Idea Lab

How to Decode State Law Histories

by Waldo Jaquith
2011 Knight News Challenge Winner

A rich source of information about laws is found in the history data that accompanies each law in most states, but you've probably never noticed it. For example, Virginia's Freedom of Information Act has a series of exemptions spelled out in § 2.2-3705.1 which has a cryptic series of numbers listed below the law, in the section titled "History": 1999, cc. 485, 518, 703, 726, 793, 849, 852, 867, 868, 881, § 2.1-342.01; 2000, cc. 66, 237, 382, 400, 430, 583, 589, 592, 594, 618, 632, 657, 720, 932, 933, 947, 1006, 1064; 2001, cc. 288, 518, 844, § 2.2-3705;...

• May 14, 2012
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How FrontlineSMS Users Could Monitor Kenya's 2013 Elections

by Florence Scialom
2011 Knight News Challenge Winner

The FrontlineSMS user community has seen a growing number of user meet-ups across the world in recent months. It's exciting to see community members come together and share opinions and experiences on our software. This is a guest column by FrontlineSMS user Joseph Owuondo, who attended a recent meet-up in Nairobi hosted at the FrontlineSMS offices. The FrontlineSMS meet-up held in Nairobi at the beginning of April brought together a number of organizations, individuals and experts who focus their work on elections and conflict resolution-related issues -- and who all have an interest in the potential use of FrontlineSMS for...

• May 10, 2012
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ROFLCon Attendees Get a Memes Blast From the Past

by Matt Stempeck
2011 Knight News Challenge Winner

It's 2012. Nerds are in, and Internet memes can actually make you famous IRL. But way back in 2000, things were different. YouTube didn't exist, and a video had to be sent around as an email attachment. (Remember RealPlayer?) Your mom yelled at you for tying up the phone line, and GeoCities plastered banners all over your creations. At ROFLCon, the past was well-represented during a recent presentation by Eric Wu of Eric Conveys an Emotion (founded in 1998); Zblofu of Zombocom; and Jonti Picking of Weebl's Stuff. They were all online in the '90s, but things really exploded in...

• May 9, 2012
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How the Indie Audio Community Is Transforming Storytelling

by Jesse Shapins
2011 Knight News Challenge Winner

A version of this post also appeared in the Association of Independent's in Radio monthly AIRBlast. I first started working with independent producer Kara Oehler in 2005. Almost a day didn't pass without her telling me about something that happened on the "AIRDaily" listserve. I'd been on listservs before, but I had never actually talked to other people about them. These conversations with Kara were my introduction to the network of more than 800 makers brought together by AIR. At the time, I was living in New York but was partially still in Berlin, where I was completing the multimedia...

• May 8, 2012
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At ROFLCon: The Spread of Memes in China, Brazil and Syria

by Matt Stempeck
2011 Knight News Challenge Winner

ROFLCon returned recently to MIT, bringing together the things and people who are famous on the Internet. Ethan Zuckerman, the director of the MIT Media Lab Center for Civic Media and co-founder of the citizen journalist network Global Voices, was the moderator. He's probably best known for the Cute Cat Theory of Digital Activism. There are all kinds of great Internet memes out there that we don't get to understand just because we don't speak the languages. Memes require an enormous amount of background contextual knowledge to understand what, exactly, makes them funny. Ethan referenced his previous ROFLCon appearance, where...

• May 7, 2012
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Jonathan Zittrain Takes the Stage at ROFLCon

by J. Nathan Matias

Today with MIT Civic Media Center's Matt Stempeck and Stephen Suen, I'm live-blogging ROFLCon, a conference for things and people who are famous on the Internet. The livenote index is here. Christina Xu, the event organizer, starts off ROFLCon to cheers. It's an amazingly packed venue. "One out of eight people in this room have done something crazy on the Internet," she says. Zittrain on memes and society Jonathan Zittrain is an Internet phenomenon. Emerging from humble beginnings as a longtime CompuServe forum sysop, he is now professor of law at Harvard Law School where he co-founded the Berkman Center...

• May 4, 2012
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How We Got Here: The Road to Public Lab's Map Project

by Stewart Long
2011 Knight News Challenge Winner

Last week, Public Laboratory announced that public domain maps are now starting to show up on Google Earth and Google Maps. But how did the projects get there? Here's a timeline of a Public Laboratory map project. Making a map Public Laboratory projects take a community-based approach to making maps that differs depending on where you are and the reason you want to create a map. People map areas for a number of reasons, including because there's a need to monitor an area of environmental concern, a dynamic event is happening that there's a desire to capture, or you cannot...

• May 3, 2012
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What 'The Republia Times' Game Can Teach Us About Propaganda

by Simon Ferrari
2010 Knight News Challenge Winner

"The Republia Times" generated a significant amount of buzz when it was released a few weeks ago, even though it was developed by Lucas Pope simply as a warmup for a 48-hour game competition. It's a brilliant little game about tabloid, censorship and propaganda in a war-torn nation. It's also a tidy reflection on the cyclicality of time and the news machine. Your initial goal as the editor of a state-run newspaper is simple: Raise readership and loyalty for a transitional government by carefully selecting stories from the news wire. Based on your performance, you receive a concise, daily report...

• May 2, 2012
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Mobile Security Survival Guide Helps Journalists Understand Wireless Risks

by Melissa Ulbricht
2009 Knight News Challenge Winner

The Mobile Security Survival Guide for Journalists from SaferMobile helps reporters better understand the risks inherent in the use of mobile technology. The guide covers both local journalists and those on assignment in another country. As someone working with sensitive information, mobile communications are inherently insecure and expose journalists working in sensitive environments to risks that aren't easy to detect or overcome. This guide is designed to help navigate these challenges. (It should be noted that this guide does not guarantee safety. Rather, it's a foundational resource to understand and minimize the risks of mobile communication in the field.) The...

• May 1, 2012
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How to Contribute to OpenStreetMap and Grow the Open Geodata Set

by Bonnie Bogle
2010 Knight News Challenge Winner

Hundreds of delegates from government, civil society, and business gathered in Brasilia recently for the first Open Government Partnership meetings since the inception of this initiative. Transparency, accountability, and open data as fundamental building blocks of a new, open form of government were the main issues debated. With the advent of these meetings, we took the opportunity to expand an open data set by adding street names to OpenStreetMap. Getting ready to survey the Cruzeiro neighborhood in Brasilia. OpenStreetMap, sometimes dubbed the "Wikipedia of maps," is an open geospatial database. Anyone can go to openstreetmap.org, create an account, and add...

• April 30, 2012
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