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Archive for 30 April 2009
Best of Innovative Interactivity, April 2009
Whew, I officially survived six masters courses while maintaining this blog. I hope you all enjoyed my passionate ramblings throughout the semester. I want to thank each and every one of you for spending a part of your day with me and spreading the word about II. Traffic continues to rise as our multimedia community grows both nationally and internationally.
Please help restructure UNC’s Journalism program by taking a brief survey
Bart Wojdynski, a doctoral student at UNC, is working with Laura Ruel and Don Wittekind to restructure UNC’s multimedia program. He is conducting a brief survey of professionals to assess what tools are being used in the industry so UNC professors better know what to teach their students.
Journalism programmers – join us on Ning!
Journalist Justin McLachlan started a social network on Ning yesterday specifically for journalists and coders to discuss “how programming and the news can go together.” So far, we have 21 talented developers within four sub-groups: Actionscript, HTML/CSS, Ruby on Rails, and Django. I look forward to utilizing Ning to connect with and learn from journalists who are embracing programming concepts to further storytelling. Therefore, I encourage all II readers to join!
Conforming multimedia packages to user standards
We have all heard the saying, “Design sites for your user’s computer, not your own.” If you are fortunate enough to have the freedom to build projects free of prior size and display constraints, you then have to decide how to conform your design appropriately. I was lucky to get this opportunity at The Roanoke Times, where all of my interactives lived separate from Roanoke.com. So, let’s look at how I handled it, what I could have done better, and what the experts say.
85 Resources to Pass the Time During Your Next Furlough
So, you’ve got some time on your hands, regardless if you are a student on summer vacation, an employee on furlough, or a professional in between jobs. Whatever the scenario, I have got a great list of resources to keep you busy for days. I have quickly realized that our industry loves lists — on tips, software, tools, projects — so I decided to make a Top-85 collection of these lists.
Graphic designr blog brings wealth of info to your fingertips
Erica Smith, multimedia producer at St. Louis Post Dispatch, has been on a roll this week posting invaluable tips on her blog graphic designr. I just stumbled across this blog within the last week, and I am already highly impressed by the content. Take some time this weekend to go through her posts, you will not be disappointed!
Multimedia movement “Playing for Change” seeks to inspire through music
The next two weeks are pretty stressful for me as I finish my last week of classes and *hopefully* survive my projects/papers/exams. And I know work, projects and other commitments are stressful for you all as well. That is why when I stumbled across “Playing for Change” today, I felt that it couldn’t have come at a better time. This advocacy group blends music from around the world (think Where the Hell is Matt? but with music) to promote peace. The result is a feel-good, beautiful compilation that will make anyone smile. By far, the best arrangement is “Stand by Me.” So, no matter how stressful life is right now, take five minutes to watch this video. I hope it brightens up your day like it did for me.
Analysis on 2009 SSND multimedia entries and winners
SSND multimedia winners were announced today with winners in four categories: Best Overall College Newspaper Web Site, Best mini-site/special section of a Web site, Best interactive infographic, and Best multimedia slideshow. I was honored to be one of three judges, along with Journerdism’s Will Sullivan and graphic artist William Neff. Some of our comments have also been posted on the SSND blog, but I would like to highlight some entries in particular to discuss specifics in content, structure and quality.
Interactive panoramas elevate storytelling efforts
The Washington Post launched an investigative multimedia package on Sunday about DeOnté Rawlings, a 14-year-old who was killed 19 months ago by off-duty police officers. Although the police officers were cleared of any wrong-doing, this in-depth report analyzes the case using a timeline, video, text article and interactive scene re-creation module. This interactive section impressed me most, with multiple panoramas synced to user interaction to unfold the events over time.
Why we should embrace citizen journalists
I understand the concern, but I never said nor think that journalists are being replaced by citizen journalists. We are trained to do our job professionally, with legit sources, ethical values and journalistic integrity. There will always be a place for journalists. However, I believe that instead of feeling threatened by citizen journalists, we should be embracing their eagerness to help tell the story, and facilitate this energy to produce exceptional packages.
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