By Drew Bush The impact of newsroom cutbacks, consolidations, and closures across Canada will be the focus of a new crowdsourced online geoweb map. The public can contribute to it now—with the full map available online this June. “The idea of the map is it will allow us to gather data that we haven’t been able to gather on our … Read More
Geothoughts 11: 2016 Geothink Summer Institute Trains New Generation of Open Data Experts
By Drew Bush We’re very excited to present you with our 11th episode of Geothoughts. You can also subscribe to this Podcast by finding it on iTunes. In this episode, we take a look at the just concluded 2016 Geothink Summer Institute. Students at this year’s institute learned difficult lessons about applying actual open data to civic problems through group … Read More
Out of the Ivory Tower: Conveying Open Data Research to the General Public – Summer Institute Day 3
By Drew Bush On day three, the students at Geothink’s 2016 Summer Institute shifted gears from working with open data to thinking about the importance of conveying their work to the public. The day alternated between interactive lectures on how to write a strong Op-ed piece for a newspaper and hands-on group work where students tried their own hand at … Read More
Mapping Inclusive Employment: Community Engagement on the Participatory Geoweb
By Naomi Bloch In British Columbia, researchers have been using a crowdsourced mapping tool to capture positive employment experiences of individuals with intellectual disabilities. Geothink co-applicant Jon Corbett, an associate professor at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus, is one of several UBC contributors to the participatory research project. Recently, the group published findings from its two-year pilot … Read More
Geothink Student Evan Hamilton Explores Canadian Municipal Open Data and the Role of Journalism
By Naomi Bloch Data journalists are some of the most active users of government open data in Canada. In his recently defended thesis, Evan Hamilton, a master’s student in the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information, examined the role of data journalists as advocates, users, and producers of open data. Hamilton’s thesis, titled “Open for reporting: An exploration of open … Read More
Journalism: Storytelling in the Geodata Age
By Noami Bloch The rise of more accessible geospatial web tools along with expanding sources of open data have fostered a potent—if somewhat techno-utopian—civic vision. For those immersed in understanding this new digital landscape, one question often surfaces: who’s truly putting these resources to use? The most reliable answer is perhaps an obvious one. “Journalists are making huge use of … Read More
Crosspost: How is your Toronto neighbourhood portrayed in the news? Check it out using these interactive maps
This post is cross-posted with permission from April Lindgren and Christina Wong at Local News Research Project. By April Lindgren and Christina Wong Introduction Concerns about how neighbourhoods are portrayed in the news have surfaced regularly in the Toronto area over the years. But are those concerns valid? Interactive maps produced by the The Local News Research Project (LNRP) at … Read More
Crosspost: Ryerson journalism and the Neptis Foundation partner to teach students data journalism
By Prajakta Dhopade I stared blankly at the rows upon rows of transportation statistics on my computer screen. My heart thudded in my chest, my eyes darted to my classmates’ faces. Did they get it? The numbers in the intimidating Excel spreadsheet I was scrolling through didn’t make much sense to me. I thought I’d left math class behind when … Read More