From the Frontline: Top 10 journalistic uses for Twitter

"It's not all useless banter about cats and cookery," the blog says.  (No, but the flood of disjointed trivia is the main reason I'm lukewarm about Twitter.)

HowDoYa

... is a search engine for finding explanations on how to do things -- like seal a driveway, grow a garden or buy a swimsuit.

[via Phil Bradley's weblog]

Digital Research Tools

... or DiRT, is a new wiki by academic librarians that "collects information about tools and resources that can help scholars (particularly in the humanities and social sciences) conduct research more efficiently or creatively." Its content may also be of interest to digitally and data-oriented journalists. There's more about DiRT on the Digital Scholarship in the Humanities blog, which notes that the wiki is still at an early stage and will evolve:

DiRT lists dozens of useful tools for discovering, organizing, analyzing, visualizing, sharing and disseminating information, such as tools for compiling bibliographies, taking notes, analyzing texts, and visualizing data. We also offer software reviews that not only describe the tool’s features, strengths, and weaknesses, but also provide usage tips, links to training resources, and suggestions for how it might be implemented by researchers. So that DiRT is accessible to non-techies and techies alike, we try to avoid jargon and categorize tools by their functions.

PolicyMap

PolicyMap is yet another Web site that gathers multiple sources of data and promises to make it easier to access and analyze. Unlike Numbrary and Infochimps, however, wants to make money doing it. PolicyMap offers three levels of service: Free; standard, for $2,000 a year; and premium, where prices range from $5,000 to a single user and $35,000 for 10 (the latter are the prices for governments and non-profits -- commercial users must call). Paying customers can upload their own data and have more mapping and reporting options. I haven't had time to play with it, but even the free service seems extensive, including access to "over 4,000 indicators related to housing, mortgage originations, demographics, crime, education, income, jobs, energy and taxes" and the ability to plot those datasets on thematic maps. They market themselves explicitly to media, quoting a Washingtonpost.com reporter on the site and boasting that "PolicyMap provides media professionals with quick access to reliable data in media-ready formats":

With PolicyMap, media can:

    * Generate maps and tables to incorporate in reports and articles
    * Search by address, city, state, zip code, county or census tract
    * Create topical reports by predefined region, radius, or custom-drawn region
    * Compare data across geographies or view trends over time

PolicyMap was "produced" by The Reinvestment Fund, "a progressive, results-oriented, socially responsible community investment group that today works across the Mid-Atlantic region." You can read more about PolicyMap on their blog.

[via Free Geography Tools]

Official Google Blog: Google Sites now open to everyone

 This could be useful for anyone collaborating on a project:

A few months ago we launched Google Sites exclusively as part of Google Apps for companies and organizations that wanted to use the service on their own domains. Now we've made it easy for anyone to set up a website to share all types of information -- team projects, company intranets, community groups, classrooms, clubs, family updates, you name it -- in one place, for a few people, a group or the world. You can securely host your own website at http://sites.google.com/[your-website] and add as many pages as you like for free.

Getting started with Google Sites is easy. You can create different types of pages from scratch with the click of a button, and you can embed documents, calendars, photos, videos and gadgets directly into those pages. Similar to Google Docs, built-in editing tools allow for popular text and formatting changes to be made in a straightforward, WYSIWYG manner. Once your site is up and running, inviting people to edit or view your content is as simple as entering in their email address (of course, you can change access levels at any time). And you (or anyone who has editing privileges) can add or edit information whenever you'd like.

TimesMachine

If you are a New York Times home subscriber you now have browsable access to electronic copies of every issue of The Times from September 18, 1851 to December 30, 1922.

 

[via NICAR-L]

Glossary of Sausages and Prepared Meats

I just can't help but link to the National Hot Dog & Sausage Council's Glossary of Sausages and Prepared Meats, if only because it defines Goetta, which explains this blog's name:

Fully cooked sausage of German origin similar to scrapple; made with ground pork and/or beef, oats, herbs and spices; available in rolls and slab form.

Clearly being the descendant of a German-American butcher has done nothing to moor me in the culture.

[via Resourceshelf]

Can you trust someone's conclusions if you can't reproduce their work?

In theory the strength of science is that work done in its name is reproducible and verifiable, but what does it say about the theory when in fact that's not really true?

Journals and granting agencies are prodding scientists to make their data public. Once the data is public, other scientists can verify the conclusions. Or at least that’s how it’s supposed to work. In practice, it can be extremely difficult or impossible to reproduce someone else’s results. I’m not talking here about reproducing experiments, but simply reproducing the statistical analysis of experiments.

It’s understandable that many experiments are not practical to reproduce: the replicator needs the same resources as the original experimenter, and so expensive experiments are seldom reproduced. But in principle the analysis of an experiment’s data should be repeatable by anyone with a computer. And yet this is very often not possible.

[via Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science]

Jeff Jarvis: "Why Twitter is the canary in the news coalmine"

I might have ignored this a few months ago, but since I first learned of two recent news events -- a plane crash and the earthquake that shook Kentucky -- via Twitter and not a conventional news site, I can't deny Twitter's value:

It stands to reason: if you've just gone through a major event, you are sure to want to update your friends about it. If enough people are chattering about an earthquake at the same time, that's an immediate indication of a major news story.

Developers at the BBC and Reuters have picked up on the potential for this. They are working on applications to monitor Twitter, the Twitter search engine Summize, and other social-media services - Flickr, YouTube, Facebook - for news catchwords such as "earthquake" and "evacuation". They hope for two benefits: first, an early warning of news, and second, a way to find witness media - photos, videos and accounts from the event. This is clearly more efficient than waiting for reporters and photographers to get to the scene after the news is over - though, of course, they will still go and do what journalists do: report, verify facts, package, and take their own pictures (which they then own).

Incidentally, while I still consider it an experiment, you can follow me on Twitter.

Social bookmarking for journalists

... as explained by the Online Journalism Blog.

Quamut subject guides

Barnes & Noble runs the Web site Quamut:

A Quamut is a concise yet comprehensive guide to a particular subject, such as Buying a Home, Personal Finance, or Making Sushi. Every Quamut is professionally written, edited, and fact-checked, so you can trust the content.

Their free online, but it costs you $2.95 to download one as a PDF and $5.95 if you want to buy one as a laminated card.

They also offer a daily free PDF download. Today's is on "aromatherapy," which doesn't speak well of B & N's "fact checking." Aromatherapy, B & N's Quamut says, "is the practice of enhancing health, mood, and appearance through the use of concentrated plant extracts called essential oils." The Quamut, for example, says coconut oil "supports healthy function of immune system."

There's no mention that many consider aromatherapy, in the words of a mostly uncritical Wikipedia article, "a pseudoscientific fraud." As the Skeptic's Dictionary says:

Besides personal experience, the only kind of research aromatherapists seem interested in is in reading what other aromatherapists have said or believed about plants or oils. The practitioners and salespersons of aromatherapeutic products seem singularly uninterested in scientific testing of their claims, many of which are empirical and could be easily tested. Of course, there are many aromatherapists who make non-testable claims, such as claims regarding how certain oils will affect their "subtle body," bring balance to their chakra, restore harmony to their energy flow, return one to their center, or contribute to spiritual growth. Aromatherapy is said to restore or enhance mental, emotional, physical or spiritual health. Such claims are essentially non-testable. They are part of New Age mythology and can't really engender any meaningful discussion or debate.

Quamut also has a wiki where it solicits contributions from anyone. Let's hope they're not all as bogus as this one.

[via Marcus P. Zillman]

Get a free Sitepoint Photoshop book

You have 28 days to get the book, The Photoshop Anthology: 101 Web Design Tips, Tricks & Techniques." You submit your email address to them and they send back a link that allows you to download it as a PDF.

Free Government Information

... was founded by librarians "to raise public awareness of the importance of government information and create a community with various stakeholders to facilitate an open and critical dialogue":

We believe that it is important to garner support for government information not just within our own community of federal depository libraries but with those organizations and citizens that actually need to know about the activities of our government in order to participate fully in the democratic process. This includes non-profit organizations, government watchdogs, academics and researchers, journalists, the business community, and individual citizens. By creating this nexus, we hope to facilitate collaboration among the various stakeholders and participate in the design of a truly robust system for the digital age where government information is freely accessible, fully functional and usable, and preserved in a distributed system of libraries.

Their blog is here.

NutritionData

I wanted to know the nutrition facts for McDonald's $1 sausage breakfast burrito, which I've been eating too often in recent days, and found what I needed at NutritionData:

Since its launch in 2003, Nutrition Data has grown into one of the most credible and useful sources of nutritional analysis on the Web. In July 2006, Nutrition Data was acquired by CondéNet, a digital publisher under the Condé Nast Publications umbrella dedicated to editorial excellence. Nutrition Data's continuing goal is to provide the most accurate and comprehensive nutrition analysis available, and to make it accessible and understandable to all.

The information in Nutrition Data's database comes from the USDA's National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference and is supplemented by listings provided by restaurants and food manufacturers. The source for each individual food item is listed in the footnotes of that food's analysis page. In addition to food composition data, Nutrition Data also provides a variety of proprietary tools to analyze and interpret that data. These interpretations represent Nutrition Data's opinion and are based on calculations derived from Daily Reference Values (DRVs), Reference Daily Intakes (RDIs), published research, and recommendations of the FDA.

While Nutrition Data cannot guarantee the absolute accuracy of every listing, we make every attempt possible to ensure the quality of our data.

Not coincidentally, I will be cutting back my breakfast burrito consumption.

Depth Reporting's old look restored

I learned today that Depth Reporting's recent problems were caused by Google's blogroll widget, which I have removed from my page. That allowed me to restore Depth Reporting's old template. I considered elaborating on Google's lousy way of handling problems like these, but don't have the patience right now, and will be moving on.

Apologies for Depth Reporting being out of commission

Depth Reporting, which is hosted by Google's Blogger, was down for more than a day for reasons that are still unclear to me. Apparently others are having similar problems, but as is typical with Google, they haven't responded to my request for help or offered an explanation. They tell users to report problems in their forums, but actually replying to those reports doesn't appear to interest them. Their status page, more than 8 hours after I submitted my request for help, mentions only "a small number" of users reporting "broken feeds," which doesn't fit my situation. I restored Depth Reporting by reverting to one of Google's classic templates, as suggested by a blogger in their forums, but all of my customizations have been lost. Depth Reporting also seems to be having problems displaying images.

To be continued ...

Digital File, a database for investigative reporters and researchers

Haven't tried it myself, but Digital File costs about $45 and was recommended by a reporter on NICAR-L. It's for organizing investigations:

It is bases on Excel and runs on every PC and Mac. The database helps keeping track of an investigation. All steps are documented in a way that allows quick access and overview. The database contains contact info about sources, questions to ask, documents and (interview) notes, as well as a time tracker and expenses sheet. ‘After years of muddling in Word, this really is a solution!’

The creator is Luuk Sengers, a freelance investigative reporter and journalism lecturer in The Netherlands.

Can you believe reporters when they write, "studies have shown"?

Stats.org deconstructs the phrase "studies have shown" in reporting on infants fed breast milk versus formula:

... in the increasingly overly-simplified, context-free world of reporting on health, the phrase “studies have shown” is often a formula for telling the reader what the reporter assumes has actually been shown.

Deliberations: "A Trial Lawyer's Guide To Social Networking Sites"

If the lawyers are paying attention to what jurors are saying on social networking sites, so should you:

We know there are jurors who blog, and jurors who read blogs, and jurors who comment on blogs. By now you're surely convinced that you need to ask potential jurors if they're writing on line. But do you know how? There are nearly countless ways a juror could show up on the Internet. You need some sense of the landscape to ask about them, or you'll get partial answers or answers you don't understand.

If words like "Tweet" and "wiki" pop up often in your vocabulary, you don't need this post. But in case this stuff is new to you, here is Deliberations' short guide to the world of social networking. These are roughly grouped according to the main feature of the site, but most have overlapping features and functions.