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This week in our DJR Slack: NYT real-time dataviz, Photoshop for Audio and some VR events
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Hi everyone!

Here I am, putting a newsletter together when everyone of you 700 people is either
a) so busy reporting on everything that happened this week that he doesn't have a minute to read other things
or b) so tired of all the news this week that he switched off every device except the one with Netflix showing House of Cards. And he still hopes that in the next episode everything turns out to be fine again.

For the three of you that aren't involved in any election things and everyone who just wants to have a break and read something completely different - here's our Rocks Report!

I feel like we might need some more good news and love and happiness right now. So let me first give everyone of you who needs it right now a big hug! Second: Let me quickly tell you about two things I find amazing in our community:

1. We have Somebody for Everything with us now
This week something happened in our Slack community which shows exactly why our Rocks group is so incredible awesome. While you were busy reporting on the election, some of us praised (others discussed) the real-time election visualization of the New York Times that night. We had quite a discussion on the question if people notice this data isn't complete in that given moment and if that's good or bad for journalism - when @mario stepped in. He recently made a scientific study on exactly this question on polls which is yet to be analyzed. But first findings show, that people understand far more than we always think. 

Noticed it? We had a discussion and someone in our community already had the answer at hand. We are over 700 now - what a huge group of experienced people with valuable knowledge!
So I urge you - don't hesitate to ask questions, to tell us about your work and your experiments!

2. Our official language is now: broken english!
I know, asking questions can be hard when it's not your native language. I heard earlier this month the awesome claim: "The official language on this event is broken english. If you're a native speaker, please put in your presentations a couple of mistakes, we others feel better." What a nice, welcoming claim!
We're an international community with dozens of different native languages. And I know that some of you shy away from writing in english. I understand that perfectly well and I am sure that I'm putting a lot of mistakes in every newsletter I send out (sorry for that, native speakers). But: If you don't try, you won't succeed.

So from now on, everyone please writes in broken english. Thanks! 

Rock on & read you in (broken-english!) Slack!
Lina


P.S.: We need some new Rockstars due to pregnancy (Congrats, @textautomat!), too much work and other things that just happen in lives. When you're interested in taking over one of the channels #snapchat, #catcontent (!), #twitter, #monetization or #investigative, shoot me a message!

ROCKS REPORT

 #audio 


You can now photoshop your voice!
  • Let’s focus on this one, audio people: flashplayer outlet Adobe takes its photoshop skills to audio and works on an audio app that let’s you say words you’ve never said. That’s already working pretty well. All they need is 20 minutes of recorded text. That’s it. Adobe’s project VoCo has led to some discussions because it’s both very useful and scary. What do you think? Is voice manipulation just the same thing like we all do with photoshop or does it cross a red line? Would you use this kind of software?


Channel Rockstar: @kollege. Check out the channel for more or contact Marc for questions.

ddj-dataviz 


Awesome or misleading? The incredible NYT real-time data visualisation
  • The channel has been discussing on the example of the New York Times real-time data visualization in election night, how election forecasts and polls can(‘t) or should(n’t) be used.
  • While some thought it was a stunning piece of real-time journalism and data visualization, others rather thought it would mislead the audience as there was data shown that wasn't complete then and the audience could make up the difference..
  • @Mario added a recent study of him which showed that the audience does very well understand the difference between different sets of data. But the question still stands if polls should be used by journalists with so many examples today showing they are too often way off.
  • What are your reasons to keep using polling data? What might other options be that give the audience enough insight and go beyond anecdotal info?


Channel Rockstar: @dorien_luyckx . Check out the channel for more or contact Dorien for questions.

 #design 


First outlets start experimenting with notifications
  • @johannesklingebiel pointed out that Mic is experimenting with notifications on a rather advanced level - they use the new iOS push notification feature to deliver video notifications.
  • What are your experiments in this area? Tell us about your work in the #design channel!

Channel Rockstar: @thomasweyres. Check out the channel for more or contact Thomas for questions.

 #events 


Searching for VR events? Here are two!

The channel has come up with a short list of events/meetups/conferences about Virtual Reality. The two events mentioned:

Any other VR/ 360° events happening in the next six months? Tell us about them!

Channel Rockstar: @dorien_luyckx . Check out the channel for more or contact Dorien for questions.

 #facebook 


Update for Instant Articles - and FB Live as a platform

Channel Rockstar: @davidtvrdon. Check out the channel for more or contact David for questions.

 #messaging_bots 


2 new Bots from our Community - and Twitter and Amazon joining the Game
Channel Rockstar: @martinhoffmann. Check out the channel for more or contact Martin for questions.

 #mobile-reporting 


Would you use a mobile CMS if you got one?
  • @henrik.stahl shared the current status of the mobile CMS currently under development. ”Looks great, though I still don't get the appeal of writing on a tablet with how small and great laptops have become,” was @tim.pskowski’s verdict. What are your thoughts? Would your newsroom use a lightweight mobile CMS if they had one?

  • @sashak shared the live updating US elections results in the latest version of Guardian’s apps, set up by the Mobile Innovation Lab team. The report will be published on Medium in the near future, so stay tuned!

Channel Rockstar: @henrik.stahl. Check out the channel for more or contact Henrik for questions.

 #monetization 


Hey guys, why don't you do more events?
  • According to The Verge, Banner ads are SO 2011. We discussed what comes next and talked about whether media outlets should find their own revenue streams or if it's okay to look around and adapt other's ideas.
  • A new idea for example is: making money with speaking engagements and events, as @shanedevane points out. As media has a lot of experts, it could sell this expertise even to consultants for a fee.
  • Which leads to the question from @maxieq: Should journalists (and outlets) do merchandising for themselves?

Channel Rockstar: @trotzendorffCheck out the channel for more or contact Florian for questions.

 #snapchat 


Is it still inspiration or already a copycat?
  • What we read: WhatsApp is testing a Snapchat-inspired feature… again.

Channel Rockstar: @textautomatCheck out the channel for more or contact Anna for questions.

 #storytelling 


Every tried to tell a story with sound only? Thanks to @snazmi, now you can!
  • @snazmi asked if anyone knew of any good tools for data sonification. Unfortunately no one could help him. But luckily, he found out a way to convert seven days of New Delhi air pollution data into a soundtrack, using the Java based application Sonification Sandbox – and the result were really impressive! (Even though @henrik.stahl would have liked more disharmony, and @lina.timm more loudness.) A couple of days later, after the US Election, he created ”the sound America made for Donald Trump”, mapping the conversation on social media. If you haven’t already, you should definitely check it out.

  • Also, @geisenhanslueke told us about Mittelbayerische Zeitung’s tool Card Stacks, a tool for linear storytelling. ”You can use different types of cards (text on picture, vertical picture and text, only text, video),” he explains. The first prototype was published on the 31st of October.

Channel Rockstar: @henrik.stahl. Check out the channel for more or contact Henrik for questions.

 #tooltime 


Nerds watch out, here are a bunch of tools for social, Microsoft's Teams and IFTTT vs. Zapier

We had several exciting things going on in the tooltime channel over the last two weeks:

Channel Rockstar: @tilman. Check out the channel for more or contact Tilman for questions.

 #video 


Media outlets start to mess with live video on Facebook and DJR members start fighting
  • Channel Rockstar @henrik.stahl revealed himself as a lover of static Facebook live broadcasts. ”It’s just a guilty pleasure of mine,” he says. @martinhoffman, also known as Judge Dredd, had no empathy for this kind of guilty pleasure. ”Pure crap,” he said. ”It doesn’t matter if it is a useless counter (”Vote here!”), a static webcam view (”Cute Panda!”) or a fake live video (”This is sooo dangerous!”). It is evil. ;)”
  • What are your thoughts on these fake live videos that keep popping up here and there (mostly on Facebook)? Dive into the discussion!

Channel Rockstar: @henrik.stahl. Check out the channel for more or contact Henrik for questions.

 #vr-ar 


What is this "Mixed Reality" anyway?
  • @tilman wanted to know about important VR conferences. We collected a few e. g. the annual IVRPA conference or the caleidoscope tour. You’re welcome to contribute.
  • Besides we had a discussion on Mixed Reality. Will it be the next hot thing or is it just a nice new name for the already well known Augmented Reality? We’ve not come to a final conclusion yet.

Channel Rockstar: @flight_1. Check out the channel for more or contact Susanne for questions.

 GIF of the week 


Trumpy Cat

Forget Grumpy Cat. The hot topic of the week is clearly (not so grumpy) Trumpy Cat.

carefully selected by @textautomat. 

Spread Love!
These people contributed to this newsletter, give them all your love as they clean up our Slack for you!
@madalina.ciobanu@kollege@textautomat@thomasweyres@davidtvrdon@trotzendorff@marcbiskup@martinhoffmann@textautomat@flight_1@tilman@jankoenig, @henrik.stahl and @dorien_luyckx.
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