Aron Pilhofer,

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Opinionated Data

• Aron Pilhofer,
• The New York Times

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Interactive News

• Seven journalist/developers
• News-focused, data-driven projects
• Web development at newsroom speed

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Interactive News

• Where were a little different
• Based in the newsroom
• Run by (relatively nerdy) journalists
• A news desk not a software shop
• Focused on journalism, not news products

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Interactive News

• For example
• Clinton schedules
• NFL Playoffs

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Opinionated Data
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(Un)opinionated Data
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(Un)opinionated Data
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(Un)opinionated Data

• Sometimes works quite well, e.g. ChicagoCrime
• What am I to understand from this?
• What is the context of this?
• Why should I care?

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Throwing data online without context or analysis
is what machines do, not journalists.
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Opinionated Data
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Biased Data
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Slanted Data
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Misleading Data
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Opinionated Data

• Its about making editorial decisions
• Its about telling a story
• Its about providing context, analysis
• In other words...

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Its about journalism
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Opinionated Data

• Interactives should
• Steeped in context, analysis
• Invite exploration and discovery
• Provide a venue for sharing
• Be portable! APIs everywhere
• Data should be useful, not ubiquitous

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Opinionated Data

• Examples
• Ron Paul and Clinton vs Obama?
• Buy or rent?
• Faces of the dead
• Election results and election results

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Opinionated Data

• Payoff
• Hundreds of emails...
• Bloggers stopped bashing us (for a day)
• Super Tuesday 72M page views in 48 hours
• Biggest story of Super Tuesday? A map

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Opinionated Failure
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Fine for The Times, but....

• Doesnt take huge, Times-like staff
• Data is everywhere
• Expertise is all over the newsroom, website
• Just need to utilize it

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• Aron Pilhofer,
• The New York Times
• aron_at_nytimes.com
• [phone]
• AIM pilhofer