Getting out into the community, take 2

Overall, my second Community Café Day, held at The Country Bistro in Salisbury, was slow, but better than last time.

My first Café Day was on June 1 in Winsted, on relatively short notice, with no preceding ad in the paper, and I had a grand total of one visitor: the Winsted Town Manager, who just popped in to say hello and wish me luck.

From that experience, I learned to give more notice and more often and in more ways of my upcoming Café Days. I had stories in the paper specifically highlighting my Salisbury visit at least twice in the week preceding it, and there was an ad in the paper that day.

While I didn’t have a large number of visitors, I did have some, and they came with the purpose of talking to me and getting advice.

I sat at a small table facing the door, and had a sign taped to the back of my computer that said “Register Citizen Community Café Day, Community Engagement Editor Kaitlyn Yeager.”

Around 12:30 p.m., two women from Salisbury Bank came in, saw me, and invited me to have lunch with them, stating that they had seen the article in the paper that morning and wanted to come get some tips from me about getting the bank on social media.

We talked about Facebook and blogging (I encouraged them to come to the blogging and Facebook classes we happened to have upcoming in the next week), how Twitter could be useful to the bank, and how the social networks all integrated together.

I showed them some examples of how our Community Media Lab works and how Twitter can be used in multiple ways, using my netbook since there wasn’t any free wifi available.

Our conversation eventually turned to community classes, and I was able to get some advice from them on getting word out about classes, as the bank has a successful program called Salisbury Bank YOUniversity, where they offer free seminars to the public, similar to our Community Journalism School. We also discussed the idea of the paper teaming up with the bank and offering some classes out in the Salisbury area.

The two bank ladies were the only people who came to see me specifically, but a few people did show interest in who I was, and all of the restaurant employees were interested in what I was doing, and talked to me for a bit.

The restaurant owner came over to talk for a bit, and I gave her the proper people to contact about getting word of the newly-forming Salisbury Flea Market into the paper, and about a possible article on the recent Zagat rating of The Country Bistro.

Overall, I would consider it a success. I’ve got a few ideas for promoting my upcoming ones more, including making sure the article on them runs often, and there’s an ad in the paper now listing all upcoming ones. I also plan to start making Facebook events for them and publicizing them that way.

Recently added blogs

Here are the blogs recently added to the Register Citizen’s Community Media Lab.

Summer at the Register Citizen

The experiences of two interns in the world of open journalism

Torrington Middle School’s 2011 Washington Trip

8^th grader Manny Rijo-Pilier recounts his class trip to Washington, D.C.

Dining Adventures In CT!

We decided to create this blog as a way to keep track and rate the things we do and the places we visit. Maybe it’ll help you to decide on something new to try this weekend! Please drop us a line, just to say hello or give us a suggestion of a place to try–we’re always up for new things!

CT NOFA

CT NOFA is the Connecticut Chapter of the Northeast Organic Farming Association. CT NOFA is an independent non-profit organization dedicated to strengthening the practices of ecologically sound farming and gardening, and to the development of local sustainable agriculture.

Word Vomit.

20-something in Connecticut who likes to blog about the most random stuff ever.

Walking the Berkshires

My name is Tim Abbott, and I blog as GreenmanTim. I am the Litchfield Hills Greenprint Program Director with the Housatonic Valley Association. Nonetheless, this is my personal blog and reflects my views and opinions alone.

Foodie Fatale

Food has always been Jocelyn Ruggiero’s passion. “At nine months of age, my first ‘real’ food was one of my Aunt Phil’s wicked meatballs, and my very first word was ‘cookie.’ Yes, I’ve always loved to eat,” she said. The Foodie Fatale blog chronicles Jocelyn’s passionate encounters with eating and food.

Life with Wendy

Former newspaper columnist takes to the web to write about kids and sports, women and money, men and their newspapers, women and their purses, waiting in line at the deli, parenting with ADD, controlling the uncontrollable, rectal thermometers, the implications of missing trash day, organizing your attic, and just about any topic you encounter in parenting. “I write to reach out, I write for my own therapy, and I write because I love it.”

Killing the Buddha

A provocative blog for the supposedly non-religious to talk about what religion is, is not and might be. Editor Ashley Makar is a writer working towards her Master of Divinity, Religion and the Arts at Yale Divinity School.

The Balcony and Beyond

Busy is Bonnie Goldberg’s middle name. She loves theater (although seeing seven plays in six days was a little too much even for her) as well as museums, travel, lectures, books and all things entertaining and fun. Read “The Balcony and Beyond” for a cultural tour of Connecticut.

Dumb Things of the Week

A chronicle of the dumbest stuff in the news from Connecticut and beyond.

The Boyling Point

Don Boyle is the founder and owner of SportingNewsCT.com and a seasoned sports broadcaster with over twenty-years of experience. SportingNewsCt provides both audio and video coverage of high school and area college sports, as well as American Legion baseball.

New blogs this week, May 23, 2011

Here are the newest blogs added to the Register Citizen’s Community Media Lab in the past week.

Kitsch ‘n Stuff

C. Dianne Zweig is the author of Hot Kitchen & Home Collectibles of the 30s, 40s, 50s and Hot Cottage Collectibles for Vintage Style Homes. She is also the Editor of I Antique Online an actively growing internet based resource community for people who buy, sell or collect antiques, collectibles and art. You can find Dianne’s fabulous retro and vintage kitchen, home and cottage collectibles at The Collinsville Antiques Company of New Hartford, CT, a 22,000 feet antique emporium with an in-house retro café.

The Colebrook News

This is a simple website to post info about events happening in Colebrook, CT . Most of the site is automated, an email copy of the recent events is mailed out every Thursday.

Muddy Crayon Lion’s CT Treks

I have (serendipitously) been living in Connecticut for eleven years now. It’s a small state, so I decided I would visit each town…

Hops, Hamburgers and Hounds

I enjoy good beers, good food and dogs, the canine kind, not the processed, pressed kind. This blog will hopefully shed some light on some good brews, good chow, and a smattering of puppy fun as well.

New blogs this week, May 16, 2011

This is the first post in an ongoing weekly series. Every Monday, I will put up a post listing all the new blogs we’ve added to the Torrington Community Media Lab during the previous week. Since this is the first post, I’ll be listing the new blogs added since April 27.

Washed Up Righty

Washed Up Righty is the blog of CT Tri-State pitcher Jay Pelletier, who writes about both local baseball, and baseball in general.

Torrington Superintendent’s Blog

Superintendent Chris Leone uses this blog to connect with residents, and reach out to the community.

CT Indie

This blog was originally featured on the New Haven Register’s Community Media Lab, and features local music from around Connecticut.

Do Vegetarians Eat Animal Crackers?

In this blog, a Torrington man shares his thoughts on food and life in general.

Embedding images into the body of a story

We created a Wordle this afternoon of Donald Trump’s press release stating he won’t run for President of the United States. I realized that Wordle itself doesn’t give you the option of embedding, only linking. I saved the image, but didn’t want it to show up small in the article, as the words would be unreadable.

I then realized that you can use Google Docs to embed pictures just like documents and forms.

To embed a picture using Google Docs:

1. Create a new Google Drawing.
2. Click the small image button in the top toolbar and upload your image.
3. The image should automatically place itself in the top left of the screen. Drag the bottom right corner up so that there is no extra space around the picture.
4. Click the dropdown arrow next to the Share button in the top right of the screen, and choose publish to the web.
5. Confirm you want to publish, and Google Docs will provide you with an embed code.

Embedding the Wordle into our story allowed us to choose exactly where it would go, and let us make it big enough that our readers can see the words.

Evernote – my new tool

A little white ago, those of us on the ideaLab were asked to choose a tool we were unfamiliar with, and learn it well enough to teach it to others.

My tool of choice was Evernote. One of the reasons I love Google Docs is because I can access my documents from anywhere, so the prospect of a program that allows me to access pictures, web pages and other files from anywhere was intriuging.

I had downloaded the Evernote app to my iPhone when I first got it, but ended up deleting it because it seemed a bit daunting, and like a lot of work. I thought “why bother when I can just email my files to myself or use a flash drive?”

When I saw Evernote on the list of tools for us to learn, I decided to give it another shot.

Between Evernote and Google Docs, I think a journalist could easily report and share everything necessary for a good story. Using an iPhone or Droid, s/he can write the story on Google Docs, share it with an editor, save a photo to a newsroom Evernote account, and the editor can get the story up online quickly.

What I like about the program is that it’s easy to use both on my phone and on my computer. The computer application added Evernote buttons to my web browser and Quick Launch bar. I like the web button because it lets me easily and quickly save a web page to my Evernote account. If I want to, I can highlight pieces of that web page, and save just those.

The only negative I’ve found so far is that the free Evernote account only lets you save specific types of files, so it won’t keep your webpages in their original format. This is fine if you’re looking to save something like a list, or just text, but when you get pictures, videos and interactive graphics thrown in the mix, the program turns it all into a strange, not really readable format in your note.

Overall, it’s actually a very simple thing to use. If you’re in the field and want to share a photo, you just take it with your phone’s camera, open the Evernote app, and click Camera roll to turn your photo into a note. You could also choose the Snapshot option in the Evernote app to take a picture through the app and automatically save it.

Text notes are even easier – in either the phone or desktop app, simply select to add a new note, select text, and type your note.

To use this application for sharing within the newsroom, I’d suggest setting up an Evernote account using a generic email address (like Torrington’s editor@registercitizen.com), and giving everyone who needs it access to the username and password. That way, everyone can log into the same account and see all the notes. I would also suggest titling each note with the name of the person who needs to see it.

Mapping a spreadsheet in 3 quick steps

Our editor, Rick Thomason, discovered a really cool trick today to quickly turn a spreadsheet of data into a Google Map.

He had the Excel file listing the details of our local fire department’s calls for the week, and wanted to get it up on the website due to popular reader demand.

After performing a quick Google search, he discovered the website BatchGeo, which allows you to paste in a spreadsheet of data and turn it into a map.

To make your map, copy your spreadsheet (make sure all your addresses include city and state, otherwise it’ll map places all over the country) and paste it into the box on the website’s main page. You may want to click the Validate Options box just to make sure it’ll look okay (you’ll get a preview of the map info bubbles).

Click the Map Now button to generate your map. You’ll need to name it, put in a description, and enter your email address. The embed code will be emailed to you.

When the email comes, just grab the embed code and you’re good to go! The emails are very fast, but may go to your spam folder (it went to mine, and I had to add it to my approved senders list.)

Interactive Media: what went right and what didn’t

Goal:  My goal this month was to get interactive media such as Google Maps and timelines used on the Register Citizen website on a regular basis, and to get our staff well-versed in interactive media.
Allies: Emily Olson (managing editor Register Citizen), Matt DeRienzo (RC publisher), Kevin Roberts (RC sports reporter), Jenny Golfin (RC curation editor), Leigh Bogle (RC composing manager), Mike Agogliati (daily reporter), Ricky Campbell (daily reporter), Ryan Casey (weeklies reporter), Dan Podheiser (sports editor).

Obstacles:

• Workflow and mindset –  our reporters already do a lot when uploading stories to the web (getting the story up, putting up photos, putting up videos, tweeting, Facebooking, etc.), so I didn’t expect them to remember to put up something interactive every time.
• The interactive items aren’t thought of as a hugely important, must have every time item, so they tend to fall by the wayside, and people tend to have the “I’ll do it next time” mindset when swamped with other work.

Training needed:

• To accomplish this goal, I needed to train our employees how to use Cover it Live, Google Maps and Dipity.

Resources needed:

• We didn’t need any additional resources, other than “cheat sheets,” which I supplied for Google Maps.

Accomplishments:

• Each of our reporters and several editors are able to use Cover it Live to run the newsroom meetings.
• Our reporters have all been able to successfully put up at least one Google Map on their own, with no instruction at the time they put it up.

What you’ve taught:

• I’ve taught our 4 daily and 1 of our weekly reporters how to use Cover it Live, as well as our editor and managing editor.
• I’ve taught our newsroom to use Google Maps.

What you’ve learned:

• I’ve learned to let go a bit if something isn’t perfect, and appreciate the effort that others are putting forth (for example, if someone puts up a Google Map but doesn’t use a special icon, and doesn’t center it quite the way I would, I’m stepping back and realizing I can’t control it, and being glad the person is able to use Google Maps to make the article better).
• I’ve also learned that I have to keep at people when trying to get them to use something new. While we’ve gotten maps up more than in the past, we’re not quite where I’d like to be. The same goes for timelines. I was going to work with our sports editor to create timelines as a gathering place for various local team stories, but allowed it to slide due to differing schedules and other projects.

Metrics: (How you’re measuring the success)

• Number of maps: we’ve had more stories with maps in the past month than we have before.
• Days I’m not the one doing the newsroom chat: we’re implementing a rotating chat schedule, so I’m free to participate in the meetings, and everyone else is getting experience with chats.

Narrative: (What else you want to address)
Over the course of the next month, I plan to work harder to accomplish my original goal of making maps a regular item on our website, and I want to get each reporter to create at least one timeline or Storify story over the course of the next month. I realize that lengthy timelines may not fit all of our beats, and I think that Storify lends itself well as a sort of mini-timeline of shorter-period events.

Questions lead to connections and classes

I’m a member of the Social Journalism group on Facebook, where I often see intriguing questions and topics debated by journalists of all kinds from around the world.

Recently, while scheduling our Community Journalism School classes for May, I posted a question looking for ideas for possible classes, and got several good answers.

Some of the suggestions were classes I already had in place, which made me feel good because it meant I was right when I scheduled something thinking it was an interesting topic.

One suggestion in particular caught my eye: Craig Newman’s suggestion to have a seminar on using your mobile phone as a one-stop command center.

I sent Craig a Facebook message asking if he’d be interested in Skyping in to teach such a class, he accepted, and we worked out a date and time to hold the class.

Now, I’ve never met Craig in person, and had never interacted directly with him prior to this Facebook question. However, the social network allowed us to connect and set out a plan to use another social technology to offer a class that we would otherwise not have been able to hold. This is one of the many reasons why I love technology and social networks.

Jumping on the list blog bandwagon

After receiving an e-mail from Viktoria detailing Middletown’s Top 10 blog, taken from Delco’s Delco Daily Top Ten, we decided to jump on the list blogs bandwagon.

After talking to Matt about the idea, we decided to make our blog a Top 5 list to broaden the number of topics we could cover (as some topics might be difficult and time-consuming to come up with 10 items for), and made a preliminary list of topics we could put a local spin on. Our list so far includes (and please let me know if you have any ideas for us!)

• fishing spots
• sledding hills
• playgrounds
• summer hotspots
• high school mascots
• Torrington high school athletes of all time
• hiking spots
• local beaches
• buildings in Torrington that should be saved
• buildings in Torrington that should be demolished
• streets in need of repair
• restaurants people would like to see downtown
• picnic spots
• most dangerous intersections

Weed Road was #2 on our initial list from SeeClickFix, but ended up our #1 worst road after collecting responses from all platforms.

We decided to go with the top 5 worst streets in town for our first post, because that was something we could easily crowdsource. I combed through reports of bad roads on SeeClickFix to create an initial list of roads, put them in a preliminary order, and posted the list on RegisterCitizen.com, along with an embedded survey. In the survey, I asked readers to select which street(s) they thought were worst, and left an option for them to add their own suggestions. Over 200 people submitted a total of 318 votes. (On a sidenote, I will be using Google Docs for all surveys from now on. I used SurveyMonkey for this survey, and while I do like SurveyMonkey, I discovered that the free account only lets you see the first 100 answers. I had to record and delete each entry one-by-one in order to see them all. Google Docs doesn’t have quite as clean an answer display/summary, but there’s no restriction on how many you can see.)

I also thought this type of crowdsourcing question would be a great way to really make use of Facebook’s Questions feature. I created a question on the Register Citizen’s Facebook page, putting my original list in as the answer options, and left the option open for people to add their own answers. We got a total of 72 votes on the question as of when I finalized my list.

I finalized my list this morning using the total number of “votes” between the survey, the Facebook question, a few emails I received, and the SeeClickFix reports (thank you Google Spreadsheets for quickly and easily adding everything for me!). I then went out and took photos of each of the top 5 streets, and took a video of the number 1 street (we had asked people to send in photos, but did not receive any). I also made a Google Map, highlighting each street in a different color.

I put up the post today, and we plan to tease it on the website officially on Monday. As of right now, the plan is to tease a new blog post every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Overall, I’m very pleased with the response we got to this question. I’m looking forward to keeping the momentum going and using this blog as another way to engage more with our audience.