More timesavers to unlock public records data
Plenty of programs can convert PDFs into spreadsheets -- useful in theory for journalists working with electronic public records. Most options are more trouble than they're worth. But after nine months...
View ArticleCreating a newsroom ‘answer machine’
The keyword search is far from state of the art, yet it's the only way to access the knowledge locked inside newsroom archives. What would it take to use this data to answer reporting questions we've...
View ArticleWhen researching a story, learn from a librarian
News librarians like Barbara Gray bring their skills to bear every time reporters need help uncovering information. With news staffs shrinking, Gray now teaches students at CUNY's Graduate School of...
View ArticleDiscussing journalism’s computational future
A month before hundreds of tech-savvy journalists gather in Louisville for the 2013 Computer Assisted Reporting Conference, a different melding of the minds more than 300 miles away will focus on the...
View Article4 lessons from Computation + Journalism 2013
In more than a dozen sessions at the 2013 Computation + Journalism Symposium at Georgia Tech, speakers covered a range of topics from the origins of "precision journalism" to the reporting implications...
View ArticleData security or death
On a recent episode of the Spark Tech Talk podcast, the lab's managing editor moderates a discussion among experts in electronic privacy and security -- an area growing more and more important for...
View ArticleTips for making an impact with journalism tools
Since we launched the lab, our biggest challenge has been finding ways to get better tools into more journalists' hands. It's a tough problem, but research on open-source success is giving us more...
View ArticleShould refusing public records carry jail time?
North Carolina lawmakers are considering a bill that would criminalize a public official's failure to release public information. Fifteen other states already classify record law violations as...
View ArticleFor watchdog stories, ‘who pays?’ is the wrong question
Former Wall Street Journal Managing Editor Paul Steiger said that before he retired the paper in late 2007, each investigative story cost up to $500,000. Figuring out how to foot that bill is...
View ArticleTabula’s creator talks next steps
In early April, a group of developers and journalists announced the release of a new open-source tool to combat the scourge of public data trapped inside PDFs. Tabula is still in its early stages, but...
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