Michelle Minkoff

I had the privilege of visiting Derek Willis’ Digital Frameworks class last week — a hallowed room that started my own data journalism journey. As most of you know, I’m unable to sit and merely observe (sorry, Derek!), so I ended up chiming in. One student explained that she was working on a Fusion Table project , but had too much data for one Fusion Table. She wished to split up the data, but have it all display on an integrated map.

As I sit here at PBS, the day before my last, full of a delicious ice cream cupcake courtesy of Christine Montgomery, who somehow turned my last staff meeting into a Michelle farewell party (embarrassed!), many emotions swirl through my head. On Monday, I'll be on 33rd Street in Manhattan, in a giant building with the initials "AP" on it Read More...

I've spent a lot of time thinking in the last week, as I worked through the final steps of an interview process with the Associated Press.  The job hunt has been a long one, and there are some points that I think are worth considering. I'm still fairly early in my career.  I hear that programmer-journalists are needed, having this combo of skills is valuable Read More...

I've restarted this post three times, because I'm still in shock. Maybe I'll just keep it simple and not rambling, for once, I've accepted a position at the Associated Press as an Interactive Producer. (more...)

Today, I am a quarter of a century old. No longer can I claim to be in my early 20s. No longer can I claim to be a frequent blog writer either, as it closes in on two months since my last post. I could make up excuses. I'm learning to conquer Fusion Tables and R and Flot and Protovis and HTML5 and CSS3 and inter-corp outreach and project management Read More...

As a switch from my usual rambling blog post, an interesting Twitter conversation leads me to give you...my usual rambling blog post as a Storify with embedded tweets.  Enjoy my lesson of the day!  This is dedicated to the data journalism community that teaches me every day. Thanks, all! (more Read More...

I've written about a curriculum for people looking to be exposed to -- and perhaps specialize -- in data journalism before.  But last week on Twitter, Dave Stanton (@gotoplanb) asked a slightly different question -- what would the curriculum look like if you were a journo-interested student wanting to learn programming to tell stories from the get-go?  Understanding data is just one piece Read More...

Time for an update on the world of PBS!  PBSNews.org, the national site I was working on, has been put on hold while we focus our attention on serving journalism at local stations.  This has long been a component of our project, but it is now a priority which we're focusing on heavily. What does that mean for my role as a Data Producer?  If you’re a PBS station, as part of your dues, you can have the fun (horror) of working with me on a project Read More...

While discussing the rambly nature of this blog, Heather Billings and I decided late at night it might be time to change the tagline to "A Data Ghetto of my Thoughts."  I thought some here might appreciate this. Today marks my triumphant, yet sad, return from the NICAR conference in Raleigh.  There was a frightening amount of tweeting, and I literally talked myself out of a voice Read More...