Michelle Minkoff

I’ve been doing a lot of soul searching recently, and coding.  Trying to remember why I decided to learn how to program.  It was always for journalism.  Never transitioning out of the profession, only transitioning within it, and helping it to transition.

I’ve been paying rapt attention to the journey of designer/journalist Chris Courtney.  He’s fighting a battle bigger than the ones we fight against agencies refusing to hand over document, journalists stuck in an old mindset, people too bored by media to become informed.  He’s fighting cancer.

We don’t know each other, Chris, but I’ve followed your work, and I’ve been meaning to introduce myself.  I can’t help but feel connected to you, though.  Reading your thoughts reminds me of my own similar journey. And having spent the day arguing with Javascript functions, and wanting to punch them in their metaphorical faces, it’s easy to forget there was a time when I had much bigger issues.  Life-threatening illnesses have a way of clarifying things. Read more…

http://projects.latimes.com/prop8

So, there’s that. First launch!

My checklist:

• Figure out what part of journalism inspires me. CHECK (Data, programming)
• Find place where I can learn about it from others, but have freedom to try out my ideas and learn from knowledgeable and patient folks. CHECK (LAT)
• Use this opportunity to learn enough about programming to create at least one app. CHECK (See first line of post)

That was a good time.

I’m planning a post on best practices for creating a searchable database application like this, with examples, and technical geekery, and all that, and I’d love your thoughts in the meantime.  Let me know if you have specific questions.

But in a moment of self-reflection, I’d just like to say this. Read more…

The last Data Delver I have on tap is Andy Boyle.  If you’re in the online journalism sphere on Twitter, you know this name, or at least, @andymboyle.  But let’s say you don’t.  If I introduce him as a reporter, that’s not the full picture.  A developer?  That’s not it either.  Web-savvy journo?  Still, nope.  All of the above, and then some?  Now, we’re getting somewhere.

I’ll just put it this way.  Andy, you’ve been an inspiration.  Watching your work while I was a student at Medill, and how much you enjoyed it, I knew some day I could do anything, if I could just set my mind to it, and find supportive mentors.

It’s a parallel thing.  Andy gets Matt Waite and Jeremy Bowers at the Times of the Southeast (St. Pete), I get Ben Welsh and Ken Schwencke at the Times of the Southwest (LA).  Match good mentors with journalistic enthusiasm and obsession, and you’ll get somewhere!

We both get to bring passion, skill and journalistic knowhow to the table.  We bug the people with the tech knowledge until we have a moment like this.   Maybe someday I’ll report in the field and code like Andy does.  But for now, my reporting consists of investigating the nuances of the still-large ship that is the LA Times, and looking at how it can be even better.  And at this point in time, I wouldn’t change it for the world.

It seems appropriate to post this interview with Andy now (Yes, I’m making excuses for delaying this for months and months….).  I chatted with him in March, just after the launch of his first Django app – MyLawmaker.  And I just launched my first one about two weeks ago.

I started these Data Delver interviews knowing no one in the field other than Derek Willis.  (And if you only got to know one person, he’s as good as it gets.)  And now, I feel like I know so many more.  And for some reason, I get to be a part of their ranks each day.  It’s a privilege, an honor, and an adrenaline rush like no other.

I’ll let Andy take it away in his own words now.

Read more…

Programming note: This Data Delver series was a lot more regular before I actually became a “Data Delver.” This is one of two interviews that’s been sitting in my draft pile.  I spoke to Cheryl Phillips back in March 2010, and the below interview should be interpreted in that context.  Sorry for the delay, Cheryl, but better late than never (I hope.)

One of the areas in journalism most ripe for data work, as I see it, is enterprise stories.  At papers with small CAR staffs, there’s often a serious strain on the time of CAR reporters and editors seeking to provide context and fodder for long-term projects, often investigative, and enhance shorter one-off daily pieces, often breaking news.  Spend too much time on one area, you’re neglecting the other.  At the Seattle Times, one editor is called the Data Enterprise Editor, and her time is largely based in project work, that breaks out of the daily story routine.  She works to include interactivity on the website, from searchable databases to Google maps.  And she works with a group of reporters focusing on suburban areas, that are too often undercovered.

It’s her job to organize and foster collaboration across the newsroom, to create the best data-based stories and projects possible.  The woman who holds this title?  The Seattle Times’ Cheryl Phillips. Read more…

UPDATE: This update brought to you by Vegas airport wi-fi.

Added additional female programmer to my list below, thanks to a tip in the comments from the ever-present-in-my-life Derek Willis *waves*.  Do any of you know others I should add to the list?

Also fixed minor typos and omitted words, and added a few links I meant to include.  Omissions resulting from blogging at 3:30 am.  Painted blue skies inside IRE hotel messed up my sleep pattern more than usual — although it’s pretty messed up to begin with.

If we just met in the last few days at the awesome Investigative Reporters and Editors conference, welcome! (And if you’ve been following for months, weeks, days or hours — thanks for putting up with me!)

I had a marvelous time this week meeting new people, learning new things, and even teaching a little bit. It’s so invigorating to see how much great work is being done.  The minds of some of the greatest folks in investigative journalism are your classroom.  I’m delighted and honored that once in a while these same brilliant minds ask me about easy tools to help visualize data sets (*cough* Many Eyes, Google Fusion Tables *cough*).

I got some new ideas for my LAT work, and posts both here and at poynter.org. Although I do have to admit, I’m getting antsy having stepped away from coding for three whole days already. May be time to pick up a project at the airport while traveling.  Funny that about a year ago, I couldn’t have written a line of Python.

Now, some quick housekeeping notes. I will be occupied with graduation activities most of this coming week, although I may write a bit. Read more…

I love journalism shop-talk chat, really.  Of course, I’d rather be DOING the journalism, but it’s important to see where others are at, and it’s kind of fun to feel like part of the club, and dream about the future.  The #wjchat chats on Twitter emerged about the same time my data journey started, but my participation in these activities has dropped off recently.  This is especially ironic this past week, as the discussion centered on the relevance of j-schools.  And I’ve been thinking about that topic a lot.  After all, two weeks from today, I officially graduate from Medill.

I’m looking forward to it, yet it seems sort of surreal.  Graduation marks the end of one chapter, the beginning of another.  But I started the new chapter already. Read more…

If you didn’t see it on Twitter, or on poynter.org…I’m writing articles for Poynter’s website on data journalism.  The first is on how to use OutWit Hub, a Firefox extension to help you scrape Web sites even if you don’t have programming knowledge.

I just needed something to do with my ever abundant free time, obviously.

Alright, since we know that’s not true, the real reason is that it will help spread the data journalism message.  There are a lot of skills to learn, and a lot of questions to be answered.  The more of us intelligently exploring these options, the better off we all are.

Plus, it’s fun, and a way to keep writing even as I spend my working days coding.

If you have any suggestions for topics you’d like to be explored, please get at me.