Okay, another thought… August 31, 2007
Posted by Jeff in ideas.2 comments
What about doing something really unique with Flash, displaying headlines and story content in very unique, easy-to-navigate ways, instead of text laid out in columns on a page? Maybe taking some cues from Tafiti and Visual Thesaurus?
A conversation with Brian August 31, 2007
Posted by heperimita in data display, ideas, interactivity.4 comments
After seeing Brian’s Visualized Concepts post I was intrigued, but at the same time not entirely sure what the whole euler diagram thing was representative of. I had a conversation with Brian over IM that we agreed should be posted up here on the blog because it clarified a lot of things.
Me: i liked the visual of your idea
Brian: NeatMe: but im not sure if i completely understand it
Brian: Well, it wasn’t what I intended but I could really get that out
Me: the biggest disc of those series of discs, say the data represented news stories, would represent news in its broadest sense, am i correct?
Brian: Mmhmm. Each successive disk is a set of more specific stories
Me: so the next circle would be like new in the united states, and then the next would be politics, and then demoocrats and so forth am i right so far?
Brian: Mmhmm
Me: oh i get that part, but how do you get to see the interrelatedness that all the pieces of each set of data share?
Brian: Well, I couldn’t quite figure out how to display that.
Me: the aforementioned concept is the main drive of your idea though right?
Brian: yes, and now that I think about it, I believe that the circles would have to go in the reverse order which I gave them, If stories are getting more and more specific, they would have more and more tags, right?
Me: right, ok i think i see where you are going, if it was reverse order, the smallest disc would be items tagged news and then the next disc, which would be bigger than the first, would be political news, for example
brian: Right
me: i mean items tagged with politics and news
brian: Yes!
Me: yeah that makes a lot of sense and the more tags the story has the bigger the disc it would have
brian: Right
Me: i see why it is an euler diagram and not a ven diagram, because the euler allows you to organize unrelated subsets
Brian: Yeah, Venn diagrams must have all sets connecting
Me: right, there has to be some sort of overlap with a venn.
ok now does this function as a news interface? or is it a presentation of the interrelatedness of storiesBrian: The latter, I suppose If there were this means of navigation in the middle which was visually represented by my picture, there could be some initial qualitative factors to determine the compared news. You could, say, pick “Chinese news” and “American news” and then go down by tags. Start with politics. And the disk goes up a level to Chinese political stories on the right and American on the left, then pick democrats, then pick caucus, then …
Me: barrak obama?
Brian: Sure, Although at that point I think it might break I don’t know how much Chinese news would relate the two Other than that, I don’t know what else this would do
Me: hmm right, well it would be cool if it generated the stories related to barak obama and chinese politics
Brian: lol, Yeah. I think I mostly want people to get the feel that they’re not alone in the world, that similar occurances are spread across the planet
Me: hmm, well what about if it linked blog post tags together
Brian: Conceptually, it’s supposed to link any form of news with similar tags You just need to pick a medium. So, yes for blog posts
Me: ahh, i thought that would go well with the “not being along” theme
Brian: I agree. I mean, why not have text linked to podcasts covering the same material?
me: oh right, you could even do it with music and genres of music, subect matter of the songs etc
Brian: Mmhmm, It’s the categorization that matters. As long as people have tagged items accurately and plentifully, it should be good between any media.
I wish August 31, 2007
Posted by rebeccaperez in Uncategorized.2 comments
I wish our purpose was less to create new ideas, but to tell the ONA what they need to do to stay on top of technology. I think quite a few of us brought projects to the August innovators meeting that are the future, or present as the case may be of “news reel,” of journalism, and that seemed to be a major problem. I think we need something that is easy to implement, cheap to produce, and brings more traffic. Quite a few projects fit the first two parameters, but do not bring more traffic, and some of the ideas that bring traffic may not fit implementation and cheapness. Is there an idea that adresses implementation, price, and traffic?
My Argument August 31, 2007
Posted by wkuphilip in Uncategorized.5 comments
I think our idea should work to make stories more comprehensive and detailed, adding to newsworthiness, proximity and credibility. I feel that the best way to do this is is to develop a platform to display information from a number of sources including journalists and citizens, primary and secondary sources, and include a number of mediums such as stills, video, maps, interviews, audio, and text. This is the direction I feel we should be going so lets talk about it.
Back to the Map August 30, 2007
Posted by Rob Ponte in maps.4 comments
This may be irrelevant by now but I just discovered this Where 2.0 conference put on by the o’reily network. There’s some really cool presentations about whats going on in mapping technologies and web mashups. It occurred in May so it may be a bit dated but some stuff is really interesting. Check out the Wherefair section for some links to ongoing projects too.
Better Linkage August 30, 2007
Posted by Brian in Uncategorized.add a comment
I put these articles in a comment, but I’ll put them here, too.
The Web is Alive and Well (But on a Stable and Boring Platform)
The Digestion Phase: How We Got Here And Where We Are Going Next
Okay, let’s fight it out… August 30, 2007
Posted by Jeff in Uncategorized.2 comments
We need to decide on a final idea – BEFORE our conference on Sunday. I personally think that we should be coming up with ideas for the future of news display or collection, not ideas for new content (which may be irrelevant to certain geographical communities). I don’t think news agencies have trouble coming up with story ideas, it’s the massive paradigm shifts they are struggling with.
I really would like see some ‘collaborative criticism’ very soon, because it seems as if there are several clusters of good ideas.
My favorite two August 30, 2007
Posted by rebeccaperez in Uncategorized.add a comment
I guess if I have to choose two favorite ideas from all of the great ideas I’d start with the video on demand. Only problem I see with it is I can’t figure out how to make an app. for news agencies. I feel like this is more of a conversation that we need to be having with the news agencies, and not so much something for us to create.
I admit that I get a little lost in the jargon of some of the ideas sometimes and I can’t decipher what the idea is, so let me try to figure an idea out from previous postings. I love the idea of using maps to tell stories or give information in quick concise manners. I think my obit and arts & entertainment ideas with all of the other map/story ideas could be a great mashup. Just to be a devils advocate though make sure the mashup isn’t competing with news, but brings something that news sites would want to incorporate into their existing sites.
Games seem to be a very popular idea. I’m not plugging my game, that’s a little too gauche even for me. I think we should definately try to incorporate game apps to a platform that we create, or simply add them to an existing news site.
Well those are my two. Three if you count the VOD that I love but can’t figure out a way to pitch it without pleading for all news sites to start doing that. If anyone can think of a way to make VOD work for us I’d change my vote.
Civic Journalism vs. Traditional Journalism…I didn’t know there was a difference… August 30, 2007
Posted by msjennabird in Jenna's Rants.3 comments
Ok…so most of my classes are not technology based, even though they realize that technology is what is driving this industry (media, journlaism). So my post might not have anything to do with helping us on our way to an idea, but it certainly might shed some light on the theoretical future of journalism. In my Mass Media & Political Communication class one of the instructors, who was a long time Wall Street Journal economic reporter, gave an interesting lecture on the implementation and rise of civic journalism. She defined civic journalism as an attempt to abandon the notion that citizens and journalists are merely spectators. Civic journalism, she asserted, believes that journalism has an obligation to the public to unload information that is in direct effect/affect with the community and that the way journalists perform their job has a direct impact on public life. In addition, civic journalism takes some of the agenda setting powers traditionally given to editors and puts it in the journalists hands a little more. She said she wasn’t quite sure she was on board with this whole “new” way of doing journalism, and wasn’t quite sure it was even ‘journalism,’ but that she was willing to give it a test run in the class room setting. It just so happens that this class is going to perform civic journalism.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I didn’t know there was really any other kind of journalism. I mean, I got into this whole game because I wanted to make a difference in society, but not with picket signs and rallies, more with words and facts . . .the Edward R. Murrow way. I wanted to inform society, community and make a better world. I don’t know what type of better world that would be, but I know that an informed society is a better one. Further more, I don’t know that I want to just throw facts and stories out there without any type of social conscience behind them. Is that even ethical? I know where this instructor is coming from, that unbiased reporting is the only way to accurately inform the public, but can you really live your life detached from emotional cause? Am I wrong in asserting that what we’ve been participating in all summer, and now into the fall semester is civic journalism? I was not aware that this was such a highly controversial topic. If I get nothing more out of this whole experience, I have definitely learned that the journalistic community is full of wedges and divides. But if that’s true, then how can we expect to bring people together with our craft?
Visualized Concepts August 29, 2007
Posted by Brian in data display, ideas.3 comments
Some people wanted a visual for what I was thinking about, and I think this is as close as I can make within reasonable time:
It’s not quite Venn diagrams, but as I mentioned before, I realized I actually meant Euler diagrams. You can see sets within sets. Think of it like this: your computer has many folders within it. Specifically, one folder would represent one piece of a bar (read: one topic or tag). Folders of similar types would be similar colors, I suppose. You can go into a folder, and it too would have many sub-folders within it. And so on and so forth. Eventually you get to very specific files (i.e. stories). This is like the very bottom circle of bars in the picture.
In the way I originally intended it, there would be a way to choose and compare stories of similar tags. I suppose that there could be another bar within these circles that would separate by country. Or just by a tag. I want people to be able to see where similar stories are happening elsewhere. This set of circles could be the American stories with these sets of stories, but there could be an option to see ones from other countries.
PS: I edited my mash-ups post from earlier yesterday.
