A timeline of polls (that doesn’t make me yawn)

Posted on January 3, 2008

I like this interactive by USATODAY.com, which shows how voter response has evolved since January 2007 in national and state polls.

Here are the results for 146 polls (nationally) so far for Democrat candidates:

And the results for 148 polls (nationally) so far for Republican candidates:

My only gripe: The number and variety of polls appears to be comprehensive, but I can’t tell if these are ALL the polls or a select group of polls. I wish there was an explainer to confirm my guess.

Otherwise, I find the interface quite easy to use and understand after just a quick glance.

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SND impressions and some Flash(y) lessons

Posted on October 15, 2007

Richard Koci Hernandez has put together a video of his trip to the SND Boston. I didn’t get the opportunity to go, so once again, I’m so grateful that the conference and attendees are blogging about lessons learned.

Definitely take a look at Hernandez’s video for tips on nice shots and how to tell a story:

Creative and engaging and leaves me wanting more … perhaps this is a video “splash page“? ;) I jest … it seems to have perfectly fulfilled its point — to give a taste and a fun review for attendees and even those who weren’t there. He promises to publish “more multimedia goodness,” so check back at his site during the week.

For more meat, check out the SND update blog.

Not a whole lot here about online, but I’m impressed by the topics they chose to present. Videos and .pdfs are/will be available for more details.

Of the online/multimedia offerings, I particularly like the post about Adrian Holovaty’s presentation, Making Data Web Savvy.

And there’s a series of posts from the New Media session that taught participants Flash and some ActionScript:

Post I: Greetings from the New Media course shares a newbie’s perspective:

Biggest impression thus far: Stop fearing Flash. We’ve put it off after hearing tales of its complicated nature. Hey, even Quark seemed daunting at one time.

Of course, getting an intro in a classroom environment certainly helps. You’d want a pretty killer tutorial program to learn this stuff on your own. This is the fourth New Media course of the year, and based on our experience and those of friends who have gone through other courses, it’s a worthy investment. Convince your organization to cough up the cash for a session when the tour is near by.

Post II: Flash projects take longer to produce than a novice would expect:

As managers, we need some basic knowledge of what can be done; from there we can assign out projects and set realistic deadlines. So, while we may never be scripting experts, at least we can set folks up to succeed at certain projects.

Post III: They “climb deeper into the wormhole that is Action Script coding in Flash”:

Well, that “this isn’t so hard” feeling from the first half of the New Media session has been replaced with a “What the Deuce?!” vibe.

Post IV: “Your word of the day: Concatenation”

Dive in. Figure out a way to break off time to spend with Flash, either for yourself or your staff. The classroom environment was fantastic; opening up Flash all by yourself could get overwhelming quick.

I also like this piece of advice:

Also, talk turned to how much time a project involving coding should take. Simple:
1/2 your time should be planning, storyboarding, gathering information, etc.
1/2 your time should be actual Flash production - scripting and programing
1/2 your time will be spent debugging your code, especially as you just get started

Huh? That’s more time than is available.

“These projects will always take you more time than you thought they would.”

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Voyeurism is addictive

Posted on July 31, 2007

I can’t play video games. Don’t get me wrong, I have good hand-eye coordination and excelled at Doom back in the day.

No, I can’t play because I become this couch-zombie game addict who rarely blinks. Really, my eyes become so dry they hurt! (The Wii, I can do, however, because I’m movin’ around. Swinging my arms wildly trying to beat my opponent at boxing; well, I *have* to blink during all that commotion.)

Besides, I just don’t have time for that stuff, anyway. I already spend too many hours on the computer reading blogs and the latest on multimedia and journalism.

But I’ve been administering the eye drops because last weekend, I have to admit, I caught a “video game” bug and spent a little longer than I’d like to admit playing: The HBO Voyeur Project, which is a series of multimedia stories that revolve around the theme of voyeuerism. “See what people do when they think no one is watching …”

It takes some time to download, but it was worth it because right off the bat, I was wowed with the Flash design and presentation. Watching the scenes in the first apartment building was jaw-dropping enough, then I realized there’s a whole city to explore. Each building (four at this point, but they may add more) and unit with its own storyline.

Aside from the Flash aspect, how can we apply this example to journalism?

>> This is non-linear storytelling. The user must choose their own route through the presentation.

Sure, it’s entertainment, and we wouldn’t *necessarily* tell a news story in this fashion. But you *could* use this technique to reenact the scene of a crime or to create a more visually interesting interactive timeline.

>> The story is told on several platforms. This isn’t where the presentation ends or begins.

From wikipedia:

“The Project includes the main website, HBO On Demand and HBO Mobile exclusive content, MySpace pages for the characters from the stories, supporting websites, and additional content for those willing to follow the breadcrumbs or “artifacts” hidden in the other media. Clues /discussion about voyeur artifacts found at the promotional blog http://www.thestorygetsdeeper.com. The project was estimated to have cost between $7 and $10 million dollars, and took about a year to create.”

>> The content and presentation is addictive. The site is set up to draw you in, and it encourages you to stay and explore it. (Don’t forget that Nielsen will count only unique users and time spent instead of page views.)

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