5 Principles of Data Management

5 principles of data management

Paul BradshawBirmingham City University and City University London

Online Journalism Blog and Help Me InvestigatePPA Digital Publishing Conference, September 2012

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1. Data is only as good as the person asking

questions

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5 goals

• Lead generation• Finding content (destination)• Consuming content (quantity)• Engagement (time)• Events (actions)

http://www.lunametrics.com/blog/2012/06/12/five-google-analytics-opportunities/

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http://contentini.com/content-strategy-ia-ux-or-seo-whats-my-problem/Monday, 8 October 12

5 categories

• Reach: how many, and who• Relevance: does it gain attention• Inclusion: diverse staff/sources/users?• Engagement: consuming or

participating• Influence: who it reaches/impact

http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2010/05/5-needs-and-5-tools-for-measuring-media-impact131.htmlMonday, 8 October 12

Twitter is best at multiplying traffic on big breaking stories,

while Facebook will relay trend stories better. [This] can help in

deciding which stories to feed to which social networks.

“http://newsonomics.com/the-newsonomics-of-the-washington-posts-reader-dashboard-1-0

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Times film genres

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2. Data can save time and money

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If you have to do something twice, get a computer to do it.“

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Each weekday, my computer program goes to the police department’s website and

gathers all crimes reported in Chicago.

“Adrian Holovaty, EveryBlock

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I had four searches for “20 year old male killed on fort

stanton se may 4” in my search terms this afternoon, but in my

records, I didn’t have any homicide that met that criteria.”

“http://lauraamico.tumblr.com/post/5196806316/reporting-from-analytics-example

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3. The most interesting data is the data you

don’t yet have

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After five minutes, which is enough time for such a high-traffic

site, the version with the most clicks becomes the wood that

everyone sees.”

“http://www.niemanlab.org/2009/10/how-the-huffington-post-uses-real-time-testing-to-write-better-headlines/

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Traffic sex work is exhausting, but it’s fun, and it’s nice to have

extra time to put the extra effort into important stories about

which fast-food restaurants use aborted fetuses in their meals.”

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https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AlEzveovUSxddFdjdllzLW9RcW0wTno3aFRORlBzcXc#gid=0

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https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AlEzveovUSxddFdjdllzLW9RcW0wTno3aFRORlBzcXc#gid=0

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Data is about people

• What do people do - and what traces would that leave?

• Create profiles from analytics (filter new vs returning; objectives based on traffic flow; characteristics based on geo/OS/etc.)

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4. Good data is social, sticky, and useful

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Successful business models are based on

shared metrics”“The Big Thaw

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There are two flavours of interest targeting ... more than

350 interest categories[or] you can specify @names

that are relevant”

“Twitter Advertising

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Because sometimes things happen to people and they’re not

equipped to deal with them.”“Passage from Hunger Games highlighted by 18,000 Kindle users

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“The Tribune’s three dozen interactive databases

collectively have drawn three times as many page views as the

site’s stories.”

“http://bit.ly/dj2dmz

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5. You can be driven by the data, or driven

by the story

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What gets measured gets managed - even when it’s pointless to measure and

manage it, and even if it harms the purpose of the organisation

to do so.”

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Journalism is about taking things away.

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1. Data Journalism is only as good as the person asking questions2. Data Journalism can save time and money3. Data Journalism is about people4. Good data journalism is social, sticky and useful5. You can be driven by the data source or driven by the story

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Thank you.

For all articles mentioned in this presentation, and image credits go to Delicious.com/paulb/DONAdata

@paulbradshaw OnlineJournalismBlog.com Linkedin.com/in/onlinejournalist

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