The Obama White House staff salaries are shown in this live data graphic visulization. If you updates the figures, the graphic will be updated instantly for the next Web reader.
The White House is uploading all kinds of public data to Socrata. I downloaded this set of numbers and built a Many Eyes graphic in about five minutes.
Source: SOCRATA: 2009 Report to Congress
This is an example of the kind of reporter-driven visualizations that I was teaching France24 journalists in my Web reporting seminars.
Last week I shared some tips for journalists using Twitter in a live Webinar for the World Editors Forum.
One of the examples I showed was how, as a solo video journalist, I was able to generate a lot of traffic and attention to a video report I filed in Cairo.
I travelled downtown Chicago today to hand-deliver my visa application to the Indian Consulate so that I may visit Hyderabad in a couple weeks and I had a couple of hours to kill before catching the Metra train back to Naperville.
I walked around Grant Park (See my annotated map above) (and I do mean AROUND as there was no ordinary privilege to pass through as a pedestrian today) with all the cops and fencing up already for the Obama Presidential Rally. That is the official name today of this venue formerly known as Grant Park. TV satellite trucks have long queued up on Columbus Drive and the ticketed and non-ticketed patron areas are clearly defined and defended.
Who knows what drama will arise on Tuesday here in the U.S. with the presidential election. I have been organizing my song writing notes as I get ready to work on new material and I stumbled across “The Ballad of the Dimpled Chad.” saved in an old Quark XPress file. “Dimpled Chad” is a novelty song I wrote but never released in the heady days of 2000. (I didn’t release it because it didn’t match the album of children’s songs I was recording at the time.)
You recall that Al Gore won the popular vote but the battle for the White House came down to a couple of Supreme Court decisions about whose votes really counted in which counties in Florida.
Enjoy the lyrics, and do go out and vote (If you haven’t already!)
The Ballad of the Dimpled Chad Words and music by Robb Montgomery
Copyright 2000 Kidvibe.com publishing, (ASCAP) All rights reserved
Robb Montgomery produces new media workshops to train journalists and media professionals in more than 20 countries in writing for the Web, multimedia reporting, and Web video journalism.
His hands-on seminars include interactive learning techniques, live demonstrations and expertise in teaching new media concepts to professionals.
