Keep lists of story ideas. Include both the simple one-shot stories as well as the bigger projects.
You're the only one doing your stuff, hence you're the only one who remembers how. Once you figure out a skill, document it! Write down a checklist, step-by-step, of how you finished that project. Having a place to start a new project is invaluable.
Start small. Do a simple locator map. A single bar graph or line chart. Then work your way up. Start with a silly project (like a dog name database, popular baby names over time) so -- if you make a mistake -- you won’t have to worry about getting sued. This helps reduce your stress level as you’re learning the ropes.
Give your work a consistent, professional look. What fonts do you use? What size are they? What colors do you pick for a bar graph? Make all those decisions once, instead of every time you fire up a project, and save your brain-power for tackling the current problem.
- CSVKit — CSVkit is a command-line tool for working with CSV files.
- SQLite — SQLite is a lightweight database. Peter Aldhous has a good tutorial.
- Open Refine — Open Refine is a tool that can solve some basic data-cleaning and reformatting problems.
- Excel PivotTables (or equivalent)
- Cometdocs — As IRE members, we get a free license. Did you get a pesky PDF that looks like it used to be an Excel file? Cometdocs can convert it into something you can actually use.
- Tabula — Tabula is a free open-source tool for converting PDFs.
- NPR Visuals Team setup guide — if you're just getting started with coding (and you have a Mac), NPR's Visuals Team has a step by step for installing many of the basic tools you can use to start developing. This isn't the only way to set up your machine, but it is thorough.
- Datawrapper — Datawrapper is an open source (though not free in all cases) web app to help create data visualizations.
- Tableau Public — A steeper learning curve than Datawrapper but you can do a lot of stuff in Tableau without coding and its once-sluggish interface is getting a lot snappier (like with tooltips and maps)
- Google Fusion Tables — Still probably the easiest way to make interactive maps, even if you’ve got thousands of points. And you can jazz up your Fusion Table maps with Derek Eder’s search template.
- QGIS — QGIS is a free, open-source package for working with geographic data.
- GDAL — GDAL is a command-line tool for working with shapefiles.Mike Bostock's Let's make a map tutorial introduces it gently.
- Twitter Bootstrap — If you're starting a project and need a basic web template, here is one.
- NPR's Daily Graphics Rig and Apps Template — If you're doing web graphics or web projects on a regular basis, templates like these can make them a snap to start, develop and deploy.
- ColorBrewer — ColorBrewer helps you develop color schemes, primarily for maps but useful for other purposes. It also lets you know which ones are colorblind-friendly.
- D3.js and D3-tip — D3.js is a Javascript library for binding data to web elements to make visualizations.
Rather than do everything yourself -- from crunching your data to writing the story -- break the journalism into its component parts. Hand off your analysis to appropriate reporter and ask her to do some interviews about it. Those beat specialists will often do a better job of the interviewing and writing anyways, as they have a better sense of what all those numbers mean.
When your boss asks: "Hey, how long will that take?" In your head, multiply the number by 2 and change the units. Two hours = four days.
- Ask questions about how he or she came up with the numbers or information
- Ask if the reporter double checked his or her information
- Find someone else in the newsroom who knows the subject matter to talk to the reporter about the story
There are lots of other folks out there in business, government and the non-profit sector who love playing with data. Seek these people out and connect with them. Twitter is great for this. Also GitHub. Check out various "User Group" meetups, like GIS user groups for mapping or Python or Ruby user groups for programming.
Join the NICAR Listserv.
#NICAR15 is a good place to start.
Follow folks on GitHub and make some pull requests.
Compiled for NICAR 2015, Atlanta Ga.
Panel: Flying Solo
Panelists:
Moderator: