HOT LINKS

What we're reading this week

Ben: Content “blocks” are the happening thing. WordPress is working on Gutenberg. Tumblr is moving from plain HTML to the Neue Post Format. ProPublica now runs on Craft, which is built around blocks. What else is out there?

RC: Jake Spurlock’s presentation, A Biased Guide to Managing Bias, is a must read.

Julia: This post on the narrowing gap between design and code suggests that a new era of design etiquette is upon us.

Kay: Designing, developing, and testing for multiple screen sizes has its challenges - including not being able to work with multiple devices at the same time. That’s why I was excited to read about XRespond, a tool made to simplify that process and give you an all-in-one overview.

Inndy: Fear dumb robots.

PEOPLE ARE MAKING THINGS

Helpful projects that you can join

This is a roundup of all Irma-related things that people can contribute to remotely: mapping projects, newsroom projects, and so on:

• Get started with community projects by reading this onboarding document from the Irma Response Slack. Check out the list of projects being coordinated there and what those projects need. What is Irma Response? Here are the details.
• The Humanitarian Open Street Maps Team is coordinating a number of map improvement projects centered on Hurricane Irma and the flooding in Bangladesh and Nepal.
• Irmaresponse.org is mapping shelters, volunteer opportunities and needs, and evacuations.
• The New Tropic and WLRN are running a crowdsourced map for shelter, gas, water, and other supplies. Read about it on Poynter.
• The Disaster Response Corps is looking for techies. Sign up here.

The above is what ran in the Nerd Alert Newsletter sent on Friday, September 8. We're keeping an updated version of this list over here.

 

EVENTS/DEADLINES

Be in the know

This Saturday, September 9, is the last day to fill out the OpenNews News Nerd Survey.

September 22: Last day to pitch talks to the 2018 Computer Assisted Reporting conference, aka NICAR.

September 23: Data Journalism Bootcamp at CUNY – sign up soon!

September 29: Last day to apply for a Knight Visiting Nieman Fellowship.

SHOUT OUT

Work we admire by our journalism peers

The Washington Post is now using Talk, the Coral Project’s commenting platform. It'll help them engage with commenters, instead of the too-common approach of turning comments off.

 

GET A JOB

Good jobs with good people

ProPublica is hiring a senior reporting fellow and a contract animator.

CALmatters is hiring an audience engagement manager.

Reese News Lab is hiring a data scientist.

100 Days in Appalachia is hiring a digital managing editor.

WNYC is hiring a data reporter.

If you're looking for general jobs in nonprofit news, check out the main INN newsletter and sign up here to get it in your inbox every Tuesday. Two INN newsletters are better than one!

 

DISCOVER

Gather ye rosebuds

READ: I downloaded an app. And suddenly, was part of the Cajun Navy 

LISTEN: Bohemian Rhapsody on a fairground organ 

WATCH: A webcam on Miami Beach ⛱

EAT: Do-it-yourself Meals Ready to Eat 

DRINK: Clean water 

PLAY: The Magic Door 

 

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Stay dry, friend.

HOT LINKS

What we're reading this week

  Ben: Is it safe to start using CSS Grid? Rachel Andrew, CSS Working Group invited expert, argues yes.

  RC: I’m really excited to check out Alley Interactive’s Voice WP project.

  Julia: The News Media Alliance has called on Congress to allow publishers to negotiate collectively with Google and Facebook – get more details from the New York Times and the Atlantic.

  Kay: INN is a fully remote team, so we’re always looking for new ways to improve our productivity across time zones. The team at Hanno put together a fantastic Remote Starter Kit and we’ll definitely be adopting a trick or two.

  Inndy: I’m a robot (or a puppet, depending on your interpretation of my life), so what I’m about to link to doesn’t apply to me. I’m willing to bet it applies to most of you who are reading this email, though. You’re probably a human, probably using software that probably lives outside your body. You may not have written it, might not own the box it runs on, might not even have paid for the use of the software. But that software is still part of you, right? Give the Universal Declaration of Cyborg Rights a read, and then refresh yourself on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Stop us if you've heard this one before

We interrupt your regularly-scheduled newsletter to inform you that the INN product and technology team has a new brand! Now known as INN Labs, we’re still the same nerds you know and love. Check out our new home at labs.inn.org.

WE MADE A THING

Our projects, manifest

We've built a WordPress plugin to make using the Knight Lab storytelling tools easier. Now anyone can begin using these tools in WordPress without any coding skills!

Timeline, StoryMap and Juxtapose get oEmbed support, while Soundcite gains a shortcode. Read more about it.

EVENTS/DEADLINES

Stay in the know

Last Call registration for the NABJ Annual Convention is open until July 19.

Registration for the AAJA National Convention ends July 19.

Apply for the Grist fellowship program by July 31.

If you're going to SRCCON, sign up to bring board games and teach hobbies.

Today is the last day to buy a ticket to WordCamp for Publishers and still get guaranteed meals, swag, and events access. Here's the full schedule.

SHOUT OUT

Work we admire by our journalism peers

Public Source launched Small Town, Pennsylvania, a beautifully illustrated multipart look into what life is like outside of the big cities.

GET A JOB

Good jobs with good people

NPR is hiring a project manager/scrum master, a systems administrator, a web developer, a technology manager, a mobile developer, and a ton of interns.

ProPublica is hiring a data reporter and an editorial designer.

IRE is hiring a training director.

The Marshall Project is hiring a senior investigative reporter.

The Center for Public Integrity is hiring an audience engagement editor.

The Pew Research Center is hiring a DC-based senior developer for WordPress, PHP and JavaScript,

If you're looking for general jobs in nonprofit news, check out the main INN newsletter and sign up here to get it in your inbox every Tuesday. Two INN newsletters are better than one!

SOME OTHER STUFF

Gather ye rosebuds

LISTEN: Human After All.

WATCH: Google DeepMind learning to run.

EAT: Sun-dried tomato and mozzarella quinoa veggie burgers.

DRINK: Roasted-peach lemonade.

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The world's longest-burning light bulb.

HOT LINKS

What we're pondering this week

  Adam: If you’re still measuring “engagement” in likes and retweets, consider this alternate (better) definition of audience engagement from Hearken’s Jennifer Brandel: “Engagement happens when members of the public are responsive to newsrooms, and newsrooms are in turn responsive to members of the public.”

  Ben: Does it seem to you as if public radio stations are clustered at the bottom of the dial? Your hunch is correct, according to Bob Baxley's research. The reason for the clustering is really strange.

  Gabe: A fabulous guide to illustrating Star Wars icons.

  Jack: One of my really smart friends now has 4 Amazon Echos arrayed around his house. As conversational interfaces make their way into more of our spaces, designing news for AI might really become a thing.

  Julia: How (and why) ProPublica got into the elections game.

  RC: Add some new textures to your data visualizations with Textures.js.

  Inndy: I'd like to be able to speak some day, and the latest research from DeepMind looks like I'll have a voice soon.

EVENTS

The happening things

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!

October 31 - The deadline for applying for a 2017 Kiplinger fellowship, a program that brings together journalists from across the country for training in digital reporting tools and tactics.

SHOUT OUT

Work we admire by our journalism peers

ProPublica and Google News Lab have launched Election DataBot, a tool to collect huge amounts of data from tons of source. Read the full list of what's available, and think how you can use it in your newsroom.

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, doing good work

INN is hiring a program director and an operations manager.

NPR Music is hiring a hip-hop reporter, a social media strategist, and a music news editor.

KERA is hiring a ton of positions in Texas, including two unpaid internships.

Matter, the media startup accelerator, is looking for a New York City associate.

If you're looking for general jobs in nonprofit news, the main INN newsletter had 29 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

Kick back and relax

DANCE: Do the alligator ?

WATCH: An analysis of Michael Bay’s filming style. ????

DRINK: Squeeze your own pomegranate juice.

DON'T EAT: Sea squirts, the animal that eats its own brain.

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We believe in you!

HOT LINKS

What we're reading this week

  Adam: Indi Young argues that we should remove age, gender and ethnicity from personas because those things don’t necessarily cause behavior but they do introduce assumptions. “To actually bring a description to life, to actually develop empathy, you need the deeper, underlying reasoning behind the preferences and statements-of-fact. You need the reasoning, reactions, and guiding principles.”

  Ben: Flickr released a tool for creating justified layouts of blocks, which could be very useful if you’re creating photo galleries.

  Jack: God save the Queen, and the BBC. With classic British flare, Lord Patten discourses on the future of the BBC as part of a “a shared sense of mutual responsibility.” A wonderful read that applies more broadly to nonprofit news orgs everywhere.

  Julia: Vox’s product team published a great collection of accessibility guidelines to help put their guiding principles into practice.

  Ryan: Open data helped Ben Wellington determine the NYPD systematically ticketed legally parked cars, resulting in more than $1.7 million in fines. He goes on to describe how his discovery helped change the NYPD’s ticketing practices.

  Sinduja: The podcast industry is growing, young  and experimenting with new revenue models, but Apple hasn’t caught up with them yet.

  Inndy: I'm getting dizzy just watching this asymmetrical flying machine.

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SHOUT OUT

Work we admire by our journalism peers

If you're doing criminal justice reporting, The Next to Die offers a widget for keeping track of death row in your state.

IRE lanzó un base de datos de consejos en Español.

ICIJ made the Offshore Leaks database available as a torrent.

Quartz is opening up their Atlas charting platform to individuals and organizations.

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GET A JOB

Good jobs with good people

From WBEZ in Chicago, a position for a media archivist with experience in audio.

Research associates are sought by New America and the Pew Research Center.

Technical writers are encouraged to apply at the Coral Project.

Propublica is hiring a senior editor for audience and engagement.

The Marshall Project seeks a social media editor.

NPR desires a digital editor.

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SOME OTHER STUFF

Gather ye rosebuds

LISTEN: Dropping a screw into a turbine compressor and the inevitable remix.

WATCH: Losing a ship anchor. (LOUD)

EAT: 20 ways to start a melts-vs-grilled-cheese flamewar.

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Flames? Brains?

 An MRI of a cockscomb flower.