Ryan Sholin » interactivity

Making interactive maps less interactive

Ryan Sholin — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 10:57:30 +0000

Making interactive maps less interactive: Making maps, part 1: Less interactivity. Brian Boyer of the Chicago Tribune on a mission to teach you how to make interactive maps that don’t suck. Step 1 is indeed to make them less interactive. I buy it.

There’s a full tutorial spread out in a few posts. Follow along, kids.

On the difference between gameplay and gamification

Ryan Sholin — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 14:13:00 +0000

On the difference between gameplay and gamification: Josh Korr on “why gamifying the news is so challenging.”

My advice to the New York Times? Copy Foursquare.

Ryan Sholin — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 21:59:04 +0000

Sean Blanda has some good advice for The New York Times that could work for any medium-large news organization. It’s not as much about location apps as it as about a game-like user experience.

My advice to the New York Times? Copy Foursquare.

Technology is easy; labor is hard

Ryan Sholin — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 13:54:15 +0000

Aron Pilhofer of nytimes.com on the hardware, software, and costs associated with building the best interactive data projects in the news business:

Everything we use is free and open-source. Our platform is Ruby on Rails backed by Mysql databases running on Ubuntu servers. The cost here isn’t software, or even hardware, which is relatively cheap these days through hosting companies like Amazon EC2 (on the high end) or Slicehost (on the low end). The price most news organizations (and it’s not just small ones) seem reluctant to pay is for people — developers like the ones in my group who can build the infrastructure to support the rich, deeply engaging web features that so many people love about our site.

Read the whole thing at Old Media, New Tricks.

Five ways to produce online news without asking the web guy for help

Ryan Sholin — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 13:07:49 +0000

You don’t know what it’s like for the web guy at a newspaper.

All day long, requests and ideas funnel in his direction, with no end in sight, and little help.

Web guys, this is for you.

Reporters, listen up. Here are five ways you can put together something wonderful for the web without asking the web guy a single question. All you’ll need to do at the end of each of these exercises is to send him a link or a hunk of code, if that. He’ll know what to do with it.

Make a movie: Record your video. Edit it in iMovie (free on your Mac) or Windows Movie Maker (free on your PC). Upload it to YouTube. Send the web guy the URL. Bask in the glory.
Produce an audio slideshow: Record your audio. Gather your photos. Forget about SoundSlides for the moment and edit it as a video file in iMovie or Windows Movie Maker. Upload it to YouTube. Send the web guy the URL. Bask in the glory of your award-winning tearjerker.
Create a podcast: Record your audio. Pick a photo or two to go with it, even if it’s just mugs of the people talking. Edit it as a video file in iMovie or Windows Movie Maker. Upload it to YouTube. Send the web guy the URL. Bask in the glory of your ingenuity.
Create an interactive map: Go to maps.google.com. Click on ‘My Maps.’ Follow the instructions. Add as much or little information as you have for each point you add to the map. Photos and videos go a long way. (Use the embed code from your YouTube videos here.) When you’re done, send the web guy the ‘link to this page’ URL or hit the ‘Customize and preview embedded map’ link, turn it down to ‘small,’ and send the web guy the embed code. He’ll know what to do with it.
Create a social network: Go to ning.com. Follow the directions. I recommend choosing a topic that helps you serve the needs of the people you take the most phone calls and e-mail from. (Obscure high school sports coaches? Real estate agents? Kindergarten teachers? City council members?)

None of this requires any technical know-how. You don’t need any training to point-and-click your way through this process. Don’t sweat the details about things like ‘settings’ or ‘encoding.’ If questions come up, type them into Google. You’ll find the answers.

Most important: Don’t wait around for someone else to hold your hand through this stuff. You’re an adult. You can handle this on your own. Get started today.

(Yes, I know, I know. Next time I’ll use the phrase ‘web gal.’)

Thinking about media as a platform – Matt McAlister

Ryan Sholin — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 14:09:08 +0000

A short explanation of how interactivity can change the game. Get off the stage, and let the readers add information of their own. Let them form a community around the information you’ve packaged for them. via Ingram.

Thinking about media as a platform – Matt McAlister

Newsvine and news as a social object – Strange Attractor

Ryan Sholin — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 03:55:53 +0000

Kevin’s notes on Newsvine, especially the bits about making it clear to the user what exactly they’re supposed to Do (capital D)… Define your verbs, indeed.

Newsvine and news as a social object – Strange Attractor

The next step after multimedia and interactivity? Just add data.

Ryan Sholin — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 17:34:31 +0000

When I find myself face to screen with an online news site that is still in the Nightly Shovelware Posting stage, I think of two things: How can I add multimedia to this, and how can I add interactivity to this.

I think a lot of us go the same route, especially those with more background in photography or Web development than straight-ahead text reporting. We think: How can I make these pictures move, and how can I get readers involved in this story.

What we might miss in our efforts is the opportunity to take advantage of one more element the Web presents better than print:

Data.

Computer-assisted reporting has been around for years, but now here we are with tools like MySQL and Django and Google Maps and more. Each one of these things can be a thousand times more effective at building a story out of information than an Excel spreadsheet.

Matt Waite, a reporter with the St. Petersburg Times, posts this call for mashing up data with your multimedia and interactivity chops:

“Blogging and Flash and video skills will get you a job, no doubt, but they’re only one part of the web. Being able to present data along with your blogging, your Flash graphics, your videos, will have employers bidding for your services.”

As usual, there’s more to news on the Web than just posting pretty pictures. So the next time you wonder “What’s next?” after you add multimedia and interactive elements to a site — and if you ever think you’re finished adding those two things, congratulations — start looking for ways to integrate database work and analytical journalism. Your readers will thank you.

Digg the New York Times

Ryan Sholin — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 15:15:01 +0000

A few familiar social bookmarking icons can now be spotted on stories at NYTimes.com. Just look for the Share heading in the Article Tools box. Click on it, and Digg, Facebook, and Newsvine buttons drop down, along with an all-important Permalink option that issues a linkrot-proof way to blog about the story in question, no trip to the RSS feed or old Link Generator page necessary.

via TechCrunch

Interactivity and Mass Communication

Ryan Sholin — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 22:41:02 +0000

Mindy McAdams has a totally useful list of research on interactivity. Remind me to build a page like this out of my references.

Interactivity and Mass Communication

Ryan Sholin » interactivity

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