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Features

Lessons of Running My First News Apps Team

By Tyler Fisher

Posted on June 5, 2013
AP Google Scholar and former Trib Apps intern Tyler Fisher breaks down what he and his team got wrong, and what they did right.
Creating an API of Veterans Affairs’ data

By Cole Goins, Erika Owens, and Shane Shifflett

Posted on May 28, 2013
The Center for Investigative Reporting recently released an API of data from the US Department of Veterans Affairs, which it compiled in reporting on a backlog of disability claims.
Meet Tarbell

By David Eads

Posted on May 28, 2013
Introducing a very simple content management system from the Tribapps team (and friends).
The Nerd Side of the Reuters.com Redesign

By Erin Kissane and Paul Smalera

Posted on May 22, 2013
In early May, Reuters began rolling out previews of its new design for Reuters.com. We checked in with Paul Smalera, Editorial Tools Product Manager and Technology Editor at Reuters.com, who fought his way out from under a stack of redesign-related work to answer our questions.
Mapping the History of Street Names

By Noah Veltman

Posted on May 15, 2013
OpenNews Fellow Noah Veltman breaks down the design and code decisions behind his History of SF Place Names map.
Under the Surface of the NYT Mobile Redesign

By Michael Behr, Ian Gardner, Andrei Kallaur, and Erin Kissane

Posted on May 7, 2013
We spoke with three members of team behind the new New York Times mobile site to learn what’s going on under the hood and how they made the design decisions underlying the new view.
The Lobbyist Registration Meter

By Erin Kissane and Tom Lee

Posted on April 12, 2013
We spotted Tom Lee’s Lobbyist Registration Meter video on YouTube this morning and it made our day. Lee, director of the Sunlight Foundation’s Sunlight Labs, used an old voltmeter, a Raspberry Pi, and Sunlight Foundation data to create a meter that physically displays the number of new lobbyist registrations in Washington, DC. Lee very kindly agreed to answer a few questions about his setup and the data behind it.
Replaying A Night in the Life of a Cabbie

By Dan Schultz

Posted on April 10, 2013
At The Boston Globe, I was charged with helping readers understand that struggle—to experience a night in the life of a cab driver—using a digital interactive. The result was published alongside an amazing article by the Globe’s resident journalist-sportswriter-cabbie, Bob Hohler.
Launching the Minnesota Legislative Bill Tracker

By Beth Hawkins, Kaeti Hinck, Tom Nehil, James Nord, Erika Owens, and Alan Palazzolo

Posted on April 5, 2013
This week, MinnPost launched an effort to track legislation in Minnesota throughout the 2013 session.
Introducing Tabula

By Manuel Aristarán and Mike Tigas

Posted on April 3, 2013
A new PDF data extraction tool conceived by Manuel Aristarán and built out in a collaboration between Aristarán, who is a Knight-Mozilla Fellow at La Nación, and Mike Tigas, Fellow at ProPublica, and ProPublica’s Jeremy B. Merrill.
Under the Hood of the Open Gender Tracker

By Erin Kissane, J. Nathan Matias, and Irene Ros

Posted on March 13, 2013
Open Gender Tracker is an open source deployable content analysis service funded by a Knight Foundation Prototype grant. We spoke with its creators about the project’s origins, technical specifications, and possible future in and near newsrooms.
Chris Amico on the View Source Podcast

By Erin Kissane

Posted on January 30, 2013
On the most recent episode of Dave Stanton’s View Source podcast, Chris Amico walks through the process of making Your Warming World.
Fast Hacks: Solr and Newscoop

By Adam Thomas

Posted on January 30, 2013
News startups in and around Georgia helped improve search in Newscoop content management system using Solr.
Chase Davis on fec-standardizer

By Chase Davis and Erin Kissane

Posted on January 28, 2013
Chase Davis breaks down his fec-standardizer project and explains where it’s going next.
How We Made “Your Warming World”

By Peter Aldhous, Chris Amico, and Erin Kissane

Posted on January 25, 2013
New Scientist’s Peter Aldhous and NPR’s Chris Amico break down the data, mapping, and interface details of their collaboration on Your Warming World.
How We Made “For Amusement Only”

By Trei Brundrett, Billy Disney, Laura June, Scott Kellum, and Erika Owens

Posted on January 21, 2013
In a Q&A; with Source’s Erika Owens, the team behind For Amusement Only explains how it was done.
Fast Hacks: GameDay Live

By Ivar Vong

Posted on January 7, 2013
The Daily Emerald’s Ivar Vong breaks down a homepage takeover experiment.
How We Made Snow Fall

By Steve Duenes, Erin Kissane, Andrew Kueneman, Jacky Myint, Graham Roberts, and Catherine Spangler

Posted on January 1, 2013
Reporters, designers, developers, and editors who worked on the NYT’s Snow Fall explain how they pulled it off.
Anatomy of the “Living Apart” map

By Jeff Larson and Erika Owens

Posted on December 10, 2012
Last month, ProPublica launched the Living Apart series with an investigation into the Fair Housing Act of 1968 and an interactive map showing the migration of African Americans from 1890-2010.
Spokesman-Review Holiday Lights Map

By Ryan Pitts

Posted on December 7, 2012
Ryan Pitts breaks down the recipe for a holiday lights map app, with special nods to artisanal admin interfaces and full-screen BoyerMaps.