SEJ2008

Exercises for Data Part 1: Translating Data into News (Poulson)

This morning from 10:45-noon, and again on Saturday from 9-10:15 am, David Poulson (Assoc. Dir., Knight Center for Environmental Journalism, MSU)

Download data1_handouts.zip

will be giving SEJers a crash course in the basics of manipulating spreadsheets to blast open fresh avenues of environmental exploration.

Dave's including in this class a couple of exercises. If you can't make the class -- or if you lose your paper handout -- here are his explanations and datasets that you can use:

Geodata & Mapping: Clem Henrickson's Handouts

Today, we'll be joined on the Appalachian Trail tour by Clem Henrickson - Geographic Info System (GIS) professional and market analyst for ESRI, one of the world's leading GIS companies.

We're hiking up to McAfee Knob -- an outcrop with a stunning view along the AT. After we've had lunch at the top, Clem and I will give a short, informal talk about what's new with geotechnology, and how geodata and interactive mapping can be a fun and useful part of environmental news and info.

If you can't join us on the tour, you can follow along in Google Earth, via this cool map layer Clem created of our planned outing today...

Journalists on Seesmic?

On Saturday, from 10:45-noon in the Washington Lecture Hall at the Hotel Roanoke, I'll be giving a talk on why journalists should be using blogs and social media tools. This won't just be me geeking out -- there are solid journalistic and career reasons why any journalists should start using this stuff on a regular basis. Here's one of the tools I'm gonna demo: Seesmic, with is kind of like Twitter for video: Journalists on Seesmic?How have you seen journalists using Seesmic? How would you LIKE to see them using Seesmic? Comment back with your examples or ideas. I'll tell everyone at the SEJ08 conference this week. This session will be especially good for anyone who's either new to social media, unsure , skeptical, or jaded. I plan to get right to the "so what," and to figure out which of these tools is best for you -- and for the communities you want to engage. Hope to see you there!