Who’s Missing From This Food Map?
Ever wonder what the most popular links are within your circle of friends and trusted sources?
Web Trend Map, a new interactive site, let’s you do that. Created by designer Craig Mod and information architect iA Inc., the website maps selected Twitter users and displays the trending links among those users off to the side.
The site was sorely lacking in food-related maps, so in the spirit of my most recent post, I made one.
Are there any food bloggers/makers/photographers you love who are on Twitter? Let me know and I’ll consider them for inclusion.
Craig and iA write more about the thinking behing Web Trend Map on their site. And if the words “web trend map” sound familiar, it’s ’cause iA Inc. is the company behind the popular Web trends infographic, now available as a poster.
Journalists: Share What’s New With You
One of the most popular posts of 2008 was “What Comes After a Career at a Newspaper?” If you’ve found a new role or started a new business after taking a buyout or being laid off last year, leave a comment to let people know what you’re up to. We’ll also add you to the list.
In other housekeeping news, you can now keep up with Ricochet on Facebook. We’re looking for ways to start and integrate discussion in two places at once. If you’ve got some ideas, please share.
And finally, where do you and other local journalists hang out before, between and after hours? Last March, Marketwatch ran a fun video about the closure of famous watering holes for scribblers that, ironically, has itself disappeared.
In today’s age of being socially connected all of the time, is there any value in having a local hangout? If so, where do you and your cohort gather?
Photo: ChrisMRichards/Flickr
The Joe Biden-Sarah Palin Debate as a Wordle Cloud
One for Fun: Tell Me a Story Any Way You Can
One of the brilliant things about the Web is that a story can be told many different ways. Earlier this year, British publisher Penguin Group asked six authors to each create an online homage to a notable work of literature. Each tale used a different aspect of Web storytelling as the medium. The result was We Tell Stories.
One tale is told through a map with an embedded Easter egg that leads to a seventh story inspired by “Alice in Wonderland.” (First clue andfull spoiler.)
Another work is designed as an infographic, courtesy of Nicolas Felton, whose annual report has won him fans around the world.
A third is an interactive write-your-own-adventure.
There are six stories on the site. Say what you want about the quality of the writing, but the methods offer a sampling of different ways to engage readers.
After “We Tell Stories” launched, Gamasutra interviewed the project leads, Six To Start, and a representative from Penguin who said the company was excited about creating “a really immersive and engaging storytelling experience.”
When writing for the Web, think about all the ways in which your story can be told. There’s text, of course, but there are pictures, still and moving. Stir in audio, databases and maps, and suddenly there are a rich variety of ways to be pulled into a tale.
One for Fun: In Prase Of Copyeditors
Pulitzer prize-winner Gene Weingarten wrote a funny ode to copy editors in his Sunday column for the Washington Post.
From start to finish, it’s an entertaining frolic that defends the craft. Editors and management should read it and think twice about slashing entire copy desks when layoff time comes around.
Weingarten won acclaim for his 2007 profile of classical violinist Joshua Bell busking in a Washington subway station. People called it innovative and unusual. There was a lot of ooohing and ahhing when the time-lapse video was posted to the Post’s website a few days later.
Turns out the seed for his story was planted long ago. But I’ll let Weingarten tell the tale.
