Using Javascript for interactive Google charts

Posted by on Mar 29, 2010 in Blog, programming | No Comments

Want to provide interactive graphs to news consumers quickly and easily on platforms that simply don’t support Flash?  Enter the “hidden power of Javascript,” a key component of the Google Visualization API.  It was the subject of a recent “Lightning Talk” I gave at NICAR 2010 in Phoenix.  My slides and a more thorough walk-through ...

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Self-teaching data and programming skills

Posted by on Mar 25, 2010 in Blog, CAR, django, programming, theory | 7 Comments

So, you think data journalism and programming are some valuable skills you’d like to learn.  Unfortunately, your school doesn’t offer this as a track, or maybe you’re not even in school anymore.  You know people will help you, and you think it all seems cool, but it can be difficult knowing just where to start.  ...

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Bringing data journalism into curricula

Posted by on Mar 24, 2010 in Blog, CAR, programming, theory | 7 Comments

As a recently graduated Medillian (yay for entering the “real world, boo for having to leave such a nurturing and wonderful place), I’ve been thinking a lot about data journalism and my generation.  Why were there so few students at NICAR?  Yes, it costs money to get to a conference, but I’m not even seeing ...

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My next move: LA Times!

Posted by on Mar 18, 2010 in Blog, CAR, data visualizations, django, programming, theory | 8 Comments

“You’re going into journalism?  Now?”  “they” asked.  “What can you do with that?” I’ve always answered that I’ll figure something out, that the Web is to journalism’s benefit, not its detriment.  That there’s got to be something to this programming journalism thing I enjoy so much. I finished my last final today.  Counting down to ...

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Django app #2: Conquering forms and Google Maps API

Posted by on Feb 28, 2010 in Blog, class, data visualizations, django, programming | One Comment

It’s been a busy week for the programming journalists — as I’m sure you’ve seen. Congrats to all, especially the dev team at The New York Times, who just released the newest version of the Congress API, with plenty more robust features to play with, as well as my recent Data Delver interviewee Andy Boyle ...

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“Demos, not memos”: My first Django app

Posted by on Feb 22, 2010 in Blog, data visualizations, django, programming | 2 Comments

UPDATE:  GitHub repo with code for the app can be found here: http://github.com/michelleminkoff/oscars Thanks to Dave Stanton for a marvelous tutorial linked in the comments. “Demos, not memos.”  It’s my new mantra.  A phrase well known in the CAR community, especially after this blog post from Matt Waite, I subscribe to the idea for two ...

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Visualizing networking: When it doesn’t work

Posted by on Feb 15, 2010 in Blog, class, data visualizations, processing, programming | No Comments

So much in journalism and in life, we strive for perfection in our work. The best story idea, the best presentation.  We strive for perfection as individuals, we compete to be the best, get to the scene before someone else, write tighter, edit faster.  But sometimes, it’s just as important to recognize when something just ...

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Exploring Drupal — open source tool of the day

Posted by on Feb 12, 2010 in Blog, programming, web | No Comments

As part of an ongoing quest to learn as much about programming and technical tools as I strive to learn about the beats I cover, I jumped at the opportunity to attend a Drupal training this evening. I didn’t know this before today, but there is a robust Drupal user group here in Chicago, appropriately ...

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Why technology matters: It’s about reporting

Posted by on Jan 11, 2010 in Blog, CAR, programming, theory, web | No Comments

“Figure out what you want to do, and get really good at it.”  That’s been the overarching advice I’ve heard in the past few weeks, as I seek to understand where I might fit in the “new media” world.  It all sounds fine, although the more I meet interesting people who’ve been looking at data ...

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A letter to journo-programmers: Teach me, inspire me

Posted by on Nov 24, 2009 in Blog, education, programming, theory | 3 Comments

St. Petersburg Times senior news technologist, and Politifact developer, Matt Waite: “If you could take a class from a journalist/programmer, what would you want out of it? I give my take based on my experience in Derek Willis’ CAR class.

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