It was a classic story as old as time: college kids grow up online, decide that it’d be a great idea to throw a internet culture conference, and unleash sheer ridiculousness upon the world.
Back in April 2008, we put on the original ROFLCon — the first internet culture conference devoted to discussing what makes memes work, why they work, and where it’s all going (and then throwing a big-ass rocking party with the internet celebs themselves). It was a kickass time, not to mention the most important gatherings since the fall of the tower of Babel.
But starting Homicide Watch, the business, took much more.
There are a lot of resources out there for entrepreneurial journalists; unfortunately I didn’t know about any of them when I got started. Much of my learning was trial and error. Fortunately, it’s not too difficult to set up your own business, and in this post I’ll take you through my steps and what I learned in the process.
Current Location: Bethesda, MD Current Gig: CEO, Mobiletech Quick and Dirty Resume: Learned to drive small boats fast in the shallow waters with the Norwegian Naval Academy. Used that skill to then navigate through the IT boom in the late 90´s in the banking industry. During this time, I also developed a passion for mobile, which led to creation of Mobiletech in 2005, where I am today –- still at full speed! Six-word memoir: Aim high, watch for returning arrow. Favorite fictional character: That’s easy — Carl Hamilton, or Coq Rouge from Jan Guillou´s famous spy novels. Favorite tech tool? The Sonos music system. Really love having online streaming music from Pandora or Spotify in all rooms. Of course, I can control it with the ease of an iPhone.
What happens during your average day?
“You are Creative, Artistic, and We Love You” read the subject line from my latest email from scroll kit, a website creation service. If I had to rate them just on marketing alone, scroll kit would get five stars. Since when do website companies send affirmations to your inbox? Unfortunately, I also had to grade ScrollKit on usability and experience, which is where we run into some problems.
Current Location: Silver City, Grant County, N.M. Current Gig: I own, edit, manage and post to grantcountybeat.com, a local online news source. Quick and Dirty Resume: I had always enjoyed writing news releases for organizations, networking, taking photographs, as well as learning what was going on where I lived, including going to meetings. When I took a job as a reporter, everything fell into place. I got paid for being nosy! Six Word Resume: Laid off; became entrepreneur; love it. Favorite Fictional Character: Joanna Brady of the J.A. Jance series set in southeastern Arizona. Favorite tech tool: My MacBook Pro. Desiring an iPad.
This is one of a series of blog posts from the first ONA class of MJ Bear Fellows describing their experiences and sharing their knowledge with the community. Fellow Lam Thuy Vo is an associate producer for National Public Radio’s Planet Money.
Ugh, the blog format. For a lover of long-form magazine stories and documentaries, I was never the biggest fan.
With blogs came shortened word counts, limited visual capabilities and a curtailed shelf life (although that might be arguable).
But necessity is the mother of invention, and there have been a number of folks who took the format, ran with it and converted me (which is good because I now work on a blog).
Examining the People’s Production House’s Reticulator Project provides a unique opportunity to unlock a project going through growing pains. When ONA first learned about the project (through our own Jeanne Brooks, a PPH board member), it was moving through the creation and submission process for the MacArthur Foundation’s Digital Media & Learning Project, which, unfortunately, did not select the Reticulator as one of the winning projects. So what do the folks at PPH think happened? Read on.
Idea
The Reticulator is a website plug-in that encourages users to rate and rank the media they consume. With the ability to rank a piece based on effectiveness, reporting, craft, accuracy, inclusion and collaboration, the Reticulator was poised to be a valuable tool in the fight for media literacy. Created by The People’s Production House, the Reticulator idea managed to work in both cutting-edge technologies and social justice principles.
This post is one of a series of blog posts from the first ONA class of MJ Bear Fellows describing their experiences, projects and sharing their knowledge with the ONA community. Fellow Lucas Timmons is a data journalist and web producer for The Edmonton Journal in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
The Edmonton Journal is hiring a new sports editor. When the posting went up a few weeks ago, it got me wondering exactly what I would change if I were in charge of a sports section. How would I transform our coverage and focus to deal with the new digital reality? Where do I think sports reporting is going?
To be truthful, I always intended to be a sportswriter, not a data journalist or news applications developer. It was a speech given by Jim Brady (of Digital First Media, and ONA Board President) back in 2010 at a Canadian Association of Journalists conference in Toronto that got me excited to be in the digital world.
With that in mind, I’ve put together this plan — a bit of a dream, but this is what I would do if I had the chance.
Engagement
Sports sections need to give readers a reason to visit the website. The way I see it, anyone who would want the score from last night’s game either already watched the game or the highlights on ESPN, or checked the league’s website. Writing a story for the next day’s newspaper seems like a very poor use of reporters’ time. So what should we do instead?
We need to engage our readers — bring them to our website during the game. The audience we want to grow has more than one screen in their houses — they have laptops, tablets and smartphones along with their television sets. Hosting chats during the games builds community, creates loyal readers and gives those readers a say in the coverage.
Location: New York Current Gig: Assistant Professor at Columbia Journalism School with the Tow Center for Digital Journalism Quick and Dirty Resume: I was the Senior Programmer of the Online News Graphics team at the Wall Street Journal for four years, where I developed the paper’s first database-driven online visualizations. In 2010, I was named as a winner in the Gerald Loeb Awards’ “Online Enterprise” category for my work on the Journal’s “What They Know” series, and I was also a finalist for the 2007 Scripps Howard award in Web Reporting. At Columbia, I focus on data journalism and visualization, collaborating closely with news organizations and computer scientists to develop real-world applications that can advance the industry and practice of journalism. Six-word memoir:: Computers and theater, thanks Brenda Laurel. Favorite fictional character: Curious George Favorite tech tool? Tough one. Going to have to go with Google Fusion Tables, and/or Google Refine for now. Visualization and data are my thing.
Thinking about applying for the MJ Bear Fellowship? Lam Thuy Vo, of NPR’s Planet Money, talks about her experience as a “first Fellow” and offers tips.
Applications are now open. Find out more about eligibility here.
Lots of information for a short release, but the big one in my view: First responders can now get a temporary certificate of operation for testing and evaluation quickly, and a operational certificate when they show proficiency.
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