SRCCON:LEAD is Still Open for Participants

SRCCON:LEAD is a small hands-on conference to figure out ways we can reshape how journalism leadership operates. We’ve just closed the session proposals form, but the participation form remains open for those who’d like to come. We’ll keep it open until we don’t have any more space, so send it in ASAP!

Things You’ve Been Making

We’re always on the lookout for new work and things we can learn from each other, especially projects you may have missed. This week, we’ve collected projects that take us into places and spaces, with a special focus on local or small teams.

How Baltimore’s first female reporter used maps and data to save Edgar Allan Poe’s Amity Street home

(Baltimore Sun, Oct 7, 2019)
From data journalist Christine Zhang: “In February, I wrote a story about the UMBC historians who created a 3D map of 1815 Baltimore. As an example of the complications of translating old addresses into their present-day counterparts, they told me about a researcher who went through a lot of trouble to figure out the exact address of Edgar Allan Poe’s Baltimore home in order to save it from demolition some 80 years ago. I couldn’t fit that anecdote into the article, but I kept it in mind for Poe’s death-day (Oct. 7 is close to my birthday so I remembered the date!). I’d envisioned this piece as a nerdy data story about maps, which it is, but it also ended up touching on a lot of different things—the role of (data) journalism, The Sun’s formidable first female reporter, the city’s legacy of segregated public housing, the question of whose history gets preserved … and of course, the in-joke behind one of my favorite scenes from ‘The Wire.’"

Want to fireproof your house? Here’s where to start

(Los Angeles Times, Oct 3, 2019)
Scroll through this explainer, with immersive and helpful graphics.

Syracuse’s unfair property tax system hurts poor the most; here’s what can be done

(Syracuse.com, Oct 10, 2019)
An investigation shows that “houses in prosperous neighborhoods have gained value much faster than homes in poor neighborhoods. Assessments have not kept pace.”

Take a guided photo tour of Minneapolis in 1907

(Minneapolis Star Tribune, Oct 5, 2019)
An interactive, panoramic view of Minneapolis, from September 1907.

What else are you making? Tell us what’s happening. Email source@opennews.org.

More Things from Around the Community

The team behind Library, a documentation tool from the New York Times, is hosting a call for folks interested in learning more.

From Isaac White:

Join us on Oct 15 to discuss NYT Library, an open source wiki powered by Google Docs. Originally built in 2017 to streamline the sharing of existing documentation in the NYT newsroom, Library has emerged as our best solution to date for keeping internal knowledge collaborative and visible across departments. Now that Library is open source, we’re excited to share all that it can do with the community and see how others use it.

This call is an opportunity for anyone interested in (or already using!) Library to meet the maintainers and find out how it can be useful at your organization. It’s also a chance to ask questions and share any ideas or challenges you’ve had so far with using Library. We hope to use the conversations that emerge in the call to make Library more useful for everyone. Connect with us via phone on Oct 15 from 12 - 1pm ET: +1 470–705–4259‬ PIN: ‪988 473‬#

Do you have an announcement or thing to share? Send it on over to source@opennews.org.

Even More Things

Books to read if you miss being a horrible goose. A very SQL Murder Mystery, from the Knight Lab. All about the Census 2020 Hard to Count Map, in a Governing magazine writeup. A critical discussion on media coverage of homelessness. A newsweekly in Burlington, Vt. created an online memorial project for people who lost loved ones to opioid overdoses. An equity-centered design guide. What Georgia election Twitter looks like, all in one place. A fall foliage prediction map and leafy explainer.

Jobs + Things

• ProPublica is looking for developer/journalists who are available for projects from now until March of 2020.
• The Princeton Gerrmandering Project seeks a senior developer for its small team.
• CNN is looking for a visual editor for its politics team.
• Reveal needs a creative and collaborative data editor to join the team.
• More on Source jobs, where you can also post if you’re hiring.

P.S.—This Roundup Also Comes in Email Flavor

This roundup comes right to your inbox when you sign up for our biweekly Source projects newsletter.

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