Cool Tools from ASNE's #hackleaders "Hacking News Leadership" event in Austin

At the ASNE Hacking News Leadership conference this weekend, editors and data gurus from across the United States showed off  tools and shared suggestions, tips and stories. Here’s some cool stuff:

1.       Tableau – for maps, interactive charts and dashboards. If you’re an IRE member you can get an inexpensive desktop license. www.tableausoftware.com/ Mark Collette from the Caller Times used it for this project – www.caller.com/immigration

2.       Storify – is a cool tool to make stories out of visual elements; using  /slideshow allows them to be converted into a slideshow https://storify.com/

3.       Mapbox, Tilemill were among the tools the Washington Post used to create this super zip code map – of wealthy and well-educated Americans wapo.st/super-zip

4.       The Texas Tribune’s Ethics Explorer used a common spreadsheet in Google docs as the main reporting tool – everyone dumped data there  And it was the basis of their series Bidness as Usual. http://trib.it/lawmakerexplorer

5.       Google fusion tables lets you build maps and relationship tables too,  like this one from Express News reporter Jason Buch on connections between alleged moneylaunderers  - https://www.google.com/fusiontables/DataSource?snapid=S457047pVkn. Free

6.       Document Cloud lets you share documents between reporters and highlight them for readers too – here’s a example http://www.johntedesco.net/blog/tag/san-antonio/ - just set up a log on and start experimenting. Free..

7.       Tabula is a free tool for converting pdfs to spreadsheets. It has a built-in function that allows you to define information on several pages and export many pages of data all at once. Very cool
          Timeline:  A new free timeline tool  timeline.knightlab.com/

9.       Make quick videos with the Videolicious i-phone app:  https://videolicious.com/

         Try making Story maps:storymap.knightlab.com; storymaps.arcgis.com 
T      The Firetracker app  used for California wildfires is an app built by reporters and programmers at LA public radio station KPCC  http://projects.scpr.org/firetracker/colby-fire/  If you're interested in app and web designs/prototypes? Check out  InVision: Free Web & Mobile Prototyping and UI Mockup Tool www.invisionapp.com/ or  Marvel: Free mobile and web prototyping for designers https://marvelapp.com/