I agree with you that the data is presented in an informative way, and provides a lot of information. Perhaps “sit there” wasn’t the right term I was looking for. Rather, a way to use the data in reporting and vice versa so that the traffic to both reporting and databases could be strengthened in the long run.

I think the story that was produced when the site was launched is a great example, but somebody – database journalist or business reporter or whoever – should be checking back on the database numbers every so often (assuming the database is being updated).

I would use as an example Chicagocrime.org. It was a great database and a great way to show what crime was happening in chicago. But a few graphs to explain some of the data trends would have been a good way to add some journalistic value to the map data.

Just my thoughts.

What part of this page is letting the data “sit there” and not highlighting trends, hotspots or context? The database IS providing those things. A human being isn’t needed to write a story, make a trend graphic, a map and several other lists of context for that very specific neighborhood. What a program can’t do is this, which is based on the same dataset and ran when it launched.

So, you’re right: don’t choose. Play to strengths. Use your staff to do what they do well and use web apps, programming and data to handle things that don’t require a reporter. Could a reporter write a neighborhood summary? Sure. Could a graphic artist update a trend graphic and a map? Of course. But 189 times in one county alone? Every week? You’d kill yourself if you were assigned that.

The simple brutal fact of the matter is that no one has the staff they used to, and most places don’t even have the staff they need. So we’re all going to have to get a lot smarter about how we use people — the largest expense in any organization — and how we don’t if we want to do anything other than cut back on the amount of information we’re providing to people. We need to be a lot more creative on how we use means other than assigning a reporter to get information and news to our readers. Those means have limits, and knowing where they are and where the balance between staff driven and data driven lies is critical.

As I see it, stories (small or large) can refocus attention on the data, and the data can drive more stories.