Source via Voice

The next Source community call will be Thursday, September 19 at 9am PT/12pm ET and will be excellent. Learn about our regular calls and subscribe to the calendar. You can also listen to other recent calls in our archive.

Things on Source Recently

We’re powered by our contributors, and really proud to be a place for documenting and sharing how you work and what you believe in. Some recent things:

• How We Made a Human-Centered Homicide Report: We talked with Stephanie Lamm, Matt Dempsey, and Jordan Rubio about what it took to design and build a data project with a strong, human-centered mission and a team that spanned the newsroom.
• Our Industry Needs to Invest in Childcare, Especially for Conferences: An inquiry and call to action around childcare for work-related travel and events, by Emily Goligoski and Marisa Mazria Katz.
• Fix Your Feedback Loop: Bridget Thoreson shares that there’s a better way to approach elections coverage, and it involves asking people what matters to them most.

Things You’ve Been Making

We’re always on the lookout for new work and things we can learn from each other. This week, we’ve collected projects that each take a different route to showing the personal impact of political or societal issues.

Pa. nurses are fed up with hold times, rude answers, and delays dealing with state licensing board

(Philadelphia Inquirer, Sept 12, 2019)
From reporter Sara Simon: “Last year, a comprehensive review of all Pa. state licensing boards—issued by executive order from the governor—claimed the Board of Nursing’s initial license processing time averaged 17 days. Nothing about that number made sense to me. I’d heard too many stories of nurses who waited for months. And the report? It was 598 pages with no definition of ‘processing time’ and no methodology section. My digging landed me in the Secretary of State’s office. Turns out, she’d also been stumped and had asked for her own new review. The number she found? 88 days.”

L.A. might ban homeless people from sleeping on many streets. What about your block?

(Los Angeles Times, Sept 9, 2019)
This project acquired the geographic boundaries for thousands of sites and then estimated the restricted zones based on computer-drawn buffers around each.

What’s being built near you? Search St. Louis City building permits

(St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Sept 10, 2019)
A simple interface to better understand the area in which you live, and the ways that it’s changing.

Your Illustrated Guide To Chicago’s Budget Problems

(WBEZ, August 29, 2019)
An illustrated explainer to a complex process that affects everyone in the city.

Long Streets Project

(Montana Free Press, ongoing)
A data-rich, visual exploration of the many pressures and forces shaping life in Montana, covered as Montanans see it, “one big small town with really long streets.”

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

Even More Things

Ten years of Document Cloud, a Q&A and a look back. Inside the Long Streets Project, an interview with data reporter Eric Dietrich. Lessons from data journalism in Portugal. A crowdsourced election tech handbook in the UK. Lessons learned about tech strategy after a launch, at the Financial Times. Washington’s vote in the 2016 presidential election, rendered as beautiful data art.

Hello to everyone at #ONA19! If you’re interested in documenting a project or sharing a process on Source, we are always excited to be a home for your contributions. Shoot a note to source@opennews.org.

Jobs + Things

• Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is looking for a Graphics and Data Editor in Prague.
• The New York Times has a bunch of open roles, including Engineering Manager.
• Temporary roles are available at Reveal and also the Chicago Tribune.
• The University of Florida is seeking an adjunct instructor for a Python-based course.
• More on Source jobs, where you can also post if you’re hiring.
• We always include other kinds of opportunities in our Events and Deadlines roundups.

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

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