KPCC Data Team "Thomas Guide"

Where we attempt to lay a foundation, document practices and find our way...

Table of Contents

• Blog Posts
• Checklists
• Selected Datasets
• Guides to Datasets and Presentation
• Tools and Scripts for Working with Data

Dare we say a "Statement of Purpose"

"When deciding whether to commit to something, if I feel anything less than, 'Wow! That would be amazing! Absolutely! Hell yeah!' - then my answer is no."

While not always an appropriate - or practical - attitude in a newsroom setting, the above-anecdote from Derek Sivers is an important one...

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So what are common elements of successful projects?

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Each Tuesday we've have a Muddle Huddle to consider the following:

• What did we accomplish last week? What worked? What didn't?
• What do we want to accomplish in the week ahead?
• What did we learn that we didn't know before?

We will share this information with the KPCC Regional Desk, Chris Knap, Paul Glickman, Stephen Gregory and the shows.

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• What we're ready to do:

  • Collaborate on reporting, stories or projects with reporters.
  • Offer advice on how to request records and data, find and clean datasets and check findings.
  • Brainstorm how to present findings and data whether in a narrative or visual form.
  • Recommend data to use to make apples-to-apples comparisons, data sources to shy away from and how to understand limitations.
  • Request records and data, find and clean datasets and check findings when required.
  • Offer insight about the things that don't lead to stories and how we do work.
  • Ask "Who is our audience?", "What do they need?" and "What can we make?"

• What we shy away from:

  • A service desk where you drop off a spreadsheet and continue on your way.
  • The place where you go when you "want a map" for a story.

Sharing & Showing Our Work

• Projects & News applications

  • News & Data Projects
  • Fire Tracker
  • Earthquake Tracker

• Code

  • KPCC's projects & news applications codebase
  • Fire Tracker codebase
  • Earthquake Tracker codebase
  • "Periodically updated archive of data" from city of Los Angeles open data portal
  • Generate timeline content from KPCC's API
  • Iterative in-house Django project to store and provide data

• Data

  • Datasets, information and other goodies from KPCC/SCPR

Mentors & Inspiration

These compendium is based largely on the work by Investigative News Network and others, and shares their aim to formalize work and leave a roadmap for others to follow. For their work and inspiration we are thankful.

• Investigative News Network
• ProPublica's News App and Data Style Guides
• The NPR Visuals Team's app template, coding best practices and manifesto
• Guides and Process Docs from The Chicago Tribune's News Apps Team
• MinnPost's UI Style Guide
• Noah Veltman's Principles for making things for the web

Suggestions

Contributors

• Chris Keller: @chrislkeller
• Aaron Mendelson: @a_mendelson
• Will Craft: @craftworksxyz