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Welcome! Please see below changes to the schedule and other notes. For the most up-to-date schedule and description information, be sure to visit the conference website or app.
Session changes and additions
NEW! Stealth project management: How to get work done even if you're not "technically" in charge
Thursday, 3:30-4:30 p.m. in Colorado E
Speakers: Erika Owens, Knight-Mozilla OpenNews; Pattie Reaves, Bangor Daily News; Hanna Sender, International Business Times
Description: Some aspects of newsroom workflow are really well defined and documented. And others, well, let's say they're more flexible. Especially when it comes to working on the web, it can sometimes take some pretty creative thinking to make sure what needs to get done, gets done clearly, correctly, and quickly. You'll learn some tactics that have worked in different types of newsrooms and develop a newfound respect for the magical management elves who help our teams function.
NEW! How to build reporting tools so reporters will use them
Thursday, 3:30-4:30 p.m. in Colorado A
Speaker: Jeremy B. Merrill, The New York Times
Description: For search, for transcription, for databases and for ______________, we're building more tools for reporters to use on their own. Let's talk about our experiences designing these tools, building them and promoting them internally.
Conversations: My own worst enemy - Overcoming imposter syndrome
Thursday, 10:15-11:15 a.m. in Colorado A
Speaker: Kate Martin, The News Tribune
Description: Did you ever get the feeling that you're a fraud and it's only a matter of time before someone finds out? Congratulations! You have impostor syndrome. This talk in a small group will explore the causes of impostor syndrome and how to avoid beating yourself up over small setbacks. At the same time, the most ridiculously under-qualified people seem to have the biggest egos. What can we learn from them? Do they just care less? (Please bring your tips because this speaker is not sure she's qualified to host this talk.)
Conversations: Rank that list, what JSchool Students need to know
Thursday, 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. in Colorado A
Speaker: Lindsey Cook, U.S. News & World Report
Description: What should j-school students learn about data, coding and graphics? You have one class to cram in everything students need to know about data, coding, graphics and the web. Yes, it shouldn't be this way, but it is at many schools. I'll bring some course outlines and a list of skills as a starting point. The goal: ranking each skill from most important to least for the average j-school student. Depending on the number of people, we may break up into smaller groups and then see how closely lists match at the end.
Conversations: Automation v. humanization
Thursday, 12:45-1:45 p.m. in Colorado A
Speaker: Gerald Rich, Vocativ
Description: What are some of the problems we can't solve with computer code and Slackbots? How about editing features? Or general reporting? Why or why not? Take a minute to think outside the box and speculate about what the future holds for computer/human-assisted reporting, and how humans do or don't fit into that picture.
Conversations: News Nerd Book Club for "Information Doesn't Want to be Free - Laws for the Internet Age"
Thursday, 2:15-3:15 p.m. in Colorado A
Speaker: Ben Keith, Institute for Nonprofit News
Description: Join the News Nerd Book Club in discussing Cory Doctorow's "Information Doesn't Want to be Free: Laws for the Internet Age" and pie. We'll start with Doctorow's second law: "Fame won't make you rich, but you can't get paid without it."
NEW! Open lab
Friday, 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. in Colorado B-D
Saturday, 4:45-5:45 p.m. in Colorado B-D
Description: The open lab is a chance for conference attendees to receive live troubleshooting and guidance from some of our experienced coding teachers outside of hands-on classes. It's a space where they can get help with installation, setting up a basic development environment and other issues on their own computer.
NEW! Using Trifacta to standardized and clean data: A demo session
Friday, 2:15-3:15 p.m. in Colorado A
Speaker: Cheryl Phillips, Stanford University
Description: Come see how to use Trifacta to standardize data and clean up errant values. A look at whether this new software tool is useful for data journalists.
Conversations: Meaningful metrics for journalism
Friday, 9-10 a.m. in Colorado A
Speaker: Matt Hampel, Carebot Project
Description: What's success in journalism? From the perspective of the end user, the journalist, the news organization, the industry. Are these very different definitions? Are they hard/easy to assess? * Is every piece of journalism comparable to another piece of journalism? Are there metrics used to determine success/performance for a piece of journalism applicable to all formats of storytelling? * What metrics are you using today and what do they tell you? * What are things you want to know but have no answers to because there are no ways to measures the answer? * What metrics (measures and indicators) are used in your work setting; which ones make sense and why, and how some can be inappropriate/misleading. * What tools/sources do you use to access metrics? How do they fit with your workflow?
Conversations: How should news apps teams respond to the era of distributed news?
Friday, 10:15-11:15 a.m. in Colorado A
Speaker: Matt Liddy, Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Description: What's the role of a news apps team in a world of Facebook Instant Articles, Apple News and Snapchat stories? As tech companies build bespoke platforms for publishing the news -- and as audiences shift towards those platforms -- how should news apps teams respond? Is digital journalism that is published solely or primarily on media companies' own platforms now 'legacy' media? More personally, are mid-career digital journalists at risk if they don't adapt quickly to this new environment, and develop another set of skills around off-platform publishing?
Conversations: Investing in news, how do you ask for money?
Friday, 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m in Colorado A
Speaker: AmyJo Brown, War Streets Media
Description: We're good at selling our stories, but crafting grant applications, strategizing pitch decks and talking cash involves different muscles. How do you ask for money to pay for your news projects / startups? What works? What have you learned to avoid? What are the unspoken rules — for example, grants may lay out requirements publicly, but what else is helpful to know about how your application will be evaluated?
Conversations: Managing burnout and exploring other professions
Friday, 12:45-1:45 p.m. in Colorado A
Speaker: David Eads, NPR
Description: Struggling with burnout? Sometimes feel you'd be more effective outside the newsroom or in another industry? We'll talk about the pros and cons of newsroom tech work, viable alternatives, and managing burnout.
Conversations: Let's talk leadership
Saturday, 9-10 a.m. in Colorado A
Speaker: Kaeti Hinck, The Washington Post
Description: There are lots of different ways to be a leader in your organization, no matter what your title is. So what does it take to be a good one? A few questions: What leadership skills and characteristics have been undervalued? How do we get better representation in leadership roles? What's the right amount of process for a dev/data team? What keeps a team happy and healthy? What *doesn't* work? What can current managers do to support the next generation of newsroom leaders? Who's the best boss you've ever had and what made them great? This conversation could be geared toward people who are curious about leadership, or current managers who want to swap best practices and words of warning. Ideally a mix of both.
NEW! Custom analysis by IRE/NICAR
Saturday, 10:15-11:15 a.m. in Colorado B-D
Speakers: Liz Lucas & Megan Luther, IRE/NICAR
Description: Short on staff or time? Let IRE/NICAR do your data analysis for you. We clean, analyze and map. Come learn what our team has to offer.
Conversations: Getting organized - Letting information work for you, rather than being buried by it
Saturday, 10:15-11:15 a.m. in Colorado A
Speaker: Brent Jones, St. Louis Public Radio
Description: We’ll discuss how best to organize all the information we need to do our jobs: Bookmarking, file organization, email, paper; how do you make information work for you rather than being buried by it? We’ll try to stay focused on ideas and processes, rather than specific tools so we can maximize the utility for folks, no matter what tools they have access to at their workplaces.
Conversations: Real talk for women in nerd journalism - Women only
Saturday, 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. in Colorado A
Speaker: Rachel Schallom, Fusion
Description: Real talk for women in journalism/especially nerd journalism. Some potential questions: How do you handle small sexist comments? What are coping strategies for when you are the only female on the team? How do you keep your voice heard?
Conversations: Inclusion solutions
Saturday, 12:45 - 1:45 p.m. in Colorado A
Speakers: Sandra Fish, New Mexico In Depth; Yolanda Martinez, Pew Research Center
Description: Including and respecting those of different genders, ethnicities, faiths, etc. makes for a better workplace and a better work product. Inclusivity better reflects our audience and may help us increase our reach to that audience. So how can we work together to get it done? Are there concrete steps those of us in the data journalism community can take?
Speaker changes
PyCAR (Thursday at 9 a.m.)
Scott Bradley, Northwestern University Knight Lab, joined this workshop.
The way we look next: Mining past and future census data to predict diversity in race, income and aging (Thursday at 9 a.m.)
Stephanie Ewert, U.S. Census Bureau, replaces Maria Olmedo-Malagon.
Intro to JavaScript (Friday at 9 a.m.)
Andy Boyle, NBC News Breaking News, replaces Peggy Bustamante.
Behind the curtain: What open data looks like from within the government (Friday at 10:15 a.m.)
Erie Myer, Office of Management and Budget, will join this session.
import.io: Web scraping without coding (Friday at 11:30 a.m.)
Megan Luther, IRE/NICAR and Nils Mulvad, Kaas & Mulvad, replace Alex Gimson.
Election: Reverse-engineering campaign finance stories (Friday at 3:30 p.m.)
Carrie Levine, The Center for Public Integrity, replaces Anupama Narayanswamy.
Beyond chi-square: Is it a fluke? (Saturday at 9 a.m.)
Mark Hansen, Columbia University, has been added to the session.
International CAR (Saturday at 11:30 a.m.)
Helena Bengtsson, The Guardian, replaces Tommy Kaas.
Turning data into damn good audio and video journalism (Saturday at 2:15 p.m.)
Brian Foo is no longer a speaker.
Spotlight on the story (Saturday at 2:15 p.m.)
Jacquee Petchel, ASU Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, replaces Esther Kaplan.
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