UMapper: A more advanced way to map trends, weather and other events

I was first introduced to UMapper in college, when a friend of mine mentioned it in my advanced online journalism class. I found the mapping capabilities extremely fascinating, and began playing around it.

Fast forward a year later: For my online skill, I chose to teach UMapper to the fine staffers at the Heritage West office. I created a slideshow, going over the basics in how to use UMapper, which I’ve embedded below:

The basic concept of UMapper can be to mark where events are happening, or to map a series of events. It could be used to mark special locations in a story, such as mapping locations of break-ins to show trends, or could be used to pinpoint where all the summer festivals are happening around your coverage area.

It also allows map creators to create a “Geo-dart” game, which can be used to quiz viewers on specific knowledge on the map. Here’s a link to one I created for demonstration purposes that asks where everyone at Heritage West works.

It also allows you to create weather maps (a function I’m not the greatest fan of, I would prefer this method when using weather maps. I haven’t tried it yet, but it sure beats UMapper’s function).

One of the cooler applications was the Twitter map. During our training in Saline, we used the term “Ian Jenkins” to search for on Twitter, the name of the hockey prospect who died earlier this week. When we set the radius over Milan, the town he died in, we could see tweets announcing the time and date of his funeral, as well as the memorial hockey game being played in his honor. It’s a great way to keep up on the buzz over certain terms in your community.

UMapper is a great tool to use for reporting. I constructed a map for area Census data for Washtenaw County, and published that on a Heritage blog. It can be used for all sorts of data aggregation, especially for a company like Heritage that has such a wide geographic base for regional stories.

HootSuite as a tool for digital journalists

If it’s one thing every journalist needs nowadays, it’s more time — or at the very least, something that works as a time-saver.

In my past month with HootSuite, a social media dashboard, I have found just that.

Typically, when I upload content to our website it’s at the end of the day, which, on some nights, can be an ungodly hour. At this point, before I had HootSuite in my pocket, I would write myself a note to remind myself to post links to these stories throughout the next day.

HootSuite has changed all of that. Now I upload content, grab the links for those stories and schedule them all on HootSuite as I upload. So not only am I taking care of all my online duties at once, but I’m also scheduling everything to post throughout the day, the next day or even the day after that. This increases visibility to our publications by not bombing the page all at once. It can gracefully slip into someone’s news feed as they read.

And while on its face, it might not seem like a time saver, it really has become one for me because now my workday is much more streamlined. I don’t have that nagging feeling about social media in the back of my mind anymore. HootSuite has taken care of that.

[Click here to read my tutorial about how to use HootSuite for scheduling social media posts and using its free analytics feature.]

First 30-day ideaLab project completed

For my first 30-day ideaLab-JRC project, I have partnered with local retirement communities and senior centers to gather oral histories from area senior citizens using ipadio.com’s iPhone “record and publish” application in person and recorded phone conversations using ipadio’s three-way calling and recording capability.

Topics have included conversations on faith and spirituality, living with someone with Alzheimer’s disease, motherhood, genealogy, immigration, fleeing one’s country of origin during the war, raising children in the 1960s and 1970s, and local politics.

My goal was to train volunteers in the community to record the interviews and provide the photos, so staff only has to grab embed codes and receive photos, and then upload to our website under a “Podcast” drop-down menu. This, however, has been a huge challenge. So far, I have two volunteers working with me in Saline, but I would like to have more. My editor in Chelsea and Dexter has done two, and is looking for volunteers. My editors in Manchester, Ypsilanti and Belleville will be making contacts with senior communities soon to launch the project in those communities in the next couple of weeks, also building a volunteer base.

I have spent every Wednesday for the last four weeks at Brecon Village retirement community or the Saline Area Senior Center interviewing at least two residents each week, with 14 recorded. My volunteers have done an additional three and my Chelsea/Dexter editor has done two. The profiles include photographs of our subjects.

My 14-day goal was to get the same process going in Chelsea and Dexter with help from copy editor Erica McClain. This has been achieved, but at a slower rate than I anticipated.

At 21 days, I had planned to implement this in Milan. I have conducted one interview there, and have had volunteers supply me with names of potential subjects. I still need to round up volunteers to conduct interviews so I am not doing it all.

At 21 to 28 days, I was to set up a volunteer orientation session in Saline, Milan, Dexter and Chelsea to train community volunteers. I have found that my two volunteers have been able to learn it on their own. However, I have created a presentation that I can use for training purposes and it’s posted here on my ideaLab-Heritage blog on WordPress.

My longer-term goal was to implement this project in Ann Arbor, Manchester, Ypsilanti and Belleville. These editors have assured me that they plan to do so in the next couple of weeks.

I have utilized our ideaLab iPhone for this project to record the interviews and shoot the photos. I’ve used DropBox to move the photos from my phone to laptop computer. I have managed the activity on my ipadio account, where I’ve gotten the embed code to post the podcasts on Heritage.com.

Metrics: The project has generated 6,250 listens. One podcast, shared with a sister publication near Philadelphia, helped drive a lot more traffic than most, with that podcast generating 1,279 listens. The average audio recording generates 250 listens. Most vary from 630 to 65. They have been promoted on our website, Facebook, Twitter and this blog.

I have trained 10 staff members on ipadio.com and Google Voice, the technology I picked from the ideaLab tool list, and posted my presentation on collecting audio to enhance storytelling on my ideaLabHeritage blog. I have also solicited a list of more staff to train at a sister publication, The News-Herald in Southgate, and plan to set up training soon.

What’s next: My next 30-day project will be to learn how to create photo slideshows with audio, Google maps, and my tool to learn will be Kaywa QR Code, so readers can scan the code in print to be taken to the slideshow online. The goal is to have the audience provide the photos and text from Memorial Day activities in our communities.