HOT LINKS

What we're pondering this week.

  Adam: Ever wish there was an easy way to test your entire color system for contrast and accessibility? Try Hex Naw.

  Ben: What is a book? Using the essayist’s exploration of the nature of a book - what is a newspaper or a website?

  Gabe: Ballot.fyi is a beautifully designed non-partisan voter guide for California’s upcoming state propositions. I especially love the clever iMessage debate graphics.

  Jack: When Google bought DoubleClick in 2007, the company said privacy would be its “number one priority” and they wouldn’t combine data from your browsing history with identifying information they glean from other sources. Today, not so much. Here’s where you can change that for your Google account.

  Julia: This visualization of European royal families was too gorgeous not to share. There’s also a detailed write-up of the data wrangling necessary for the project.

  RC: Ulysses, the Mac writing app du jour, is now capable of publishing to any self-hosted WordPress install.

  Inndy: It's time for a family reunion.

WE MADE A THING

Our projects, manifest

Check out the work we did for NPR Digital Services, where we helped them implement the share tools and related stories functionality from Largo.

If you'd like to work with us on improvements to your website or any other project you're planning, get in touch.

SHOUT OUT

Work we admire by our journalism peers

How did NPR provide live transcripts of the past three debates with embedded fact checks and annotations? Tyler Fisher of NPR Visuals provides a brief technical overview of the process, which involved a transcription partner, a Google Apps script, and a team of fact-checkers on a Google Doc. Exemplary work!

EVENTS

Come learn with us

Dec 14 - Did you hear? Our News Nerd Book Club meetings will now be held every other month. In December we'll be meeting and talking about Christopher Alexander's Notes on the Synthesis of Form. Read more about it here.

GET A JOB

Good jobs with good people

INN is hiring an operations manager.

Texas Tribune is hiring a data visuals developer.

Mississippi Today is hiring a product/web developer and designer.

Mother Jones is hiring a print designer and web developer.

Pew Research Center is looking for a web developer.

If you're looking for general jobs in nonprofit news, the main INN newsletter had over 30 job openings this week.Check it out and sign up here if you'd like to get that in your inbox every week. Receiving two newsletters from INN is twice as good as one!

SOME OTHER STUFF

Gather ye rosebuds

LISTEN: The Llama Song.

READ: Seven Stories About Witches. *cackles*

EAT: Soy Sauce Chicken Rice.

DRINK: Aunt Judy's Passionfruit Cocktail.

---

Everybody on three! One, two...

HOT LINKS

What we're pondering this week.

  Adam: This older post on using comment count/quality as a success metric came across my radar this week. It’s specifically about business blogging but has a number of great points that are applicable to news/media sites as well.

  Ben: Data visualizations require a lot of skill to draw by hand, but by interfacing your arm muscles with a computer’s plotting library by way of some electronic shocks, you too can become an expert plotter.

  Gabe: James Rauhut reviewed 50 portfolios from Reddit’s /r/webdev in 3 days. What did he learn?

  Jack: Have you noticed that the BBC website performs exceedingly fast? How did they get to that level of performance? Go with the flow.

  Julia: Some examples of the power of CSS:  You Might Not Need JavaScript. Many functional UI components – like sliders, tabs, and even scroll indicators – can be accomplished with HTML and SCSS alone.

  RC: WordPress 4.6 “Pepper” checks for broken links, saves your content as you type, streamlines updates, and makes a number of developer-related enhancements to Multisite.

  Inndy: Uh oh.

WE MADE A THING

Our projects, manifest

This week we launched Rivard Report's newly redesigned website using Largo. Take a look at the multimedia widget, patterns, and more.

Interested in contributing to Largo? Check out the stuff left to do before the next release.

SHOUT OUT

Work we admire by our journalism peers

INN member Center for Public Integrity has been publishing several stories featuring fantastic graphics and data reporting. Check out stories about 22 polluters that emit some of the most toxic compounds in the country, thebillionaire who spent more than a trillion dollars on Trump's campaign, and which states have been bombarded by political TV ads. Great work!

EVENTS

Come learn with us

Oct 14-15 - A reminder that the Sunlight Foundation's TransparencyCamp will be taking place today and tomorrow in Cleveland. INN's Adam Schweigert and Ben Keith will be there Saturday. Hope to see you there!

OpenNews is working on publishing the first draft of an open-source playbook. SIgn up to help out here.

GET A JOB

Good jobs with good people

INN is hiring a program director and an operations manager.

PublicSource is looking for a development director and environmental reporter.

Better Government Association is looking for an investigative journalist.

If you're looking for general jobs in nonprofit news, the main INN newsletter had 32 job openings this week.Check it out and sign up here if you'd like to get that in your inbox every week. Receiving two newsletters from INN is twice as good as one!

SOME OTHER STUFF

Gather ye rosebuds

LISTEN: Inuk throat singer Tanya Tagaq's latest record Redemption.

WATCH: Omelette.

EAT: Posole. ¡Qué rico!

DRINK: Widow’s Kiss.

---

It's time to go home.

HOT LINKS

What we're pondering this week.

  Adam: A reminder that while popups are bad for anyone, they’re especially bad for the blind.

  Ben: When you don’t know what to name a project, try cantrip.

  Gabe: Illustrator Juan Diaz-Faes has patterns for Harvard Business Review that showcase spectacular line work.

  Jack: Promoting openness, innovation & opportunity on the Web...that’s a nice little manifesto you’ve got, Mozilla.

  Julia: The evolving landscape of interactive graphics: Interactivity (for its own sake) doesn't work. Storytelling can be effective. Personalization may improve engagement.

  RC: If you’re working with the WordPress customizer and wish you could hide some of the default items, Weston Reuter from XWP has written a plugin for you that creates a customizer blank slate.

  Inndy: Mom, can we get a dog?

 

WE MADE A THING

Our projects, manifest

Missed our #INNProduct workshop in Chicago last week? We got you covered. Adam Schweigert has a rundown on all the sessions and resources speakers shared for the folks who weren't able to join us. Topics include budgeting for tech products, planning and executing successful data projects, and recruiting talent without an HR Department.

 

SHOUT OUT

Work we admire by our journalism peers

INN member ProPublica relaunched its Data Store, where you can purchase data sets about Health, Criminal Justice, Education, Politics, Business, Transportation, and the Military. You can check out their Amazon Pricingdata set for free; 6973 listings of 250 best-selling products on Amazon were examined!

The Sunlight Foundation's TransparencyCamp 2016 will be going on next week Oct. 14-15 in Cleveland. Don't forget to register here.

 

GET A JOB

Good jobs with good people

INN is hiring a program director and an operations manager.

Investigative Reporters & Editors is hiring a director of data services.

VTDigger is hiring an administrative assistant.

If you're looking for general jobs in nonprofit news, the main INN newsletter had 30 job openings this week. Check it out and sign up here if you'd like to get that in your inbox every week. Receiving two newsletters from INN is twice as good as one!

 

SOME OTHER STUFF

Gather ye rosebuds

READ: Embrace the mess.

WATCH/LISTEN: "Pure Imagination" on a pipe organ.

EAT: Cholera. It’s a type of savory cake!

DRINK: Coffee. Let us know how this recipe turns out; we are extremely interested.

---

Go out and explore.

HOT LINKS

What we're reading this week

  Adam: I’ve long railed against hostile user-experience elements like annoying popups and interstitials. Adding further fuel to that particular fire, Google announced this week that they’ll start penalizing sites that show popups and interstitials to mobile visitors starting in January. Good riddance.

  Ben: If you’re thinking about moving anytime soon, here’s how to create your own WalkScore-style maps for the things in life you truly care about.

  Gabe: Become a better you – through illustration! How Google uses the work of Owen Davey and Maya Stepien to engage users on Google Calendar.

  Jack: CUNY journalism instructor Jonathan Stray says mastering data journalism requires such a wide range of skills – from stats to design to FOIA requests – that it’s impossible to teach in one semester.  So he tried to do it anyway, and here’s his course syllabus.

  Julia: The Sleeper Future of Data Visualization? is an interesting read about using composite photography to create data visualizations without the layers of abstraction commonly associated with the practice.

  RC: There’s a new Citation Importer plugin for WordPress that searches crossref.org for citation details and imports them for you.

  Inndy: It’s nice to have far-sighted friends in high places.

---

EVENTS

Come learn with us

September 14 - Join us at 1 ET for our monthly News Nerd Book Club discussion. This month we'll be reading Spreadable Media: Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture by Henry Jenkins, Sam Ford, and Joshua Green.

September 28-29 - INN is hosting a two-day event for news leaders to discuss everything you need to know about managing technology and product design in your news organization. Travel stipends for INN members are available and we just added some new speakers/mentors. Hope to see you there!

---

BE OUR GUEST

This week's guest contributor

Our guest this week is Andrew Haeg (@andrewhaeg), internationally-known pioneer in crowdsourcing and journalism innovation, and Flag Bearer at GroundSource.

I’m currently swan diving into Chef’s Table, the Netflix series that explores the techniques and psyches of the world’s great chefs. I suspected it might be just an exercise in genius worship and food fetishization. But I’ve been surprised, consumed and moved by the stories of these chefs – by their artistry (brilliantly portrayed by show creator David Gelb), by their respect for their craft and the food products they work with, and by the extraordinary sacrifices they’ve had to make to pursue often grandiose visions.

It had me reflecting on the parallels with journalism, and my own journey towards a vision of making our craft more humble, more human- and community-centered. Understanding how these chefs think is helping me own the fact that I can’t achieve this vision or any vision by myself, and that systems don’t change without people taking extraordinary risks, and experiencing sacrifice and pain in the process. As Dan Barber, chef and owner of Blue Hill restaurant and farm in New York says in his episode, (quoting Wes Jackson) “If you’re thinking about an idea that you can solve in your lifetime, you’re thinking too small.”

Want to be a guest contributor for a future edition of this newsletter? Learn how and shoot us an email at nerds@inn.org if you're interested. We'd love to hear from you!

---

SHOUT OUT

Work we admire by our journalism peers

The New York Times has published continuously since 1851 so it’s a bit of an understatement to say they have a lot of stories in the archives. Today’s audiences are online, so it’s increasingly important to make news archives accessible everywhere. But as technologies have changed, it’s a big project converting earlier stories to today’s mobile-friendly digital formats. The archives team accepted the challenge, and they were able to convert some 14 million articles published between 1851–2006 into a format compatible with the Times’ CMS.

---

LOVE NERD ALERT?

We love you back

Please consider supporting this newsletter with a donation to INN.

Or if you'd rather contribute content over cash, be a guest contributor! Read more about that here and shoot us an email at nerds@inn.org if you're interested. We'd love to hear from you.

Thanks much!

---

GET A JOB

Good jobs with good people

INN is hiring a program director and an operations manager.

St. Louis Public Radio is hiring a digital and special projects editor.

Investigative Reporters & Editors seeks an interactive news developer.

PBS is looking for a project manager to lead the Ken Burns archive.

KPBS is hiring a news and digital editor.

---

SOME OTHER STUFF

Gather ye rosebuds

LISTEN: Telsa Coil Music presents The Cars. ?

WATCH: Alien Dance Party.

EAT: Seitan-Portobello Stroganoff.

DRINK: The Summer Olympics are over but there's still time for a cocktail.

READ: Lifestyle Tweaks for Nerds.

---

The answer is:

HOT LINKS

What we're reading this week

  Adam: CJR wrote this week about our unhealthy addiction to technology and role the news media has played in fostering it. If you’re looking for solutions (and aren’t we all), maybe consider these design principles for calm technology.

  Ben: I ran into a weird bug with CSS3’s flexible box properties the other day, and found this lovelycrowdsourced list of flexbox rendering bugs and solutions. When caniuse.com has an *, this has the solution.

  Gabe: Design how you design - a guide to applying semantic versioning to the projects you’re working on.

  Jack: When I see a web page that loads slowly, I think what the heck? Sometimes it’s loaded down with advertising scripts, but often the culprit is images that weren’t optimized for the web. Let’s make our images work for everyone.

  Julia: The New York Times’ Olympic coverage this week had two great examples of data interactives that made their storytelling ultra personal for the user: Can You Beat Usain Bolt Out of the Blocks? and Olympic Races, in Your Neighborhood.

  RC: Automattic just launched https://design.blog, which features a number of stories about design and promises new content each week (beginning this week!).

  Inndy: Let me get the next round.

---

WE MADE A THING

Our projects, manifest

Last month INN's Lead Designer Julia Smith led a session at SRCCON 2016 on strengthening our community through remote mentorship and other forms of non-F2F communication. The discussion was framed around the idea of “office hours,” but it was meant to be a broader reimagining of what a relationship between individuals could look like. As more of us are doing remote work, it's increasingly important to build in ways to communicate as team members and grow as human beings.

---

SHOUT OUT

Work we admire by our journalism peers

INN member ProPublica held an intensive Data Institute in June on how to use data, design, and code for journalism. For those who couldn't attend they have now published all of the materials used to teach the workshop: slides, exercises, links, and homework. All materials are available for use under the sameCreative Commons license ProPublica uses for its website content.

---

LOVE NERD ALERT?

We love you back

Please consider supporting this newsletter with a donation to INN.

Or if you'd rather contribute content over cash, be a guest contributor! Read more about that here and shoot us an email at nerds@inn.org if you're interested. We'd love to hear from you.

Thanks much!

---

GET A JOB

Good jobs with good people

INN is hiring a Program Director and an Operations Manager.

The Marshall Project is hiring a Web Producer.

NPR seeks a Scrum Master/Project Manager for Digital Media.

ProPublica has a position open for Engagement Reporter.

WNYC Studios is hiring a Social Media Producer.

Public Integrity has an opening for a News Application Developer/Data Journalist.

---

SOME OTHER STUFF

Gather ye rosebuds

LISTEN: Cello and piano doing Mozart and Michael Jackson.

WATCH: The Olympic Cup Toss (unofficial).

Cook: Chocolate Guinness Cake.

DRINK: Guinness Cocktails.

---

We'll always be here on guard.

 

HOT LINKS

What we're reading this week

  Adam: As a firm believer that the design of digital products should learn from and extend the design of the physical world, a reminder that midcentury modern design has a lot to teach us.

  Ben: One Second Code is a neat interactive demonstrator of how fast computers can be.

  Gabe: Illustrator Elenor Kopka has a delightfully weird animation that is creepy, psychedelic and just plain adorable. Check out her spectacular, interactive portfolio here.

  Jack: The Vox Storytelling Studio is exploring some interesting new models for digital newsby putting the “product” team smack in the middle of the “news” team. Hey, maybe we’re all part of the same team.

  Julia: This Poynter piece about bots and bylines received some important feedback aboutnewsroom developers and editorial authority.

  RC: This compilation of resources on paid & sustainable open source development is worth thumbing through.

  Inndy: ???

BE OUR GUEST

This week's guest contributor

Our guest this week is Rachel Schallom (@rschallom), senior editor for interactives at Fusion.

It’s been really wonderful to shift the focus in the interactive world from politics to the Olympics. This is an awesome combination of well thought-out data visualizations and animations incomparing Michael Phelps to himself. Lately I’ve felt like the NYT’s color palette has been more focused, and the projects have better flow because of it.

Want to be a guest contributor for a future edition of this newsletter? Learn how and shoot us an email at nerds@inn.org if you're interested. We'd love to hear from you!

SHOUT OUT

Work we admire by our journalism peers

In case you missed it: a really helpful step-by-step guide from McClatchy developer Greg Linch on how to get an instance of open-source data visualization tool Datawrapper running on your own server.

LOVE NERD ALERT?

We love you back

Please consider supporting this newsletter with a donation to INN.

Or if you'd rather contribute content over cash, be a guest contributor! Read more about that here and shoot us an email at nerds@inn.org if you're interested. We'd love to hear from you.

Thanks much!

EVENTS

Come learn with us

September 14 - Join us at 1 ET for our monthly News Nerd Book Club discussion. This month we'll be reading Spreadable Media: Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture by Henry Jenkins, Sam Ford, and Joshua Green.

September 28-29 - INN is hosting a two-day event for news leaders to discuss everything you need to know about managing technology and product design in your news organization. Travel stipends for INN members are available and we just added some new speakers/mentors. Hope to see you there!

GET A JOB

Good jobs with good people

INN is hiring a program director and an operations manager.

St. Louis Public Radio is hiring a digital and special projects editor.

Reveal...revealed a new investigative fellowship for emerging journalists of color.

Texas Tribune is looking for a front-end engineer.

And the Online News Association is hiring a new digital manager.

If you're looking for general jobs in nonprofit news, the main INN newsletter had 26 JOB OPENINGS this week. Check it out and sign up here if you'd like to get that in your inbox every week. We'll pretend to not be jealous.

SOME OTHER STUFF

Gather ye rosebuds

READ: Women's gymnastics deserves better TV coverage.

WATCH: Peter Peterlini's greatest hits.

BUILD: A walking table. Because why not?

EAT: Help Eater collect the worst restaurant names in existence.

Come for the links, stay for the latest innovations in mass transit.