Comments on: Buying Into Computational Journalism http://blog.thescoop.org/archives/2009/11/09/buying-intocomputational-journalism/ Derek Willis' weblog on investigative and computer-assisted reporting. Mon, 08 Mar 2010 02:26:10 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0-alpha hourly 1 By: NewzBeta – Journalism 2.0 http://blog.thescoop.org/archives/2009/11/09/buying-intocomputational-journalism/comment-page-1/#comment-144420 NewzBeta – Journalism 2.0 Tue, 15 Dec 2009 03:45:41 +0000 http://blog.thescoop.org/?p=5253#comment-144420 [...] to Derek Willis, who blogs at The Scoop, a weblog about computer-assisted reporting, the problem is not about the availability of such [...] [...] to Derek Willis, who blogs at The Scoop, a weblog about computer-assisted reporting, the problem is not about the availability of such [...]

]]> By: Red Links 16/11/09 : Alexia Golez http://blog.thescoop.org/archives/2009/11/09/buying-intocomputational-journalism/comment-page-1/#comment-142591 Red Links 16/11/09 : Alexia Golez Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:25:29 +0000 http://blog.thescoop.org/?p=5253#comment-142591 [...] On computational journalism. [...] [...] On computational journalism. [...]

]]> By: Cody Brown http://blog.thescoop.org/archives/2009/11/09/buying-intocomputational-journalism/comment-page-1/#comment-142568 Cody Brown Mon, 16 Nov 2009 03:24:22 +0000 http://blog.thescoop.org/?p=5253#comment-142568 'Computational Journalism' This is an interesting way of describing what's about to become a major trend. I like where Sarah's thoughts are going but I think she's, at least now, bogged down by a trustee models of news production. The giveaway is her repeated use of the word 'reader' to describe those who aren't paid to be journalists. Instead of focusing on creating products for a failing model of news organization (trustee style news room) - start from scratch. Study and deconstruct examples of participatory information systems that have already found wide success (wikipedia). -cody www.kommons.com ‘Computational Journalism’

This is an interesting way of describing what’s about to become a major trend.

I like where Sarah’s thoughts are going but I think she’s, at least now, bogged down by a trustee models of news production. The giveaway is her repeated use of the word ‘reader’ to describe those who aren’t paid to be journalists. Instead of focusing on creating products for a failing model of news organization (trustee style news room) – start from scratch. Study and deconstruct examples of participatory information systems that have already found wide success (wikipedia).

-cody

http://www.kommons.com

]]> By: Sarah http://blog.thescoop.org/archives/2009/11/09/buying-intocomputational-journalism/comment-page-1/#comment-142486 Sarah Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:07:08 +0000 http://blog.thescoop.org/?p=5253#comment-142486 Hey, guys. The github repo will come, I swear. We're really just in start-up phase right now. We hope to address exactly the point that Derek makes: the basic technology already exists (and has for quite a while) to help accountability and investigative reporters do their jobs better and quicker. The problem is that it hasn't been completely integrated into the newsgathering process or made accessible to normal reporters who have more responsibilities now than ever. So our job is to make things they can use without compromising their skill at uncovering important information that the powerful would rather keep hidden and at comparing how programs actually work to how they are supposed to work. We are triaging the best ideas that I've gleaned from more than 50 interviews with editors, reporters, bloggers, developers and other folks doing similar work including DocCloud, Sunlight and Brant's work at University of Illinois. You saw a few examples of them in the report. I'd love further ideas from the folks who hang out here and pointers to great projects in the wild. The goal is to complement, not repeat or compete with, other efforts. But rest assured, everything we work on will be released both as free (as in beer and as in speech) tools and as open source code. The platforms will depend on the developers we partner with on various projects and will, I assume, vary -- we want to work reasonably quickly and not be tied to an integrated "system". We're already working with one company (thinkrelevance.com), which has agreed to sponsor a summer project for some of our ideas in a rapid development environment. To Jeremy's point: I'm not the lead on the sense-making aspect of this, but it's worth remembering that stories are different than studies. I do think we can borrow and adapt visualizations and other techniques from others -- accountants, lawyers, doctors as well as social scientists and digital humanities -- to help us to understanding our material more quickly and accurately. Keep in touch, and thanks for commenting on the report. Send ideas and thoughts my way. Sarah Cohen Duke University sarah.cohen@duke.edu 919.613.7348 (work) 202.213.6980 (mobile) Hey, guys. The github repo will come, I swear.

We’re really just in start-up phase right now. We hope to address exactly the point that Derek makes: the basic technology already exists (and has for quite a while) to help accountability and investigative reporters do their jobs better and quicker. The problem is that it hasn’t been completely integrated into the newsgathering process or made accessible to normal reporters who have more responsibilities now than ever. So our job is to make things they can use without compromising their skill at uncovering important information that the powerful would rather keep hidden and at comparing how programs actually work to how they are supposed to work.

We are triaging the best ideas that I’ve gleaned from more than 50 interviews with editors, reporters, bloggers, developers and other folks doing similar work including DocCloud, Sunlight and Brant’s work at University of Illinois. You saw a few examples of them in the report. I’d love further ideas from the folks who hang out here and pointers to great projects in the wild. The goal is to complement, not repeat or compete with, other efforts.

But rest assured, everything we work on will be released both as free (as in beer and as in speech) tools and as open source code. The platforms will depend on the developers we partner with on various projects and will, I assume, vary — we want to work reasonably quickly and not be tied to an integrated “system”.

We’re already working with one company (thinkrelevance.com), which has agreed to sponsor a summer project for some of our ideas in a rapid development environment.

To Jeremy’s point: I’m not the lead on the sense-making aspect of this, but it’s worth remembering that stories are different than studies. I do think we can borrow and adapt visualizations and other techniques from others — accountants, lawyers, doctors as well as social scientists and digital humanities — to help us to understanding our material more quickly and accurately.

Keep in touch, and thanks for commenting on the report. Send ideas and thoughts my way.

Sarah Cohen
Duke University
sarah.cohen@duke.edu
919.613.7348 (work)
202.213.6980 (mobile)

]]> By: Derek gets me thinking about computational journalism http://blog.thescoop.org/archives/2009/11/09/buying-intocomputational-journalism/comment-page-1/#comment-142444 Derek gets me thinking about computational journalism Thu, 12 Nov 2009 05:15:29 +0000 http://blog.thescoop.org/?p=5253#comment-142444 [...] Some thoughts that come to mind while (and after) reading Derek Willis’s post, Buying Into Computational Journalism. [...] [...] Some thoughts that come to mind while (and after) reading Derek Willis’s post, Buying Into Computational Journalism. [...]

]]> By: Jeremy http://blog.thescoop.org/archives/2009/11/09/buying-intocomputational-journalism/comment-page-1/#comment-142414 Jeremy Wed, 11 Nov 2009 05:18:47 +0000 http://blog.thescoop.org/?p=5253#comment-142414 I, for one, am more looking forward to the sense-making tools aspect, which the report unjustly separating from pattern discovery. I see too many journalists around me talking about searching data sources for the handful of useful nuggets within, but the value is in making sense of the whole thing, which means grown-up no-black-and-white-answers statistics if you take this seriously. It's as if everyone were trying to dig a water well in the middle of a lake. I, for one, am more looking forward to the sense-making tools aspect, which the report unjustly separating from pattern discovery. I see too many journalists around me talking about searching data sources for the handful of useful nuggets within, but the value is in making sense of the whole thing, which means grown-up no-black-and-white-answers statistics if you take this seriously. It’s as if everyone were trying to dig a water well in the middle of a lake.

]]> By: Derek http://blog.thescoop.org/archives/2009/11/09/buying-intocomputational-journalism/comment-page-1/#comment-142398 Derek Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:55:49 +0000 http://blog.thescoop.org/?p=5253#comment-142398 That's a good question - we don't know much about how the Duke folks are setting up a place to see what they're doing. I hope they get in the habit of releasing early and often. That’s a good question – we don’t know much about how the Duke folks are setting up a place to see what they’re doing. I hope they get in the habit of releasing early and often.

]]> By: Ben http://blog.thescoop.org/archives/2009/11/09/buying-intocomputational-journalism/comment-page-1/#comment-142380 Ben Tue, 10 Nov 2009 04:00:39 +0000 http://blog.thescoop.org/?p=5253#comment-142380 Sounds awesome. I'm down. Where's the github repo? Sounds awesome. I’m down. Where’s the github repo?

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