The DOJ’s actions — gathering two months of records for more than 20 telephone lines, both from major AP bureaus and the home and cell phones of individual AP journalists — is a startling and potentially dangerous overreach of its powers, powers that are strictly limited under the DOJ’s own guidelines for issuing subpoenas to the news media for testimony and evidence.

The range of media organizations that have signed on to the letter and the speed with which we have reacted gives some sense of how strongly ONA — and the journalism community at large — feels about the DOJ’s intrusion and its potential impact on our work in the service of the public. As outlined in the letter, we have requested a swift response from the DOJ on a variety of related issues, and we’ll keep you updated.

Jim Brady, President
Josh Hatch, Chair, Legal Affairs Committee

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Online News Association, the world’s largest membership organization of digital journalists, announces that Nate Silver, best-selling author and expert data forecaster at FiveThirtyEight.com, will keynote at its 2013 conference in Atlanta.

Silver will be featured at the Online News Association Conference and Awards Banquet Friday, Oct. 18, in a conversation exploring data journalism.

Silver, ranked this week as #1 on Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business for 2013, has become today’s leading statistician through his innovative analyses of political polling. He first gained national attention during the 2008 presidential election, when he correctly predicted the results of the primaries and the presidential winner in 49 states. Today, he runs the award-winning political website FiveThirtyEight.com, where he publishes a running forecast of current elections and hot-button issues. Now published in the New York Times, FiveThirtyEight.com has made Silver the public face of statistical analysis and political forecasting.

His book, “The Signal and The Noise: Why Most Predictions Fail — But Some Don’t,” is a New York Times bestseller. Before he came to politics, he established his credentials as an analyst of baseball statistics. He developed a widely acclaimed system called PECOTA (Player Empirical Comparison and Optimization Test Algorithm), which predicts player performance, career development, and seasonal winners and losers. He is the author of a series of books on baseball statistics, which include “Mind Game,” “Baseball Between the Numbers,” and “It Ain’t Over ‘til It’s Over.”

He has been honored by a series of accolades, from Time’s 100 Most Influential People of 2009 to Rolling Stone’s 100 Agents of Change. FiveThirtyEight.com won Best Political Coverage in the 2008 Weblog Awards.

“We’re thrilled to have Nate join us and to get a chance to hear him expound on his brand of thoughtful, incisive analysis and the critical role data plays in our business,” said ONA Executive Director Jane McDonnell.

Early-bird registration is open for the conference, which has sold out five years running.

About ONA
The Online News Association is the world’s largest association of digital journalists. ONA’s mission is to inspire innovation and excellence among journalists to better serve the public. The membership includes news writers, producers, designers, editors, bloggers, developers, photographers, educators, students and others who produce news for and support digital delivery systems. ONA also hosts the annual Online News Association conference and administers the Online Journalism Awards.

To give you more time to weigh in on the conference design, we’ve extended the deadline for the ONA13 Suggestion Box for one full week! You now have until May 8 at 11:59 p.m. E.T. to tell us what you can teach digital journalists.

Help us disrupt newsrooms around the world and train a modern workforce of journalists. You can check out all the great ideas
submitted so far at the ONA13 Suggestion Box.

We are especially interested in ideas aimed at beginners and intermediate level training.

Have an idea for the conference, but don’t want to present? We want to hear that, too. Submit today!

Don’t forget, registration for ONA13 is now open. Register now and get the discounted early-bird rate.

Registration is officially open for the 2013 Online News Association Conference & Awards Banquet, Oct. 17-19, in Atlanta. Pro tip: The earlier you register, the lower your fee.

New this year: One price gets you into any and all conference sessions, the Midway, exhibits and the Job Fair! Pick and choose from our extended (three-day) program.

Starting today, members and non-members will have two months to sign up for the conference at the early-bird rate. Then the cost goes up incrementally, so avoid the last-minute crunch. As past attendees know, ONA13 passes sell out quickly, so plan to get yours early.

ONA13 General Pass

Registering as a group (10 or more, for a $50 per ticket discount)? Contact support@journalists.org for assistance.

Lodging: Reserve your room at the downtown Atlanta Marriott Marquis, an easy walk to many nearby sights and restaurants and a midway point to Atlanta’s great neighborhoods. Rates for a standard room are a steal at $139 and rooms are already going fast. Door-to-door MARTA service between Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and the Marriott is $2.50. Book your room here.

So far, here’s what’s in store for the three days:

Thursday-Saturday, Oct. 17-19

• Opening Night: We’ll kick off the main conference with an Opening Night Reception on Thursday, Oct. 17. Prepare for amazing networking, food and drinks, with an ATL vibe.

• General Sessions: The ONA13 conference committee is getting ready to sift through the spoils of the Suggestion Box which will help inform our programming, guided by public likes. You still have 24 hours to submit your ideas. Keynotes, sessions and speakers will be announced shortly. Join us for intensive, smaller hands-on workshops spread throughout the three days of creative sessions.

• The Midway grows!: Come create at the bigger, more interactive Midway, a lively, collaborative playground full of tools, tech and journalism innovators. This year we’re expanding our vision to feature a host of new ideas; a hardware hacking station, drones and install parties with your favorite tools that promise to add new levels of social and tech engagement for attendees.

• Career development: Whether you’re looking to get, keep or move up in a media job, join us for a track of sessions that showcase career navigation and our growing Job Fair, featuring top digital media recruiters, executives and staff, one-on-one meetings with recruiters from major media and technology companies, independent news organizations and academia. New this year: The Job Fair will be part of general pass. Recruiters, tables are still $250 and registration will open soon.

• Online Journalism Awards Banquet: Celebrate digital journalism excellence at our annual awards ceremony — the perfect close to the conference. Tickets for the banquet are $25 and can be purchased when you register or separately.

Get involved!

Volunteer: The ONA13 Volunteer Committee is looking for volunteers to work before, during (and a little bit after) the conference. Come to ONA13 for free and work alongside the best minds in online journalism, and revel in the satisfaction of pulling off one of the best events in the industry. Apply here.

Student Newsroom, sponsored by Google: Applications for young talent to cover ONA13 are open to grad and undergrad applicants from all over the globe. Chairs Michelle Johnson of Boston University and Katia Hetter of CNN will be making the selections — look for the announcement of the 20 students (and mentors) who will take over the ONA13 website.

Interested in sponsoring, exhibiting or participating?
Take a look at our overview on all sponsorship, exhibitor and Midway opportunities.

For sponsorships/exhibitors, fill out this form or email Tom Regan.
For the Midway, email ona13midway@journalists.org.

As part of my MJ Bear Fellowship, I had the great fortune of being mentored by Paul Cheung, Global Interactives Editor at the Associated Press. A few months back, Paul invited me to shadow him for the day and check out the great work he and his team are doing up close.

You’ve probably come across AP’s data-driven graphics, 3-D animations, photos and videos on any one of its members’ websites, possibly without realizing that AP is behind any of them. I thought I’d share some of my observations and takeaways for my peek behind the AP curtain:

A global workforce: On a recent Friday morning, I had the chance to sit in on the weekly global meeting, in which dozens of participants video-conference from around the world to plan news coverage. As they made the rounds among Asia, Europe and the United States, I was struck by how well-oiled this global machine was, and how technology made it appear that we were all crowding around a single conference room table. It was also reassuring to see such a global presence in an era in which other news organizations are cutting back.

Social media incorporated: At both the global meeting and a separate interactive department meeting, significant time was dedicated to looking at what was trending on social media. That morning, it happened to be an interactive map that plotted racist election tweets, which stood out among the mainstream election coverage. This interest in social didn’t seem superficial, but rather a genuine pursuit of understanding the trend, and making sure that AP was either already in on it, or finding ways to cover it when relevant.

Around the web: The AP interactive team also keeps a close eye on what others are doing in this space. Many of us send around links to our co-workers when we come across something of interest, but Paul and his team actually dedicate a portion of their weekly planning meeting to discussing why they liked or didn’t like a publication or product, speculating on how it was created and which backend tool was used, and figuring out what they could learn from it and utilize in the future. I loved this approach so much that I got my team at the Council on Foreign Relations to institute a weekly 30-minute “around the web” session to do just that.

Template and custom: After the morning meetings, I spent some one-on-one time with a few of the interactive team members to see just how these sausages are made. Cranking out new products on a pretty frequent basis, the team makes use of a template model, which allows them to both streamline the production process and deliver a consistent look and feel across publications. The template is a multi-click chapter experience, and individual sections of the interactive often are assigned to different team members. Although the shell or wrapper is a template, within each section there is a lot of room for flexibility and customization. Inside you’ll find some stunning hand-drawn animations, custom-coded data visualizations, and video explainers.

Build responsively: With tablet sales skyrocketing and audience consumption habits shifting, responsive design is on everyone’s minds, and poses a challenge for interactives in particular. AP’s interactives, like all AP products, are built with distribution in mind. As the interactives are developed, they are rendered and previewed for multiple screen sizes, ensuring that no matter where they end up, you’ll get an optimized user experience.

You can keep up with AP’s interactives by following @AP_Interactive

Hagit Bachrach is one of ONA’s three MJ Bear Fellows for 2012. She is part of the multimedia team and the first video producer at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Apply for the MJ Bear Fellowship

Here are three more reasons to apply:

Feedback from peers on your projects.

“What [the fellowship] has done for me is put me in touch with other people who are both geeks and into technology but also hold themselves to the highest of journalistic standards,” said 2011 Fellow Lam Thuy Vo, now at NPR’s Planet Money. “Since the [Online News Association] conference, I’ve been an active member of the community and met a lot of people who are similarly minded.”

Connections to ONA’s robust network of journalists.

“I applied for the fellowship because I was embarking on a new career in freelance journalism from a newspaper background,” said 2012 Fellow Tricia Fulks, now working on the interactive documentary “Hollow.” “I thought that the fellowship could help me make contacts in the industry beyond my local network in West Virginia.”

Career advancement and recognition.

“Opportunities that seemed infeasible or out of reach to my bosses were all of a sudden possible,” said 2011 Fellow Lucas Timmons, Special Editor/Data Journalist at the Edmonton Journal. “It’s also been great for bringing people here onboard with digital journalism.”

Apply for the MJ Bear Fellowship

The Fellowship is a legacy of altruistic digital visionary MJ Bear, a leader in the online journalism industry and a founding member of ONA, who passed away in 2010.

Dive into design at ONA dCamp DC 
We’re hosting ONA dCamp DC, a full day intensive workshop on news design May 11 at the Washington Post. Designed for reporters, editors, executives, creatives, technologists and more, this workshop is for anyone looking to learn and collaborate around news innovation and design. You’ll be placed in teams guided by leading news design experts and will work from brainstorm to prototype to project execution in one day. This training is brought to you with the generous support of the Gannett Foundation. ONA dCamp is only $5, which will cover the cost of meals. Apply now. Deadline to apply is May 3.

What can you teach digital journalists? Submit an idea
We’re looking for creative sessions for this year’s Online News Association Conference (ONA13). Have a session or workshop you’d like to facilitate? Add it to the ONA13 Suggestion Box. Have an idea you’d like to see at the conference, but don’t want to lead the session? We want to hear it. Add it to the ONA13 Suggestion Box. You can see proposed sessions on the ONA13 Suggestion Box Tumblr.

Volunteer at ONA13 and attend the conference for free
We’re looking for volunteers who love digital journalism and can commit to being in Atlanta October 17-19 to help us make ONA13 better than ever. Volunteers work an eight- to 10-hour shift and in return get free registration to what has been a sold-out conference six years running. Apply now to volunteer at ONA13. If you have video skills, join the ONA13 Stream Team, and help live stream the conference and the Online Journalism Awards. Volunteer, and work alongside digital media movers and shakers.

Upcoming events for ONA Local groups

• ONA Mizzou will discuss creating shareable content with Dan Oshinsky of Stry.us on April 18.

• ONA DC will meet April 30 at the Washington Post to learn more about understanding polls from Scott Clement of Capital Insight.

• Code with Me will be hosting workshops in Portland on May 4-5 and in Austin on May 18-19. These workshops are designed for journalists who have no coding experience and teach HTML, CSS and Javascript. Cost is $85.

International Journalism Festival
ONA is hosting six sessions at the International Journalism Festival in Perugia, Italy, April 24-28. Learn mobile tools for the multimedia journalist, discover free and cheap tools to improve your work, discuss ethical aggregation and more. The entire festival is free.

Innovation Uncensored
ONA members, save $50 on registration for Fast Company’s signature Innovation Uncensored event April 23-24 at Terminal 5 in New York City. Over two inspiring days you’ll hear from notables such as Jack Dorsey, BuzzFeed founder Jonah Peretti, designer Diane von Furstenberg, and Susan Lyne of AOL, to name just a few.

For ticketing and further info, visit http://ny.innovationuncensored.com/. Members, check the discounts page in the member center for the code.

Volunteer at ONA13

Qualifications: A nice smile, a love of digital journalism (and journalists) and a firm commitment.

Volunteers will be assigned to work an eight- to 10-hour shift — in return, you’ll get free and guaranteed registration to what has been a sold-out conference six years running. There’s plenty of camaraderie, lots of sugar and caffeine, and reasonable hours that allow you time to network and take advantage of what’s at the conference.

If you’re planning to attend or, even better, are already in the Atlanta area, fill out the ONA13 Volunteer Application and tell us about yourself and the days and times you’re available. If selected, you’ll be assigned a slot or slots based on your availability and skill set.


Also, the ONA13 Stream Team is looking for volunteers to live stream the conference and Online Journalism Awards Banquet. Volunteers should have experience in videography and live video-streaming software (familiarity with Livestream preferred). You can volunteer as a videographer, a stream producer or both, but you likely would not be doing both simultaneously. Apply for the Stream Team here. Any questions, contact ONA13video@journalists.org.

Be sure to sign up soon, as these slots fill up fast. We’ll be in touch in the coming weeks to confirm your participation.

Cheers,
Laura Cochran
ONA13 Volunteer Chair
ONA13volunteers@journalists.org

This isn’t to say I was disappointed with my grad experience — quite the opposite; if it weren’t for dedicated faculty like Jeremy Rue and Len De Groot, other CAR-passionate students and a responsive atmosphere at the school, I wouldn’t be where I am now: already gainfully employed as a Web Manager at EdSource, which has big plans for education reporting, and chosen as one of the first-ever AP-Google Scholars. But I would like to see more J-schools nationwide seriously consider the need for more structured CAR programs, especially as data and interactive online apps become increasingly popular.

If I had my way, a CAR track would introduce or reinforce core skills like data analysis, data visualization, Python for scraping and automation, front-end development to create awesome interfaces to explore data and other media, and web design aesthetics. It would focus on collaboration and open source as core principles, enlisting the help of programmers, designers and others from within the school and in the community (think hackathons). It would also prepare student journalists to be critical consumers and presenters of data, while recognizing that a project is best served with the assistance of others.

There is an economic argument for this. While journalism jobs are in a general decline, it was made abundantly clear at NICAR’s recent Computer Assisted Reporting conference that the demand for data and interactive journalists outweighs supply; it is essentially “raining jobs.” I doubt that will change anytime soon. As I write this, AP, Al Jazeera, NPR, the McClatchy Company and the Seattle Times all have job openings for either data-centric or news app development positions. And that’s just a brief survey. It seems likely that the starting pay for these jobs will be higher than for the more typical journalism positions. The Columbia Journalism Review also recently weighed in on the growth in data journalism jobs at both large and small media outlets.

Based on how well data-driven projects share on social media, people really seem to enjoy them. Whether it’s consuming data on homicide rates or exploring the warming of the Earth due to climate change, these projects help cut through the noise and reach eyeballs.

Every journalist, no matter the primary media, should know the basics of HTML/CSS and data analysis. In this day and age, these are critical assets as media continue to transition to the digital realm and data gains more importance and interest. Not every journalist may want to be a web developer or focus completely on data journalism, but this niche in our industry demands more serious consideration at the J-school level to effectively prepare student journalists for the real and digital world.

This is the latest in a series of blog posts from the first ONA class of AP-Google Journalism and Technology Scholars describing their experiences, projects and sharing their knowledge with the ONA community.

John Osborn is a graduate student at University of California, Berkeley, working on newsgames that explain the U.S. political system.

Each year, we bring together journalists, technologists and academics to share the most exciting trends in digital journalism.

This year, we’re looking to pull in more creative ideas, and are especially interested in sessions that don’t fit the traditional panel format (but feel free to submit panel ideas here as well).

What can you teach digital journalists? What have you seen or heard that might inspire us?

Submit an idea to the ONA13 Suggestion Box and it could be part of ONA13 in Atlanta, Oct. 17-19, 2013. Deadline: April 30 at 11:59 p.m. ET.

Submit an Idea

Need some guidance on what journalists are looking for at ONA13? Check out the conversations about ONA13 and journalism conferences from dozens of journalists on Branch.

We’ll be posting submissions on the ONA13 Suggestion Box Tumblr this year. Feel free to weigh in on which sessions you like best with a “like” or a reblog. While we’ll be watching which ones get the most attention, we won’t take an official vote count this year. Check back often for new proposed sessions.