Wednesday, November 30, 2011

JRC Chat on online comments

Good morning! Members of the Journal Register Company's Idealab - and everyone else who wants to - are going to be taking part on the weekly Twitter chat at noon.

Today we're commenting about, um, online comments and how they can be improved, how they can help journalism and how to avoid problems.

The live feed is posted below. But you can also follow the chat here or here or also here. And you can also check out past chats over here.

If you want to chime in, just post a tweet with the hashtag "#jrcchat" so it can automatically appear below, or post a comment in the field at the bottom of the chat box.


Wednesday, November 23, 2011

JRC Chat on Google for journalism

Good morning! Members of the Journal Register Company's Idealab - and everyone else who wants to - are going to be taking part on the (kind-of) weekly Twitter chat at noon.

Today we're talking about Google tools and how they can be used in the pursuit of journalism excellence.

The live feed is posted below. But you can also follow the chat here or here or also here. And you can also check out past chats over here.

If you want to chime in, just post a tweet with the hashtag "#jrcchat" so it can automatically appear below, or post a comment in the field at the bottom of the chat box.

Since this is about Google, I figured we could also try livestreaming a Hangout of the chat, if anyone wants in as well.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

New Paltz story goes national

I was invited to The Little Rebellion tonight at SUNY New Paltz to share some journalistic awesomesauce. Yadda yadday yadda, here's what the crew is doing today.

Brough to you by The Little Rebellion.



Here's the newest story, AND THE LIVESTREAM!


Monday, November 14, 2011

How to use Google Voice for a Sound-Off

Let's bring back the Sound Off, but this time using Google Voice!

It's an idea shamelessly re-purposed from fellow Idealab member Karen Workman of the Oakland Press in Michigan, and as she's shown, it can have many more uses.

Here's my initial plan: We'll ask a question every day, like the online poll. If you feel the answers are inadequate, you can expand your comments by calling this number:



We would then post your comments, with audio, online.

You can also answer in other ways, of course. Whatever makes it easy.



Here's a very rough way to show you how to do it:

Monday, November 7, 2011

Election Day planning

I'm using my blog to test a new and faster way to publish election results. Here are some of the things we're planning to do at the Freeman:

We've created (still working on completion, so bear with us if there's stuff missing still) a spreadsheet that will constantly update election results as they come in. Here's a preview, with empty results, obviously.



All you have to do is hit refresh every now and then. But how do you know when results are in, right? For that, we'll have a CoverItLive container, with all the people at the Freeman who are working on Election Day stories, pretty much all of us. The best part is that CoverItLive allows YOU to chime in. I'll be moderating that as well, to include relevant comments and questions.


In addition, we're including a SeeClickFix Election Problems report widget on our site so that you can tell everyone if there is a problem at the polls. We'll be monitoring those as well.


Let me know what you think, what we can do better, or any other ideas you might have. And don't forget to vote on Tuesday.

Otherwise, the terrorists win.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

How to make a timeline with specific RSS feeds


Here's a nifty timeline made in a flash with Idealab-specific posts by members of the Journal Register Company group.


Let this serve you as a tutorial on how to make a timeline.
What I did: I added an RSS feed from RSS feeds to Dipity.
Done.

To do this:

What is the meaning of Digital First?

You've probably heard us say 'Digital First' over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and such.

But (pardon me Double Rainbow guy) what does it mean?