Kickstarter campaign looking to advance data journalism practices

Despite the growing interest in consuming news online, especially on mobile devices, there has yet to be a strong emphasis placed on teaching data journalism practices at most universities throughout the country.



Dave Stanton, a developer whose background includes teaching courses on technology and journalism at the University of Florida and the Poynter Institute, , is looking to change this trend. He is heading up aentitled "For Journalism" that launched on Jan. 25 seeking to solve this problem by offering eight professional courses online. The courses aim to "equip every student, mid-career journalist, professor and graduate student with the knowledge they need to learn technical skills for doing journalism," says the Kickstarter page.




For Journalism already has commitments from eight industry experts that will record and document how to build projects, according to the introduction video. They want to allow all of the different range of skill sets and experience levels to be able to benefit from this industry knowledge.



Some forward-thinking journalism schools are already ahead of the curve. David Herzog, a fellow at the Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri, , emphasizing their importance. Some of these courses include: Fundamentals of Data Reporting, Mapping for Stories and Graphics, and Advanced Data Journalism which allows the class to learn python programming and Django Web framework.



Robert Quigley, a senior lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin who helped the Austin American-Statesman develop its use of social media, is currently teaching a course where students build apps from scratch using Objective C and XCode. The class, combining computer science and journalism students, has at a public demo day. Some of the teams' apps include one that allows music lovers to share photos from live events, one that helps journalism students learn AP Style, and one that helps people find things to do during Austin's Formula One race week.



Stanton's courses will expand journalists' knowledge of the evolving technical side of journalism.



According to Mashable, "Stanton believes the eight courses could offer the equivalent of a master's degree in data journalism."



Each course works toward a practical news-application project, according to the Kickstarter page. The courses would either be taught as a semester-long university course or as a multi-day workshop and each would contain an e-book, screencasts, code repositories and fora to allow for thorough exposure on the respective topics. They will have special content available to support functionality to help individuals and teams work through these projects.



The eight courses include:



* Django, a Web framework and programming tool that allows people to construct websites, will be instructed by , news applications developer for National Public Radio (NPR).



* Information Management will be taught by , a news developer for NPR.



* Ruby on Rails, an open source Web application framework, will be led by , Web developer for ProPublica.



* DevOps, a software development method that combines software developers and information technology professionals, will be instructed by , assistant editor and interactive news developer at the New York Times.



* Charting and Visualization will be taught by , interactive producer for Associated Press in Washington, D.C.



* Responsive Design, aimed at designing sites for the best viewing experience, will be instructed by , Django and journalism specialist at the Spokane Spokesman-Review.



* Mapping will be instructed by , programmer at The Data Desk.



* Cybersecurity and Online Privacy will be instructed by , Knight-Mozilla fellow at Pro Publica.



* Date Science and Statistics will be instructed by , former director of technology at the Center for Investigative Reporting.



The deadline for the Kickstarter campaign was March 11. Missing this deadline is the primary risk of the project since all of the instructors have day jobs. They hope to have all of the courses launched in August, but they will ensure the courses with the most reservations are completed first if they run into delays. At the time of this article, they have raised $26,666 of their $32,000 goal.
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