On Innovation

This week we launched the Better/Worse Life Project, which looks at population growth, unemployment and median income across the country over the past 30 years and uses that data as a background to frame the very simple, open question ‘Is life in your state getting better or worse?’

It uses your IP address to automatically detect your county and state so that we can ask you about the area that’s most relevant to you at the moment.

After we have your vote, we ask for a couple of simple demographics – age and race – and display a visualization that shows where your state falls on the scale from better to worse based on the votes we’ve gathered. You can then filter the responses based on race and age, or sort the states based on unemployment, median income or population growth, to see if there is trending based on these metrics.

This is one of the first projects to take users opinions and mash them up with actual data to see whether perceptions match up with reality.  It’s a fascinating window into how people feel about the places where they live and a forum for a conversation around how things are changing.

There are already some patterns emerging.  We are starting to see that, in general, more states with high unemployment are being rated ‘worse’ by users, and more places with low unemployment are being rated ‘better’. 

D.C. stands out – though unemployment is high, 83 percent of users (as of publication of this post) ranked it better. One left a comment after rating it ‘better’: “DC is better due to a higher number of permanent residents, community activism, and better stewardship. Welcome to the 21st century!” The comments on why people voted the way they did have been some of the most interesting results of the project we’ve seen so far.

This kind of presentation can be risky. It’s so dependent on user feedback that if no one participates, there will be nothing interesting to look at. But it’s worth the chance – the kind of fascinating information we can gather once it does get going is possible only when you open the doors to participation from users. We’re collecting information on counties in addition to states so that, if we get a lot of responses, we can display a profile of the state that shows whether residents think counties are getting better or worse. It is going to take a lot of responses to get feedback for over 3,000 counties, but it might be possible with your help.

Right now, we have about 4,000 responses, but we need many more. Rate your state here: http://wapo.st/betterworselife

- Kat Downs / Innovations Editor for Graphics

Facebook promised us something “awesome” today and, as expected, Facebook CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg announced video calling in partnership through Skype.

The feature begins rolling out today, and will be available to all users within a few weeks. Those who are eager to try it now can do so by signing up at Facebook.

Read more about the announcement at Faster Forward »

VISUALIZATION OF THE DAY: Twitter releases data from Japan earthquake (via Faster Forward)

NYTimes announces today: 

Starting today, the character limit on comments will be reduced from 5,000 to 2,000 characters. The shorter length will allow for an improved experience for commenters and readers alike. As always, we encourage you to share your opinions and reactions.

Interesting to note the leap in social networking among people aged 50 to 65. Pew’s latest report on social media also shows that Facebook continues to dominate the social media space, though users on networks like Twitter and LinkedIn have “statistically larger overall networks.”  (via Social networking sites and our lives| Pew Internet & American Life Project)

Bloggers Melissa Bell and Elizabeth Flock outed an American man in Scotland as the blogger behind “A Gay Girl in Damascus”. While a researcher helped piece together the blogger’s identity, tools like Facebook helped them fill in the blanks. 

I asked them five questions about about what they learned while covering this story. Listen:

• How did you figure out that this was a hoax?

• How did you use social media to connect the dots?

• Will this story affect the way you do your job?

• Are there any tools or tactics you used that people might not know about?

• What were the best reactions online?

T.J. Ortenzi / Social media producer

futurejournalismproject:

Crowdsourcing the Documentary, with Help from our Friends

Via Beet.tv:

Amr Salama, an Egyptian filmmaker and a central figure in creating the alternative media universe during the revolution in Egypt, is finishing a documentary about the historic events. 

Through an appeal on his Twitter account, he received 300 GB of camcorder and camera phone footage, he says in this interview with Beet.TV.  

(Source: futurejournalismproject)

Facebook journalist program manager Vadim Lavrusik moderated a panel in Washington Wednesday night that featured The Washington Post’s Ian Shapira, The Huffington Post’s Mandy Jenkins, CNN’s Bryan Monroe and Laura Amico of Homicidewatch.org.

(Lavrusik’s guide to journalists and Facebook is on the Nieman Journalism Lab here.)

A few takeaways from Lavrusik’s introduction I hadn’t heard before: 

- If you’re piping in auto feeds (like your Twitter updates) to Facebook, you could be drawing in two to three times less engagement than if you jump in and update your Facebook page manually. 

- Using the new Facebook questions feature could prompt higher engagement. Use questions to let people vote for stories or features. (We experimented with questions for the royal wedding recently. Maybe it’s worth another look.) 

- There are four major categories when it comes to types of stories that work best on Facebook: Touching or emotional; passionate or provocative; big sports wins and simple questions (use them sparingly!). 

Some other key takeaways in this Storify: 

Katie Rogers / social media producer