Crowdfunding, while not a tool in the technical sense, may turn out to be an indispensable business tool in the new ecosystem of journalism. While the idea of getting many people to donate small amounts of cash to fund a project is not new — charities do it, political campaigns do it — some forward-thinking journalists and entrepreneurs are starting to apply the same crowdfunding concept to the news.
Several Web sites offer – often for free – tools for managing and sharing large files (e.g. Mediafire, Megaupload, Box.net, YouSendIt, Drop.io, etc.). But, none have improved my workflow more than Dropbox.
Dance’s core philosophy of design is simple: Get out of the way of the content and create interactive graphics designed to keep viewers engaged.
Tech writeups often focus on the big guns: Apple, Google and Microsoft. But lots of little players offer great tools for journalists. One such small fry is Brooklyn-based Drop.io. The site offers a terrific solution for journalism collaboration.
Drop.io lets you set up free digital drop boxes – as many as you want – where you can share photos, documents, PDFs, videos, audio files and links with colleagues.
Now that you’re using Docs, how do you back-up all those files you’ve stored online? Google backs up your documents on multiple servers, and you can back-up your own docs in at least 4 different ways.
In a comment on a previous post, which was an introduction to Google Docs, Jay Rosen offered a good suggestion that I address the issue of document security. Journalists of all sorts – from those who are super techie to those who rely exclusively on paper notebooks – may justifiably wonder about the safety/privacy of Google documents. I have three thoughts about this.
When you start using Web-based software, suddenly all of the material you gather is accessible online from wherever you are. If you’re used to using a Google search to find info quickly on the Web, just imagine how convenient it can be to be able to find something from within your own past reporting and writing just as easily and quickly. No more digging through old drawers trying to locate a piece of paper with a number scrawled on it. Just open up Docs and search for any word, name or date range to find anything you’re looking for.
Google Docs is a suite of free, browser-based software that includes easy to use word processing, spreadsheet and presentation tools akin to Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint. The big difference between Docs and Microsoft Office is that your Google documents are stored online, so they’re accessible from anywhere you have Internet access.
Mastering the telephone has always been “job one” for journalists. It doesn’t take long for a budding reporter to become painfully familiar with research hazards involving heavy phone use. Google’s latest project, Google Voice, helps the journalist with all of these pitfalls, and more.
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