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IdeaLab: DIY Django development at ReportingOn

Oct 3, ’08 1:43 PM

Over at IdeaLab, I’ve posted a bit of background on why I ended up building ReportingOn in Django instead of Drupal.  Frankly, to the users of the site, it shouldn’t matter which platform I chose, but to me, and to the future of the project as an open source basis for news organizations, I think it matters a great deal.

Here’s a clip from the IdeaLab post:

“Did I need the structure Drupal came with for users, posts, archives, feeds, and comments? Probably. But there was a whole bunch of other baggage, like all the WYSIWYG block and module organization that I wasn’t as comfortable with. My first instinct was to start from scratch and build my own theme, but I quickly realized I needed to build my own content types. And views. And the file system was confusing to me, coming from WordPress. Plus, although the Drupal community is full of awesome people building awesome modules, I still couldn’t figure out how to do a few simple things, like create a content type with a maximum length (say, 140 characters).”

Bonus: Django is fun, challenging in a productive way, and I know a ton of people working and playing with it.

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Launching ReportingOn 1.0

Oct 1, ’08 9:37 PM

This is an experiment.

I launched what I’ll call ReportingOn 1.0 this afternoon, as an unfinished application to help journalists of all stripes make connections based on their beat.

ReportingOn 1.0

It’s the word “unfinished” that’s the most experimental part of this right now.

I guess it’s my translation of “iterative.”

The premise is this:  Launch what you have ready, knowing that the rest of it will really be far easier to figure out once some users are banging away at the application.

Seems simple enough, but I’m scrambling to squash a few bugs and bring a few other pieces up to speed.

If you’re unfamiliar with the premise of ReportingOn, read the FAQ or check out what I’ve written about it over the last year or so that I’ve been thinking this over.

Most of the Django-powered site that’s live tonight was built (assembled is really a better word for it) this summer with an incredible about of help from my own personal open-source community, made up of developers like Nick, Pete, and Jon at the office, advisers from San Jose State, the Knight Foundation, and the core group I’ve been bouncing ideas off of (whether they knew it or not), like Howard Owens, David Cohn, Hassan Hodges, Scott Karp, and many more.

Thanks.  Now back to those bugs…

See you in Vegas?

Sep 5, ’08 8:17 AM

I can’t believe it’s Friday already, which means I’m just a couple days away from hopping a flight to Las Vegas for the massive SND/APME conference.

Check out the schedule of speakers at SND for starters and drool: DeVigal. Curley. Veen.

The “Young Voices” panel I’m on (yes, yes, they know I have a gray hair or four) has moved from Sunday afternoon to Monday at 4:30.  Stop by, check it out, and let’s talk about how you can drive innovation from the bottom-up at your newspaper.

And then I’ll latch onto every editor I can find in the APME crowd and pitch ReportingOn as a way to help their reporters network with the cloud of knowledge about their beat out there in the professional and citizen journalism worlds.

If you’ll be there next week, track me down early and often.  You should be able to find me here or on Twitter easily enough.

Many, many thanks to the SND crew for inviting me and to the Knight Foundation for sending me.  See you in Vegas on Sunday night.

Things to do…

Sep 2, ’08 4:30 PM

Now that I’m back from vacation, here’s what’s on my to-do list for, uh, the foreseeable future:

  • Finish developing the pre-alpha version of ReportingOn and launch it.  Like, really, really soon.
  • Go to SND/APME next week, speak on Sunday, go to some awesome sessions and pimp ReportingOn to every editor I meet.
  • Write the first draft of my graduate school project report regarding ReportingOn.
  • Get someone to redesign Wired Journalists, or run a contest inviting users to edit their own theme and submit it.  The winner gets, um, a prize of some sort, and all sorts of link love.
  • Think about developing a Wired Journalists job board.  Seems like there are plenty of spots to place ads for generic news jobs, but nowhere to place an ad for a high-end online news job somewhere frequented by the best in their class… This could be profitable, yes?  Authentic Jobs is the model.
  • Put up another baby gate or two. The kid loves practicing her walking with my help.
  • Write much more for Idealab.
  • Do something interesting with a domain I bought recently: newstangle.com.
  • Talk with Canon and other companies about sponsoring Wired Journalists so we have some gear to give away by the end of the year.  Let me know if you’re interested in getting involved.  (In giving stuff away, that is.)
  • Move this blog to Django and redesign it, adding a hardcore linkblog element instead of aggregating it from the cloud.

So what’s on your list?

ReportingOn FAQ

Jul 14, ’08 4:49 PM

Over at IdeaLab, I’ve posted the answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about ReportingOn.

Like this:

Q: So what am I supposed to say about the story I’m working on?

A: As much or little as you want. Maybe you just want to mention something general about your story and tag your update with your beat to let your peers know what you’re up to. Or maybe you have a question that needs an answer, or you’re bored with all the “usual suspects” sources and you’re looking for an introduction to an expert with a different point of view. You’ll probably get exactly as much information out of ReportingOn as you put into it.

Check it out and add your comments there.

I happen to know some people with ideas.

Jul 5, ’08 10:11 PM

If you’re not already subscribed to the PBS IdeaLab blog, the forum for Knight News Challenge winners to talk about their projects, spout off on related topics, and generally try to change the world, now would be a good time.

Here’s a few recent posts over there that I’m still thinking about:

Check it out, leave a comment, rate a post.  I’ll be posting there for the next two years (!) about the progress and upkeep of ReportingOn.

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Hello, Boston!

Jun 11, ’08 5:30 PM

I’m at the MIT Center of Future Civic Media today and tomorrow meeting with fellow Knight News Challenge winners, Knight Foundation staff, and rock stars from the MIT media lab who are building all kinds of crazy stuff.

Seriously, there are lots of cool kids here, few of whom I’ve met in person before.

Say hello if you see me.

I’ll post cameraphone pictures to Flickr when I’m not physically underground…

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ReportingOn 0.3

Jun 5, ’08 8:26 AM

There’s a new site up at ReportingOn.com, where you’ll find a blog, a bit more detailed information on the About page, links to ReportingOn on Facebook and Twitter, and the @reportingon Twitter stream, always in flux.

Check it out…

Screenshot of ReportingOn.com 0.3

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The Challenge

May 14, ’08 2:00 PM

I’m proud to announce that ReportingOn won a Knight News Challenge grant. I’m in Las Vegas at the E&P Interactive Media Conference for the announcement of all the winners.

Yesterday, Brein McNamara, another News Challenge winner, said more or less that we’re all in over our heads to some extent.

That’s the right idea.

We’re supposed to take a good idea that we don’t necessarily have the resources to polish into a great idea on our own, then use the funding from the Knight Foundation and the growing network of winners to finish the process.

And that’s the challenge.

I’ll add a link to the full list of winners when I have a free moment, but I’m betting you’ll be able to find it at newschallenge.org.

There are some awesome projects on the list, including Radio Engage (Margaret Rosas and the whole Quiddities crew are seriously representing Santa Cruz out here), Spot.Us (David Cohn’s community-funded enterprise journalism project), and a CMS/front-end system project headed up by the editors of the Daily Bruin.

Nothing about ReportingOn has changed today. Follow reportingon on Twitter, send a tweet about what you’re working on to @reportingon, and find journalists working on similar stories.

Then, the easy part: Help each other out.

Huge congratulations to all the winners, and thanks to everyone involved in making this happen so far. Now the real fun starts…

Help a reporter out

Mar 19, ’08 9:03 PM

Peter Shankman launched something really, really interesting to me today at HelpAReporter.com.

The premise: He works in PR and has a list of reliable and credible sources a mile long; his reporter friends are constantly asking him who they should call about [your story topic here].

Check it out, sign up, and maybe you can help a reporter out. Or maybe you’re looking for a certain sort of source. Let Peter know what you’re looking for, and maybe he knows someone who can help.

I’m totally engrossed by this for reasons obvious to anyone who has been following my work (more talk than anything else so far – I promise April and May will involve actual code, announcements, etc.) on ReportingOn.

Any way to use social networking (it’s made of people, eh?) to connect reporters with better sources is something worth tracking.

(Of course, I heard about this on Twitter. Follow me, follow ReportingOn, and follow Peter.)