Data Delver: Paul Monies, The Oklahoman

April 11th, 2010

In journalism, we talk a lot about the concept of the "one-man band." The idea often refers to multi-platform journalism -- it means being able to deliver a story in print, video, audio or online format. You must be able to do it all, and do it all well. But in the CAR world, plenty of data teams remain a one-man band operation, but in a different sense Read More...

Self-teaching data and programming skills

March 25th, 2010

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 Read More...

Django app #2: Conquering forms and Google Maps API

February 28th, 2010

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 (who is #11 in my backlog, I'll get to you all before NICAR, I promise!) who just released a Django app, with the help of his St Read More...

Is a flat text file or a database right for an app?

February 21st, 2010

I've been busily coding away on my final project for my data visualization independent study. I'm looking at data that I've been slowly acquiring on the life of art galleries that were in Chicago in 1990.  Back then, the Chicago Artists' Coalition had a complete listing in a pamphlet (more like a book) they put out for artists Read More...

How to “Group By” in Excel

January 20th, 2010

Random time-saving Excel tip.  Want to condense a long column to only display unique entries?  Go to the Data menu, select Filter and Advanced Filter.  Voila, a check box labeled "Unique records only".  Don't know why I never noticed this before. Or, you know, you could use Group By in SQL.  But no need to import databases just for filtering.

The limitations of SQL and Access

November 25th, 2009

We've been data crunching a substantial database this week.  The fact that I'm not sick of looking at cells and formulas means something, either this type of work is really a good fit for me, or I'm insane.  Maybe both? My anguished cries over my dislike for Access have been heard 'round the newsroom loud and clear for the past three days Read More...