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14 Sep 2011 10:39

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U.S.: A win for transparency: Chicago throws its crime records online

  • OK, this isn’t nearly as sexy as, say, EveryBlock or the Sunlight Foundation. But throwing records of the past decade of crimes online represents a new era of transparency for a famously-guarded city. Or as Brett Goldstein, the city’s chief data officer and former police officer, puts it: “It’s a whole new era of openness and transparency. You determine your own analysis.” And on top of that, EveryBlock could totally plug into this database if they wanted to. Some have been a bit critical of what isn’t in the data — race, for example — but many analysts note that this is more than a lot of cities offer. You done good, Rahm! source

05 Oct 2009 21:53

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Biz, Tech: Knight Foundation: Everyone (not just EveryBlock) should benefit

  • Oops, this open source code isn’t very useful on its own! The Knight Foundation, which has been funding startups for a few years as part of their Knight News Challenge, was quite excited at the sale of EveryBlock to MSNBC in August. But now it’s having second thoughts. Why? Because it was released to the public as a piece of open-source code – not a plug-and-play package that newspapers can easily use. So they’re getting a new team to finish up the EveryBlock code which so it can be rolled out simply. Other startups will get treated the same way. We imagine some applicants to the Knight News Challenge (deadline coming soon!) might get turned off by this, but the goal was always to help journalism in general. source

17 Aug 2009 22:00

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Tech: Why EveryBlock’s success should be a call to arms for savvy techies

EveryBlock

Journalism needs ideas like EveryBlock. Everyone's complaining about losing jobs and how big media organizations like the Associated Press don't get it. Why don't you help write the plot? Here's a few thoughts on how.
  • Get to coding If you’re a journalist with tech tendencies who’s been laid off, or even one without tech tendencies who wants to write the plot, start working on your Web skills. Find a niche that’s being underserved or a community that could a new journalism approach. Learn your options, try your hand at coding (don’t be scared; it’s like riding a bike), and put your heart into it.
  • Get to coding If you’re a journalist with tech tendencies who’s been laid off, or even one without tech tendencies who wants to write the plot, start working on your Web skills. Find a niche that’s being underserved or a community that could a new journalism approach. Learn your options, try your hand at coding (don’t be scared; it’s like riding a bike), and put your heart into it.
  • Think bigger Ideas like EveryBlock don’t happen by accident. People behind startups notice niches and find ways to make them flourish. They aren’t modest about their ambitions. They’re willing to try and fail. They’ll sweat heavily and spend long hours working on their project even when it feels like it’s not bearing fruit. But if you want to turn journalism on its head, be bold. Be brash.
  • Get to coding If you’re a journalist with tech tendencies who’s been laid off, or even one without tech tendencies who wants to write the plot, start working on your Web skills. Find a niche that’s being underserved or a community that could a new journalism approach. Learn your options, try your hand at coding (don’t be scared; it’s like riding a bike), and put your heart into it.
  • Think bigger Ideas like EveryBlock don’t happen by accident. People behind startups notice niches and find ways to make them flourish. They aren’t modest about their ambitions. They’re willing to try and fail. They’ll sweat heavily and spend long hours working on their project even when it feels like it’s not bearing fruit. But if you want to turn journalism on its head, be bold. Be brash.
  • Come a-knockin’ Knight News Challenge: In two weeks, the organization that birthed EveryBlock will begin accepting applications for the 2010 version of its venture-capital contest. You should apply.
    Y Combinator: Just this morning, the startup incubator announced plans to fund a journalism-centric company with aspirations of making money. Learn more here.

17 Aug 2009 21:22

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Tech: Kudos to journalism experiment EveryBlock for making it happen

  • I often tell friends and industry colleagues that EveryBlock in is current incarnation is only about 5 percent of what we want to do with it. We’re now in a position to make this happen.
  • EveryBlock founder Adrian Holovaty • Discussing his company’s acquisition by MSNBC.com. This is a BIG DEAL for journalism, because EveryBlock’s experimental model, which leans on using public records and RSS feeds to provide a to-the-block organization of information in a city, is an alumnus of the Knight News Challenge, which encourages Web-centric approaches to journalism. Some have questioned whether what EveryBlock does is journalism; Holovaty has famously said he doesn’t care. For what it’s worth, EveryBlock got a warm welcome from NewsVine founder Mike Davidson, whose own MSNBC-owned site has only benefited from acquisition. • source

16 May 2009 21:42

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Tech: Five things we learned by going to Tribune Tower in Chicago