ifttt tool for data journalism Tool of the week: ifttt, shorthand for “if this then that”. What is it? This tool is still in private beta but it is worth applying for an invitation and waiting to see when it goes public as it promises interesting possibilities for journalists. The best way to understand it is to read this description of ifttt, which explains that the tool works on the premise of “if this then that” or “when something happens (this) then do something else (that)”. The ifttt site explains it clearly: Here is an example of a task that tweets every new bookmark from my Delicious account tagged “tweet”: The ifttt blog offers further explanation: ifttt isn’t a programming language or app building tool, but rather a much simpler solution. A quick look at ifttt on Twitter will give you a sense of what is happening in the development of the tool. How is it of use to journalists? Similar posts:
Frontline's "Digital Nation" Project with Producer/Director Rachel Dretzin RECORDINGS: Full Elluminate Recording: Portable Video: Audio: Chat Log (open in word processor): Date: Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 Time: 8am Pacific / 11am Eastern / 3pm GMT (next day) (international times here)Length: 1 hourLocation: In Elluminate. Join us as we talk with producer/director Rachel Dretzin about PBS FRONTINE’s “Digital Nation” project, and specifically what the educational community can do to be a part of it. “Digital Nation” is a multiplatform documentary initiative that explores how the Web and digital media are impacting the way we think, learn and interact. Central to the “Digital Nation” is a mosaic of user-generated videos, audio, photos, comments and posts that contribute to “Digital Nation” reports.
Responsive Web Design The English architect Christopher Wren once quipped that his chosen field “aims for Eternity,” and there’s something appealing about that formula: Unlike the web, which often feels like aiming for next week, architecture is a discipline very much defined by its permanence. Article Continues Below A building’s foundation defines its footprint, which defines its frame, which shapes the facade. Each phase of the architectural process is more immutable, more unchanging than the last. Creative decisions quite literally shape a physical space, defining the way in which people move through its confines for decades or even centuries. Working on the web, however, is a wholly different matter. But the landscape is shifting, perhaps more quickly than we might like. In recent years, I’ve been meeting with more companies that request “an iPhone website” as part of their project. A flexible foundation#section1 Let’s consider an example design. Becoming responsive#section2 responsive architecture .
UberMedia lance chime.in, un "anti-Twitter" La société UberMedia annonce aujourd'hui le lancement de son propre réseau social, baptisé "chime.in". Celui-ci veut proposer une alternative à Twitter, mais aussi aux plateformes de blogs plus classiques : en offrant des filtres pertinents pour suivre ses sujets et thèmes favoris, en donnant la possibilité de publier des contenus riches, et en permettant aux éditeurs/annonceurs de gérer entièrement les publicités depuis leur profil. Jusqu'ici, UberMedia était connu pour ses clients Twitter à succès, Echofon et UberSocial : cette dernière application tierce pour terminaux iPhone, Android et BlackBerry avait déclenché une réaction hostile de Twitter en avril dernier. Chime.in: "E-veille plus pertinente, possibilité de conserver 100% de ses revenus publicitaires"Pour contrer Twitter, UberMedia annonce le lancement aujourd'hui de sa propre plateforme de blogging -et réseau social "d'intérêts"-, baptisée "Chime.in".
Teach with Technology: Science and Math Students fire off ideas for using digital tools to teach scientific and mathematical concepts. Check out these tips from students and educators for high tech teaching: Science In former teacher T.J. Fletcher's honors chemistry class at Eagan High School, in Eagan, Minnesota, students worked in groups to conduct video interviews of local experts on a research topic of their choosing. (Look at information and examples of their completed projects.) Credit: Courtesy of DreamWorks SKG "The biggest thing needed for this project is an analysis of your resources," says Fletcher, who notes that in a project such as this, the teacher is not going to be the expert in all areas. "I let the students be the experts when it came to editing the videos," he adds. For inexpensive yet effective video cameras, he suggests trying Flip video cameras: "Their cost and durability make them an excellent choice for the classroom." Are You Game? Credit: World Wide Workshop Foundation A Transformative Experience Math
Hierarchical Menus with the Underrated style.display Object One of the most common DHTML requests I get is for a Windows Explorer-style hierarchical menu, where there's a list of topics or "folders" that a user can click on to reveal subtopics, or "files," within that folder. It's a common desktop metaphor that seems ever more necessary on the Web, especially as we see navigation bars incorporating larger and more complex content while still trying to fit on the screen. Hierarchical menus are a solution to the common problem of having too many links in too small a space. But, I figured, there are several Web sites where you can find large, complex scripts to create large, complex hierarchical menus. Instead, I'll show you how to make your own menus, of any length or complexity, with the use of an extremely useful and widely unknown DOM CSS property, style.display.visibility. When you set an element to visibility="hidden", it simply disappears while still taking up space on the page, almost as if it were transparent. Houdini with an index
Bill Gross wants to take on Twitter, Facebook and Google+ Entrepreneur Bill Gross is already famous in technology circles for developing the search-related keyword advertising model that Google has since made billions by perfecting. Now, he is launching a content-focused social network called Chime.in that will compete not just with Google’s new social platform Google+ but with Twitter and Facebook too, and link-sharing sites like Reddit and Digg as well. Does the world need another social platform for sharing content? Gross may be well known to some as the guy who created the first version of Ad Words, which he did at a company called GoTo — later renamed Overture, and eventually acquired by Yahoo for $1.6 billion in 2003. To add insult to injury, Gross reportedly tried to buy the Twitter app Tweetdeck, only to have Twitter buy the company instead. Chime.in may not be a direct competitor to Twitter, but it is clearly a shot across the bow. Post and thumbnail photos courtesy of Flickr user See-ming Lee
Welcome to The Digital Open! | The Digital Open Dive Into HTML5 L'iPad devrait dominer les tablettes tactiles jusqu'en 2014 La dernière étude du cabinet américain Gartner montre que le marché des tablettes connait un boom, et qu'il est largement dominé par l'iPad d'Apple. 63 millions de tablettes seront vendues en 2011, contre 17 millions en 2010. Apple fait la course en tête avec 73% des parts de marché cette année, connaissant malgré tout une baisse de 10 points par rapport à l'année dernière. Et cela ne devrait pas s'arrêter tout de suite puisque le cabinet prévoit que les ventes atteindront 326 millions d'unités en 2015 et qu'Apple serait leader en conservant au moins 50% de parts de marché jusqu'en 2014. De quoi donner du courage à Tim Cook, le nouveau PDG d'Apple en remplacement de Steve Jobs, qui doit annoncer de nouveaux produits dans les prochains jours. Aucune tablette Android n'est donc venue inquiéter l'iPad jusqu'ici.