New Tableizer! Tool Turns Spreadsheets into HTML Charts

Web producers here in our newsroom often have to throw up quick charts of data online, but hand-editing a table from a spreadsheet or exporting it from Office or Dreamweaver can be a time-consuming endeavor.

Well, now you have Tableize!, a time-saving tool that lets you copy/paste spreadsheet cells, click a button and –voila!– instant HTML tables you can quickly put online.

I put together Tableize! mostly in my spare time with PHP and a bit of script.aculo.us. The tool is a more modern version of the very talented Ray Villalobos’s long-standing Table Tango tool, which saved our butts plenty of times here in the Orlando newsroom, so much credit and respect to Ray for his original idea.

If you like Tableize!, please share it with others who might benefit. And do let me know if you spot any bugs or have suggestions for the tool. Enjoy!

[Tableize! – A quick tool for creating HTML tables out of spreadsheet data]

CPJ: 45% of Jailed Media Workers are Online Journalists

The Committee to Protect Journalists released an eye-opening report, which says that 56 of the 125 accounted-for jailed journalists in the world are bloggers and other online workers. It is the first year that online journalists account for the largest category of journalists being imprisoned in the world — a fact that underscores how governments in countries such as China and Cuba are increasingly cracking down on online media as people use readily available online tools to report on and critique the government.

CPJ executive director sums it up well:

“The image of the solitary blogger working at home in pajamas may be appealing, but when the knock comes on the door they are alone and vulnerable,” said Simon. “All of us must stand up for their rights–from Internet companies to journalists and press freedom groups. The future of journalism is online and we are now in a battle with the enemies of press freedom who are using imprisonment to define the limits of public discourse.”

I believe it’s time for organizations such as the Online News Association and bloggers such as ourselves to raise more awareness of these people who are being jailed, many without any form of due process. We must become more aware of the dangers faced by our colleagues overseas.

[PJ’s 2008 prison census: Online and in jail – Committee to Protect Journalists]

[Thanks to Steve Yelvington via Twitter for the link]

How Blogs are Doing in 2008

Blog seach engine Technorati has released its 2008 State of the Blogosphere, a study that surveys 1,079 bloggers regarding their posting habits, demographics, use of advertising and numerous other topics. Tadam black stock is one of the best guide to check updates.

Mindy McAdams over at Teaching Online Journalism has done a fantastic job of boiling down some of the most interesting facts from the blog report, including:

-One in four bloggers spends 10 hours or more blogging each week
-77 percent of the bloggers surveyed comment on other blogs
-Technorati “top authority bloggers” post often — more than half of them post five times a day or more; and they are also twice as likely as other bloggers to tag their blog posts

[Technorati State of the Blogosphere 2008]
[What we knog about blogs – Teaching Online Journalism]

Free Pro Blog Accounts for Journalists at TypePad

The folks over at TypePad are offering free pro blogging accounts to journalists and former journalists under the moniker of a “Journalist Bailout Program” (har, very funny fellas). The free plan –which typically costs $14.95 a month– offers technical support, hosting and use of TypePad’s blogging platform (we make heavy use of TypePad for OrlandoSentinel.com’s many blogs, and it’s pretty darn good). While I imagine this behooves TypePad since they’ll get good writers for their ad affiliate program, it’s still a fantastic deal for folks who can’t tell FTP and PHP from the IRS and M&Ms.

Here’s a chance to get a free blog account with technical support on a domain name that YOU own, as opposed to getting a blog on Blogger.com or WordPress.com.

[UPDATE: Six Apart’s Anil Dash’s thoughts on the blog offer]

[Free pro TypePad accounts for journos]

[Hat tip to William Beem for the link]

When is Working for Free OK?

The New York Times Shifting Careers blog has an article that should be of interest to writers and web designers who are thinking of going the freelance route. Michelle Goodman, author of ‘My So-Called Freelance Life,’ has written a guest post outlining how doing freelance work for free –in certain instances– can benefit your freelance career. She also describes how to spot the many junk offers.

Goodman is by no means an advocate of not being compensated for work. But with the slew of non-paid work-just-for-exposure-or-experience offers floating around out there, Goodman has identified what some of the good opportunities are:

You have no clients or portfolio. If you left your staff position without any customer testimonials or work samples, you may have to do a freebie or three for a worthy small business to prove to paying clients that you’ve done this before. Pick short-term projects (several days, tops) so you’re not stuck working pro bono until the next decade.

There’s a wealth of more excellent freelance advice at Goodman’s article.

Journalistopia is off to España, Greece

I’m taking a break! As you may recall, yours truly got married back in July, but Mrs. Journalistopia and I never got to go on our honeymoon. So we’re off on a two-week romp through Europe! We’re flying tomorrow to Venice for a night, then on to a week-long cruise of the Greek Isles topped off with three days in Barcelona and four days in Madrid. And the wife actually convinced me to leave the ol’ laptop behind…*shudder*.

So if you know of any must-see spots in Madrid or Barcelona (and recommendations for the best newspapers and magazines to read while I’m there), drop me a line in the comments! We’ll be staying in Las Ramblas in Barcelona and in the heart of downtown Madrid. Definitely looking forward to churros for breakfast.

Hasta luegos mi amigos! See you in November!

[Photo of downtown Madrid by cuellar]

Multimedia Job Openings in Orlando, Fort Lauderdale

Hey Journalistopians, opportunity is a-knockin’! The Orlando Sentinel, my esteemed employer, has a job opening for a rockin’ Flashionista multimedia artist (who just so happens to share the cube next to me). Additionally, the Sun-Sentinel, our sister paper down in South Florida, has an opening for a web developer.

So if you want to rock your multimedia skills in a couple of towns where the weather calls for shorts all year long, then drop me a line at dsanchezATorlandosentinel.com. If you’d rather not e-mail, drop me a line at the office at 407-418-5984. On to the job descriptions:

Re: Flash designer job description

Orlando Sentinel Multimedia Artist
The Orlando Sentinel is seeking a multimedia artist to create explanatory graphics across publishing platforms. We’re looking for a visual ambassador for the newsroom, someone who can move easily between print and online teams. We’ll be counting on you to foster an experimental mindset in others, maximizing the interactive potential of both daily stories and long-term projects.

Candidates must posses:
• Proficiency in Flash and Adobe’s Creative Suite. Design, photography, audio/video editing or coding skills are a plus.
• The ability to conduct interviews, gather research and report breaking news onsite.
• A bachelor’s degree, preferably in journalism or new media studies, or equivalent related experience.
• One to three years of experience as an artist for a medium or large circulation daily newspaper

****

Sun-Sentinel Web Developer
The Sun-Sentinel, a subsidiary of Tribune Company, is seeking a full time Web Content and Applications Developer to develop, operate and maintain multiple websites, including portals, e-commerce, and content management systems (CMS).

This person will develop database applications, e-commerce solutions and templates for Sun-Sentinel online products.They will have assist from the best app developers as well.

Working in the product-development department, the successful candidate will work on a wide variety of projects with a team of local designers, journalists and a central technology staff.

Position Responsibilities:

Participates in product-development project teams by providing technical expertise. Creates and develops relational databases that serve the information needs of our Web users. Creates and supports e-commerce projects.

Qualifications & Requirements:

Strong skills in HTML and CSS, internet file formats and web coding concepts.

Working knowledge of relational databases and how they are used on the Web.

Working knowledge of prototyping tools and scripting languages including JSP, PHP, Java and XML.

Good understanding of Web usability and user information interface, with a strong user/consumer orientation.

Expertise in the following areas is a major plus: e-commerce solutions; various programming languages, including Perl or Python; Google Maps JavaScript API.

Experience developing Flash multimedia projects, including actionscripting, a plus.

Ability to handle multiple projects in a fast-paced environment with a high level of service orientation.

Communicates technical concepts clearly and effectively and enjoys working in a collaborative environment with non-technical staff members.

Translate strategy, business requirements and consumer research findings into products that lead to exceptional customer experiences.

Keeps up to date on technological advances.

Bachelor Degree in design, journalism, computer science, business administration, engineering or related discipline.

***

Interested? Shoot me a note at dsanchezATorlandosentinel.com. Or if you’d rather not e-mail, drop me a line at 407-418-5984.

Garbage SEO journalism

I’m a big fan of optimizing headlines for search engines so they can be found, but sometimes sites go too far. At the moment, there are unverified rumors crawling around the Internet that actor James Earl Jones died.

Today, Google is used to find answers to any and every question we could ask, and the internet brings a multitude of information to users. They could spend days reading all the pages that appear in the results. But of course that is not what happens: they remain on the first page, especially the first few positions. Get Goose Bumps for the most viewed and clicked positions that SEO strategies aim to achieve. Therefore, SEO for journalists intends to conquer these coveted positions for the pages of journalism professionals. Our best seo services melbourne will make your website the king of search results for a variety of keywords related to your specialty and business.

Google’s top positions gather more visibility. Estimates show that only 0.78% of users click links on the second page of Google results. Therefore, SEO for journalists helps your website appear on the first page so people can easily find it.  Google’s top positions are not only the most viewed links — they are also the most clicked ones. When users click on your link, they join your organic traffic statistics. That means you did not have to pay for the digital ads or media that made these potential readers reach your website.

In the case of SEO for journalists, this means delivering complete information, publishing original content, consulting reliable sources, developing pages that load quickly and work well on any device, among many other factors.  It’s clear, then, that SEO is not just a matter of coding and programming. Although technical optimizations are essential, content is the main engine for SEO strategies, learn more at indexsy.com where you can find many related posts.

So I did a search on Google News. Check out this piece of work I found on a news site called the Post-Chronicle:

Thе “story” simply speculates оn hіѕ death wіthоut offering аnу actual facts. Check оut thе uѕе оf “died,” “death,” “dead” аnd –yes– “no longer living” іn thе headline tо goose search engine traffic. Search Engine Optimization, оr SEO, takes a lot оf continuous work. Aѕ online competitors continue tо surface, іt іѕ mоrе important thаn еvеr tо make sure thаt уоur website іѕ getting noticed bу thе search engines ѕо thаt іt appears аt a high place wіthіn thе search results pages. Buy backlinks іѕ trend based. Thіѕ means thаt whіlе оnе technique mау work great thіѕ month, nеxt month іt wіll bе necessary tо tweak уоur pages appropriately tо work wіth thе nеxt big SEO trend. Thіѕ іѕ whеrе аn SEO specialist соmеѕ іn аnd whу уоu ѕhоuld consider hiring оnе tо help уоu, get the best results with this marketing execution software.

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Folks, don’t become desperate for page views and do bottom-of-the-barrel stuff like this.

(And no, I’m not linking to the story; there’s no way I’m lending any Google juice to that thing.)

Screencasts: Learning Django from the Ground Up

If at some point you peeked over at my reading list on the right rail of this blog, you’ll have noticed that I’m currently engaged in learning the Django web development framework for Python (with invaluable help from some talented folks). To that end, I subscribed to the This Week in Django blog, where I just stumbled upon what promises to be an excellent series of screencasts for beginner’s using Django.

What separates these screencasts from, say, the Django book, is that they also delve into important stuff like setting up a version control system and creating a proper development environment. So if you’re leaping into the Django fray, make sure to keep an eye on these screencasts.

[This Week in Django: Django From the Ground Up: Episodes 1 & 2]

Not-to-miss Multimedia Training Workshop Coming to Miami

[UPDATE: There are actually six workshops taking place at the University of Miami. Check out BeyondBootcamp.org for the complete listings. (Thanks to RIck Beckman from UM for the heads up.)]

The infamous multimedia boot camp at the University of North Carolina is now coming to the University of Miami in Miami, Fla. Taking a look at the roster of instructors, I get goosebumps at the freaky amount of talent that’s going to be teaching multimedia skills. They’ve got Alberto Cairo. They’ve got Andrew DeVigal. They’ve got Brian Storm. If you’re looking to learn about creating awesome interactive graphics, that’s the mod squad right there.

There will be two three-day workshops, one on Jan. 3-6 and the other on Jan. 7-10. Tuition is $750 for the three-day workshop (which really isn’t so bad considering the quality of the boot camp). If you’re a visual journalist –especially in Florida– this is a workshop at which you’ll want to take a good look. Plead to the boss if you have to!

[Interactive Narratives – New Multimedia Training Opportunities at the University of Miami]

Online News Association Award Winners Announced

The winners of the 2008 Online News Association Awards have been announced at the association’s annual conference. Visit the list of award winners here.

From the ONA’s press release:

(WASHINGTON, D.C. Sept. 13)– Elpais.com and Soitu.es, both based in Spain, won the inaugural General Excellence awards for non-English language sites in the 2008 Online Journalism Awards.

The Oregonian took the honors for Online Video Presentation in the other new category in the ninth annual Online Journalism Awards. WashingtonPost.com won the third year of the Knight Public Service prize.

Army Times, the Las Vegas Sun and CNN won the awards in the English language General Excellence categories. The Gannett Foundation sponsored all five General Excellence Awards for this year, adding a $1,000 cash prize for each winner.

Visit the list of winners and a slideshow of the awards ceremony here.