Comments on: What journalists should know about databases

By: Technolo-J : No. 3: Embrace databases

Technolo-J : No. 3: Embrace databases — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 03:14:47 +0000

[...] KatieFor other helpful discussions on databases, see Mindy McAdams’ excellent post “What Journalists Should Know About Databases”.Also, there’s this previous post on maps. Published Sunday, October 21, 2007 1:48 AM by [...]

By: Getting interactive « Getting to grips with the net

Getting interactive « Getting to grips with the net — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 05:32:59 +0000

[...] are also expected to browse blogs regularly. Mindy McAdams explains why journalists should learn to use [...]

By: links for 2007-10-10 by andydickinson.net

links for 2007-10-10 by andydickinson.net — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 23:29:11 +0000

[...] What journalists should know about databases Don’t be put off by the word Database. Read this wonderful round up from Mindy and give it a try (tags: database xml) [...]

By: Mindy

Mindy — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 12:45:56 +0000

Thanks, David! I can also suggest these two sites for customizable Flash data charts and graphs: XML/SWF Charts amCharts Both simply use XML to render data in a SWF. You don't need to own or understand Flash to use them.

By: David Huynh

David Huynh — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 11:46:06 +0000

For showing small data sets, try

http://simile.mit.edu/exhibit/

Documentation is here:

http://simile.mit.edu/wiki/Exhibit

By: Craig McGinty

Craig McGinty — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 14:01:39 +0000

@Mindy

Not a WordPress user myself, but you can include both the entry fields and results into a website.

So you could build a simple What’s On form and display future events in a calendar format.

Just check the Embed in your Website options, under More Actions.

Craig

By: Mindy

Mindy — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 12:35:05 +0000

@Derek -- thanks for the clarification. If someone wants to grab a nice big dataset to play with, I might recommend the datasets at the Pew Internet & American Life Project site.

By: links for 2007-10-09 | SOJo: Student of Online Journalism

links for 2007-10-09 | SOJo: Student of Online Journalism — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 12:23:45 +0000

[...] Teaching Online Journalism » What journalists should know about databases (tags: journalism data databases) [...]

By: Derek Willis

Derek Willis — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 01:27:43 +0000

This isn’t clear from the transcript (which is on me – I didn’t fully explain myself), but I didn’t intend to suggest that students offer their services to professors without knowing about data. Instead, my thinking was that students who can only conceive of “data” as a strictly computer-related concept could ask a social science prof who works with data if they could perhaps look at/play with some of the datasets that have been gathered.

In other words, if you’re comfortable with elections in general, chances are you might find electioon-related data less daunting than other subjects.

By: Mindy

Mindy — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 16:11:08 +0000

Thanks for the tip, Craig. I've been looking at Zoho for the past hour. Zoho Creator looks amazing. The big gap seems to be: No WordPress plug-in! Horrors! But for getting started on a database, the new DB & Reports application seems perfect. Thanks again!