the way one undertakes a community programming project be ported over, procedurally, to the reporting process, in terms of collaboration and continuity between actors?
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And if there's any lag in the data.
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@Mai - impressive. That's really organized.
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Perhaps one can ask programmers an analogous question -- how is open-source or community software development analogous to reporting?
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So for example for real estate sales, I put down the phone number of the person I get the data from, and what to ask for...etc.
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thx Capi. DrupalGardens!
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Hey, Steve, sorry to respond late the chat is quick! But to answer your questions on my business indicators spreadsheet. I put very explicit instructions on the bottom of each page on how to get the data.
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but it's not letting me
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I'm a programmer. Semantic wikis?
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trying to
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speaking of rdf, did you know drupal 7 natively supports RDF?
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Vitor, potentially, sort of, but it has a very practical edge now
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By structured wiki, you mean semantic web, RDF and such?
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*6 I believe
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:)
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how do i unmut e?
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structured wiki like dbpedia?
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Do journalists want to be interchangeable? Who benefits from that? Does that lead to more quality reporting? Is writing quality and style important in the situations we're talking about?
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wikipedia is being made semantic by systems like freebase. here's an old presentation i did: http://wiki.zooid.org/wiki/SemWeb i have infinite patience for open content dev using structured wikis :) |
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@davidmason Any examples online? Is wikipedia a structured wiki?
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it would really take a presentation which i'd be happy t do
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+1 to structurd wikis, too
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Jeff Severns Guntzel says: |
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@Richard: Ha! Totally. I'm working on a story now that is drawing upon notes from interviews I did three years ago.
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+1 For hearing about structured wikis
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yes, would love to hear more about how structured wikis are good for reusing
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@Richard compliance may be hit and miss ;)
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semantic wikis allow mixing freeform text and links with marked up data
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mandated destruction of notes!!! eeek! I still use notes of stories I worked on 10 or 15 years ago.
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Some journalistic capital is contained in knowing which source has information, or knows someone who might have information. It's a more impressionistic world. So many types of journ. Indy journalists have reallly different constraints.
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@David Crandall - Care to speak to this question from the I/T and hacker side? @David Mason -- care to hop in with some semantic wiki examples?
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@Josh Wilson Also the content management systems in place in many newsrooms aren't able to catalog and archive content to the extent that we may want it to now for the digital world ...that's a sig investment for newsrooms.
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have any folks had success getting their newsrooms to implementing internal wikis for keeping the boilerplate information up to date? as a sports reporter covering high schools, there is a lot of institutional knowledge that can be lost during personnel transitions.
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with a structured wiki you can really reuse the data
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@Nancy: yes, But a desk drawer full of files is not the same as an integrated background-source database ... @AmyJo ... how does the mandated destruction of notes in some newsrooms affect long-term reporting projects?
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use a structured wiki please :)
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Google Spreadsheets have RSS feeds. Way useful
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@Josh Wilson it should. But that's a culture change. One consideration is that many newsrooms have reporters destroy notes every 30 days, etc., for legal reasons ...
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Nobody uses an internal wiki system for archival purposes?
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No way to automate the in-put?
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Josh, reporters often have files on all old stories. Paper and bookmorks.
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Mai: You say you keep a lot of info in spreadsheets, but who in-puts?
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Comments
For those who want to keep
For those who want to keep tabs on the audio files for the entire course, I'll try my best to keep them organized here (RSS).
For those looking to justify
For those looking to justify posting databases onto the web, found an interesting article from the Knight Foundation that said Texas Tribune's database pages get 2.5x as many page views as their narrative journalism pages. Sure, sure, there's a lot of controlled elements here (How much are they promoting these pages relatively speaking? Etc. Etc.) but it makes a great slide when trying to push forward the open agenda.
We blogged about it here: http://bit.ly/9eUYHD
PS. @Rick Martin: I was hoping for something *just* liked that! Added to my podcast subscriptions, thanks!
You know, it might be worth
You know, it might be worth sending the audio files to a posterous or drop.io page in order to create an iTunes podcast. To-do list...
I did set-up a posterous
I did set-up a posterous account for this course, but folks seemed to be using the P2PU site -- so I didn't move forward with it. Do you know if posterous will accept files of ~50-80MB for audio?
Phillip.