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Ease into programming with Poynter’s August seminar “Programming for Journalists / Journalism for Programmers”

By Tracy Boyer ⋅ July 20, 2010 ⋅ Email This Post Email This Post ⋅ Post a comment

This post is also available in Spanish

Regina McCombs recently emailed me about an upcoming seminar from August 25-27 at The Poynter Institute that II readers may be interested in attending. Titled “Programming for Journalists / Journalism for Programmers,” attendees will gain a concrete understanding of how programmers and journalists can work effectively together to visualize data-rich content, such as the upcoming 2010 Census.

New York Times programming for the 2010 World Cup

Image from New York Times’ “Open” blog

If you read the behind-the-scenes post of how The New York Times’ reported the 2010 World Cup, you would understand the importance of integrating programming into storytelling.

Impressed by the interactive development that you have seen at the Times? Why not learn from one of the best – Aron Pilhofer – who will be leading the seminar! Aron is editor of Interactive News Technologies at the Times, and will be joined by several other great teachers including Matt Waite, senior news technologist at the St. Petersburg Times and developer of the Pulitzer Prize winning PolitiFact.com.

“Rather than try to teach a particular programming language, since there are a number of reasons to choose various different ones, we’re teaching programming principles that would be equally applicable to anyone diving into Django or Ruby, and we’re going to teach best practices in database design and development,” Regina wrote.

The seminar is ideal for both programmers hoping to enter journalism and journalists hoping to start programming.

“Journalists will learn the programmer’s mindset, and programmers will learn how to see the world through a journalist’s eyes. Programmers will teach journalists how to turn data into usable information and share great examples of efforts that worked.”

The two-day seminar costs $795 plus flight, food and lodging. In an effort to make it more affordable for attendees, Poynter is offering a “buy one, get half off” sale where organizations that send two employees only pay half for the second. They also have several half tuition scholarships available for which you simply indicate interest in obtaining when you apply.

Even better, Hacks/Hackers is offering a scholarship to attend the seminar for FREE:

“To apply for the scholarship, we’re making this super easy. Please write a pitch of up to 500 words on what you’d like to do/report on/hack together based on what you’ll learn at the seminar. The deadline is July 24. We might have follow-up questions. We’ll notify everyone by the end of July.”

I can vouch for Poynter from the invaluable summer fellowship I did there in 2007, and I can also attest that learning the basics of database development is crucial after taking a year’s worth of database courses in my Information Science master’s program. It is all well worth it!

So, don’t delay – the scholarship deadline is this Saturday and the last day to register for the seminar is Monday.

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Discussion

View Comments for “Ease into programming with Poynter’s August seminar “Programming for Journalists / Journalism for Programmers””

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/IFUV4G63ZHCZR6JA4NW34YNHGA Ambrose Pierce

    Why can't Poynter get their act together. What freelancer can afford $800 to attend this workshop? I think the cost in producing these workshops has to be given more consideration. Perhaps they should either reconsider their profit margin, or find sponsors to help offset the production. The trend in this industry is moving away from the deep-pocketed corporate model that can afford to send their staff on vacation for a couple of days, to the struggling freelancer without health benefits. Use your head Poynter!

  • http://www.poynter.org Regina McCombs

    I wish we could give it away for free. In the old days, when we were fully funded by the industry, we did. Now, however, we have to pay our own way. As a non-profit trying to figure out a new revenue model (just like freelancers), we have to pay the costs of bringing in our guest faculty, putting on the program and keeping the A/C running. If you look at training costs outside journalism, you'll see we're a real bargain.

    Thanks to folks like the Knight Foundation, we do have some scholarship money for members of the Unity organizations, and thanks to our hard working development folks, we have some partial scholarships available for qualified applicants.

    NewsU, the online training arm of the Institute, specifically develops online training free or at no cost, and we're always looking for suggestions for what kinds of training everyone is interested in getting.

    We value the time and expense for everyone, freelance or not, and welcome any suggestions for sponsorships! We promise to do our best to make it the best training money you ever spend.

    Regina McCombs
    Faculty for Mobile and Multimedia
    The Poynter Institute

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/IFUV4G63ZHCZR6JA4NW34YNHGA Ambrose Pierce

    Why can't Poynter get their act together. What freelancer can afford $800 to attend this workshop? I think the cost in producing these workshops has to be given more consideration. Perhaps they should either reconsider their profit margin, or find sponsors to help offset the production. The trend in this industry is moving away from the deep-pocketed corporate model that can afford to send their staff on vacation for a couple of days, to the struggling freelancer without health benefits. Use your head Poynter!

  • http://www.poynter.org Regina McCombs

    I wish we could give it away for free. In the old days, when we were fully funded by the industry, we did. Now, however, we have to pay our own way. As a non-profit trying to figure out a new revenue model (just like freelancers), we have to pay the costs of bringing in our guest faculty, putting on the program and keeping the A/C running. If you look at training costs outside journalism, you'll see we're a real bargain.

    Thanks to folks like the Knight Foundation, we do have some scholarship money for members of the Unity organizations, and thanks to our hard working development folks, we have some partial scholarships available for qualified applicants.

    NewsU, the online training arm of the Institute, specifically develops online training free or at no cost, and we're always looking for suggestions for what kinds of training everyone is interested in getting.

    We value the time and expense for everyone, freelance or not, and welcome any suggestions for sponsorships! We promise to do our best to make it the best training money you ever spend.

    Regina McCombs
    Faculty for Mobile and Multimedia
    The Poynter Institute

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