August 16, 2005, 1:31 AM ET
New chicagocrime.org feature: Crimes along a route
I've added a Crimes along a route page to chicagocrime.org. It lets you draw a route on the map of Chicago and displays crimes that have been reported along that route.
Say you walk home from the El station every day at around 7 p.m. Using this feature, you can draw your route, select a time range (7 to 8 p.m., perhaps) and narrow down crimes by crime type -- and the site will tell you which crimes happened near that route.
You can bookmark any route (example), so you don't have to redraw it each time you visit the site. For this feature, I was inspired by the excellent Gmaps Pedometer.
I'd like to add RSS feeds for a particular route, but I fear that would put way too much of a load on the database. That feature (and a bunch of others) will have to wait until I have the finances to get a faster server -- preferably more than one.
August 14, 2005, 1:04 AM ET
In D.C.? Come to Batten Symposium
If you're in the Washington, D.C., area and are interested in online journalism, mark Monday, Sept. 12, on your calendar. The James K. Batten Symposium and Awards for Innovations in Journalism is happening that day at the National Press Club, and registration is free. I'll be there to do a presentation on chicagocrime.org, which is a finalist for the Batten Awards.
August 8, 2005, 11:49 PM ET
Google Maps within news stories
I've improved our custom publishing system at the Lawrence Journal-World to enable Google Maps within stories. Here's an example.
I'm pretty sure this is this the first example of Google Maps within a story on a traditional news site.
Of course, maps are great for navigating the news, too -- not just for adding context. We'll be adding navigation-based maps very shortly.
August 3, 2005, 2:02 AM ET
Job change
It's public. After two-and-a-half awesome years at the Lawrence (Kansas) Journal-World, having had the opportunity to help build amazing sites such as LJWorld.com, Lawrence.com and KUsports.com, I'm moving on.
I've accepted a position at The Washington Post, where I'll be Editor, Editorial Innovations for washingtonpost.com. The Post has been my favorite news organization for as long as I've been in journalism -- indeed, since I read All the President's Men in high school -- and I'm just thrilled to be able to contribute to it.
My job at the Post will be a bit of a "mad scientist" thing: I'll be working with the staff to come up with new site features and various innovations that push the boundaries of how journalism is done online. The folks there are very open to new, exciting ways of presenting information.
This is gonna be cool.
And I'll continue to work from Chicago, as I've done over the past year for the Journal-World.
Of course, it'll be hard to leave the Journal-World and the great people there. That company is one of the few media companies I've seen that has a genuine interest in journalism and innovation above profits and short-term goals. Fortunately, I'll still be quite involved with them via our soon-to-be-released open-source Web framework, Django, on which I'll continue to have just as much say. (If I didn't, I'd go crazy, because I don't know how I'd live without the baby I've nurtured over the past two years.)
Finally, because I'm leaving the Lawrence operation, that leaves an opening for a Web developer. If you're a talented Python programmer with extensive experience doing Web development, we're interested in talking to you. Immediately. Check out this old writeup of mine for my full pitch. Great company, great town, incredible people. And you'd get to work with Django full-time!
Frankly, I'd be content working for the Journal-World for many years to come, but I just couldn't pass up an opportunity at the Post. Whoever gets this job will be very lucky. And happy.
Contact me at aholovaty@ljworld.com with your resume and links to what you've done. (The resume is a formality; the links are more important.)
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