IRE and Esri have partnered to offer 10 fellowships to attend mapping training at the 2013 Esri International Users Conference from July 6-10 in San Diego and 3 fellowships to the IRE Mapping Boot Camp from August 9-11 at the University of Missouri-Columbia, Mo.

The users conference fellowships cover airfare and four nights lodging, and the boot camp fellowships cover airfare and three nights lodging. The users conference schedule includes attendance at the following events: Esri Business Summit (July 7) to learn about how international businesses are using advance mapping technology, Conference Plenary Session (July 8); and Media Workshops and ...

Read more ...

IRE is launching a new program and is looking for news organizations dedicated to doing watchdog work. This is your newsroom’s opportunity to have intense, in-house investigative training -- for free. If your organization is hungry for customized investigative training and can't afford it, apply today. Spots are limited.

Total Newsroom Training from IRE is designed to increase the ability of news organizations to provide watchdog and enterprise coverage for their communities and to produce work that can lead to change and improvements in those communities.

The program is meant to help small to medium-size news organizations, and IRE ...

Read more ...

Last weekend I flew to Phoenix for the IRE boot camp in statistics hosted at Arizona State University.  Three days and 52 cups of coffee later, I can spot statistical significance. I can run a linear regression on a dependent and independent variable, and I might even be able to tell you what an R-Square value actually means – not only to a statistician, but to a journalist.

Statistics is not one of those things you master in three days of training, but here are the three most valuable takeaways from the weekend: A sense of what can be done, an ...

Read more ...

John Diedrich of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel recalls the moment everything clicked for him with computer-assisted reporting, at an IRE Boot Camp in 2010. When crash-course training didn't stick with him, he convinced his bosses to send him to Columbia, Mo. What Diedrich left with were the skills that allowed him to produce 'Wiped Clean', a George Polk Award-winning series about gun dealers.

With the new tools he learned, Diedrich writes for Nieman Reports that he was able to further his education by learning to use mapping software to analyze data. "For instance," Diedrich recounts, "I examined where homicides ...

Read more ...

By Jaimi Dowdell, IRE training director

A couple of weeks ago, I was teaching at a computer-assisted reporting boot camp in San Diego. The class had been through spreadsheets and databases, and I was finally demonstrating how to deal with pdf's. After showing some online options, I walked the class through my old stand-by: XPDF.

If you've used it before, you know that once you get the hang of it, it's quite simple. But learning it for the first time can be a bit daunting, as it uses the command line. That's right, I said: The ...

Read more ...

Mapping Boot Camp August 13-15, 2010 (University of Missouri, Columbia, MO) Take your CAR skills to the next level by learning how to uncover the “where” in your data.  Instructors Jennifer LaFleur of ProPublica and David Herzog of NICAR will show how to use ArcView geographic information system (GIS) software in this intensive three-day session.  You’ll learn how to create simple data maps and perform more sophisticated geographic analysis. You’ll also learn how to geocode data and deal with projections. IRE and NICAR are offering substantial discounts on ArcView mapping software.  ESRI is offering ArcView single-use licenses at ... Read more ...

Tired of feeling frustrated by spreadsheets or intimidated by databases? Or maybe you’ve mastered basic computer-assisted reporting skills and are ready to dive into mapping. Intensive IRE boot camps can help you hone new skills to produce more compelling stories and make yourself invaluable in your newsroom, all in a few days of practical training. Seats are still available for upcoming IRE boot camps to help you master spreadsheets, databases or mapping software. Mapping boot campers receive a valuable software discount as well. Check out IRE’s On The Road blog to see how other journalists have put their ... Read more ...

In this free-read article from Uplink, Gregg Hennigan of The Gazette in Cedar Rapids explains how he used FEMA data and Microsoft Excel spreadsheet tricks to examine the flood aid flowing into eastern Iowa last year. Hennigan, a local government reporter, completed the story after attending and IRE and NICAR computer-assisted reporting boot camp. - David Herzog

Editor's note: Keegan Kyle attended an IRE Regional Boot Camp at the University of Minnesota Oct. 6-10, 2008. Here's his story of how the training bolstered his job prospects. (IRE and CUNY will be hosting a Regional Boot Camp in New York June 22-26. For more information and to register go here.)

The first time I ever stayed in an international hostel, I was visiting Minneapolis to attend a week-long IRE Boot Camp. I was a recent college graduate without a job, so my personal finances were tight. I booked a bed in the hostel’s community room ...

Read more ...

Editor's note: Rich Exner of The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer attended IRE's Advanced Statistics Boot Camp at Arizona State University Feb. 6-8. Here's his take on the practical application of the training:

I learned after attending IRE's Mapping Boot Camp a couple of years ago that the best way to retain the new techniques crammed into a few days of classes is to use them right away. So on the plane back from the Statistics Boot Camp in Arizona, I started to look a different way at data I already had collected covering baseball payrolls back to ...

Read more ...