:: LNR Journalism ::

WikiLeaks & data journalism: Using predictive analytics to identify flashpoints in Afghanistan’s war zones

SiliconANGLE :: By sorting through and collating vast amounts of data from diplomatic cables dumped online by Julian Assange and WikiLeaks in 2010, a group of friends at the headquarters of the internet company Bitly Inc., in New York, has managed to create a computer model that not only predicts where and when violence might occur in Afghanistan, but also its level intensity.

The results of their work were published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences last month.

A report by Mike Wheatley, siliconangle.com

[Jon Bardin:] The study also shows why it's important to make as much data public as possible, Ward said. Without WikiLeaks, he said, a study like this would have been far more difficult to carry out.

Reported in July 2012 by Jon Bardin, Los Angeles Times: Computer analysis predicted rises, ebbs in Afghanistan violence

'Thunderdome' takes shape at Digital First

NetNewsCheck :: Digital First Media Editor in Chief Jim Brady talks about the fundamental transition underway in Journal Register Co.'s news gathering operation. News aggregation and centralized production of big national stories as well as health, travel and education feature wells are adding heft to papers' websites while letting the papers focus on what they do best: local news. There is also a centralized data journalism team and a SWAT team of producers who can double down on big breaking stories.

A report by Michael Depp, www.netnewscheck.com

Mapping the rise of violence against journalists in Afghanistan

PBS Mediashift :: Violence against journalists in Afghanistan is now mapped on an interactive website, which was first launched last year, nominated for a Data Journalism Award, and recently updated to include data from 2011 and 2012. The site tracks all types of media violence, from threats to kidnapping to killing, and maps where they occur in the country.

Clipped from: data.nai.org.af (share this clip) - Reports gathered by Internews and their on-the-ground partner Nai.

A report by David Cole, www.pbs.org

Internews on Twitter

Data visualization: It’s pretty, but is it useful?

BMW Guggenheim Lab :: My automatic reaction to the words “data visualization” tends to be an eye roll. Infographics and data maps—now the darlings of designers and journalists alike—have enjoyed a surge in popularity over the past several years, that, in my opinion, has been hugely disproportionate to the function they have served.

However, a recent conversation with Dietmar Offenhuber, the MIT Sensible City Lab Ph.D. student who has been working with Lab Team member Carlo Ratti on his programs here at the (BMW Guggenheim) Lab, convinced me that, while I’m not wrong in being thoroughly unimpressed by the current, trendy uses of data visualization, it may, indeed, hold the potential to be a more useful tool than I have so far believed.

Christine McLaren on Twitter

BMW Guggenheim Lab on Twitter

A report by Christine McLaren, blog.bmwguggenheimlab.org

London 2012: Is this the first open data Olympics?

Guardian :: Is this the first open data Olympics? - It should be - we have access to better data analysis and visualisation tools than ever before, many of them free. There is also a culture of open data around the world that just wasn't there in 2008. Governments have thrown open the doors to their data vaults and numbers are everywhere.

Open data Olympics? - A report by www.guardian.co.uk

Open data: Will citizen publishing of digital information trump online news?

Lean Back 2.0 | Economist Group :: Open data – not subject to costly licenses for access – is part of a growing phenomenon where citizens depend, not on government, but on their own production of digital information to tell stories. Crowdsourcing, using digital platforms, does not need to involve paid contributors (although it sometimes does in the case of Amazon’s Mechanical Turk). It does not require professional training as a journalist or data analyst. It seems to work faster than traditional publishing to galvanize people into social action.

Public policy and open data - A report by Robin Mansell, LSE, www.economistgroup.com

ProPublica gets $1.9m from Knight to expand its efforts in data journalism

Niemanlab :: ProPublica is getting a $1.9 million data journalism grant from the Knight Foundation, the nonprofits jointly announced on Wednesday. The money will be used to support ProPublica’s News Applications team, including adding one full-time staffer.

A report by Adrienne LaFrance, www.niemanlab.org

Let’s explode the myth that data journalism is ‘resource intensive’

Online Journalism Blog :: The idea that data journalism inherently requires extra resources is flawed – but understandable. Spectacular interactives, large scale datasets and investigative projects are the headliners of data journalism’s recent history. We have oohed and aahed over what has been achieved by programmer-journalists and data sleuths …

But that’s not all there is.

Continue here /written by Paul Bradshaw, onlinejournalismblog.com

European Championship: Social media monitoring of the England (and Germany's) team

Brandwatch :: Events like the European Championships set the social world on fire, and nothing gets people talking quite like football does. Using our social media monitoring tool, we've taken the opportunity to listen to what people are saying about the Euro 2012 England team, finding out which players are hitting the target and which ones should be warming the bench.

England's team labs.brandwatch.com => England

German team labs.brandwatch.com =>DE

Guardian data content reached 1m users a month for past year

journalism.co.uk :: The Guardian's Datablog and Datastore have recorded an average of more than 1 million users a month for the past 12 months, according to the latest figures from the news outlet. The user statistics for the year ending the end of April - which also marked its three year anniversary - are said to signal the first time the average for a whole year has reached over a million a month. The latest figures available, which relate to all content tagged as data, also show around 1.6 million page impressions a month on average for the past year. A model that works?

Looking closer - Continue to read Rachel McAthy, www.journalism.co.uk