This past Friday, the Omaha World-Herald raised quite a few eyebrows in Omaha when it published the names of the nearly 29,000 valid signatures on the Mayor Jim Suttle recall petitions. “These names are not secret. The petitions are public record under Nebraska law.” World-Herald executive editor Mike Reilly wrote in his column, “Why we’re publishing the names.”
“Basically, our database gives you convenient access to something you are legally entitled to examine,” wrote Reilly.
(Above: Screenshot of the World-Herald’s feature on the Mayor Suttle recall petition, from DataOmaha.com).
On one hand, eyebrows were raised because of the first part of Reilly’s statement: the names of the signatures, which are public, were published by the World-Herald. An individual commenting on Reilly’s column under the name “Concerned” expressed these sentiments. “I think the decision to publish the names of those who exercised their right to cast a vote to recall the Mayor is irresponsible reporting, politically motivated and intended to be an act of intimidation.”
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On the other hand, eyebrows were raised because of the second part of Reilly’s statement: the well-designed website, DataOmaha.com, was produced by an organization that, like others in its industry, has fallen behind on staying current with innovation. Jimmy Winter, a founder of an Omaha-based tech startup, expressed these sentiments in a tweet last Friday. “Who’s in charge of http://dataomaha.com? It’s actually pretty rad and is surprising to see it from an org that’s clearly behind in tech,” wrote Winter.
To learn more about the former, tune into (or see the transcript of) the live chat scheduled with Reilly today at 1:30 p.m. CST (see: “Live chat: Why publish the Suttle recall petition names?“). Reilly will be discussing the World-Herald’s decision to publish the names of people who signed the petition to recall Mayor Suttle.
To learn more about the latter, we conducted an email interview with Matt Wynn (below, photo courtesy of Wynn), one of the three World-Herald employees responsible for creating the Suttle recall feature on Data Omaha. Wynn’s role lied in collecting data and coding the feature in Django. Reporter Paul Goodsell also contributed to collecting data, and Public Square Editor Ben Vankat designed the feature.
Wynn’s title is Watchdog Reporter, and he said that he was hired on this past June with the intent of creating features such as the Suttle recall. “The actual job responsibilities are a mix of traditional watchdog reporting and the kind of data-driven web development we’re doing on Data Omaha,” said Wynn. “Some of that is watchdoggy – like the recall petition app or Douglas County Salaries. Some of it isn’t, like Holiday Lights or Husker recruiting.”
Data Omaha, the World-Herald microsite Wynn and the others have built, launched quietly this past September. It was built outside of the World-Herald’s current content management system, SAXOTECH, which gives its creators more flexibility. Other features on the site (seven total) include sports-focused items such a listing of holes-in-one hit on Nebraska golf courses to a military-focused “Nebraska and western Iowa’s war dead.”
When speaking about the latter, Wynn said that the goal of Data Omaha was to create a site that would permanently house applications that could be later pointed to in ongoing coverage. Since 2002, the World-Herald has been reporting on war deaths, and instead of keeping a list of names and articles tracking those individual incidents, Data Omaha provides a spot to both display and memorialize the lives that have been lost. In fact, the feature has been so well-done that the Strategic Air and Space Museum will be making it a part of a future travelling exhibit.
Here’s our email interview with Wynn, conducted yesterday, Sunday December 12th:
Silicon Prairie News: Can you talk more about the team that put the feature together (including titles) and the process behind it?
Matt Wynn: I think Ben’s title is Public Square Editor. I do not know what that means, but he’s a hell of a designer. Django is great because it separates business logic from presentation, meaning Ben and I can work together, but independently. I set up the backend for a page and tell him it’s ready, and in an hour or so we have something that is functional (that’s me!) and beautiful (that’s Ben!). Having Paul involved is huge. He’s been in Omaha doing computer-assisted reporting (terrible term for using data to do journalism) for 20 years. He knows who has what information and the best way to get it. More than that, he has years of great ideas bottled up that we now have he ability to pull off unilaterally.
You were hired on this past June for features such as these – what is your position at the OWH and how does it fit into an evolving newsroom?
Wow, that’s a big one. I’m a watchdog reporter who happens to like mucking around with the web. I love both, and the things we do on Data Omaha are what happens when the two interests collide. As for how that fits into the bigger newsroom picture, I think the combination of a traditional reporter background with a little knowhow on the programming side is becoming more and more common. There are a few at the World-Herald, and hundreds more all over the country. It’s a logical next step, too.
You look at journalism education 15 years ago, they were teaching kids how to write a story. Five years ago, they were teaching kids how to write a story, take audio, edit video and cause trouble with Flash or via social media. Now? Things are so fragmented, what are they going to teach? You learn to program, and any crazy idea you can cook up is held back only by your proficiency. We’ve stopped looking at the evolution of the newsroom as something with an end. It’s an ongoing process, just like what’s happening everywhere. Picking up development chops is a great way to be at the bleeding edge of whatever comes next.
What about Data Omaha is exciting to you? To the World-Herald?
I can hardly speak for what the World-Herald has in mind. Jeff Carney (World-Herald managing editor – digital) might be better to make a few comments on that. To me, it’s that I pretty much have freedom to make things happen as I see fit. As I said before, the only thing that can keep us from making something happen is me. Even with the recall petition app, I had some concerns about overpublishing information. I asked the folks who run the show for a second opinion, and across the board I was told to go for it. If it doesn’t compromise people’s safety or identity security, there’s no reason not to. That freedom, that support, is a big part about what makes this job exciting. And perhaps its a bit pollyanna-ish, but I truly believe that regular folks learn from raw information when it’s presented in the right way. Narrative isn’t always – is rarely? – the right way. The forum of Data Omaha and the freedom the World-Herald has provided give me a great opportunity to put that to the test.
What is your philosophy of Data Omaha?
My background is in computer-assisted reporting, basically poring over government records to find interesting bricks I could use to build a narrative. I did some great stories, but I was always bothered by the stories I couldn’t tell, either because they didn’t fit or they weren’t interesting to anyone but me. For example, I remember writing a story about crappy gas pumps. The story focused on the really egregious cases, pumps that were shortchanging customers by a few quarters per gallon. But I was busy skipping the station on my way to work, because I knew it was off by a few pennies. That’s the pothole paradox at work. A pothole on my block is incredibly important to me, but one three blocks away couldn’t matter less. by putting information online, we journalists can get out of the way and let people find the story that matters to them.
I’m not going to say I have some magical ability to pull meaning from a database. Sharing information – ALL information – is the only way I know to make sure each dataset gets milked for all the meaning it has. If there’s a chance someone, somewhere could get meaning out of some information I have without putting anyone else in danger, I’m going to try to publish it. That’s about as close to a philosophy as I get.
As it stands, we try to couple each app with a print presence. The promotion is good, but I think we may start doing more stand-alone projects.
How has this latest feature been received? Can you share a traffic figures?
Feedback is mixed. Some people think it’s fantastic for transparency reasons. I’m pleased about that. Some people think we went too far by making it so easy to find and sift through public information. That’s one argument I can’t buy. “Public” isn’t a continuum. Information is either public or it’s not. If it’s public, it should be as easy to use as possible. Frankly, I can’t wait for government to get on board with that idea so we can move on to other things.
As for traffic, I won’t give particulars. But I worked for a few years in the fifth largest city in the country. This app got more page loads than anything I ever did there, and the time spent was three times as high as I’ve ever seen. That’s one reason I came back, actually. Omaha loves Omaha. We love our politics, our place, our people. To see numbers like that didn’t really surprise me.
There is currently no advertisements on Data Omaha, but is the World-Herald exploring the possibility?
The advertising bit is tricky. We have the ability to quickly make pretty compelling destination sites that are putting up absolutely sick traffic measures. The “quickly” part is invaluable on the news side, but the rest of it is very sexy to the biz side. The trick, I think, is to allow advertisers to leverage what we’ve built and will build without losing our news-first mentality. That’s easier said than done. In past jobs, I’ve been pulled off of hard news projects to do something for an advertiser. That hasn’t happened in Omaha yet, and I think management is very keyed in to maintaining that separation. Personally, I appreciate that commitment.
Can you hint at any upcoming Data Omaha features?
There will almost definitely be more salaries. That’s been attacked in a lot of places, but the Douglas County salaries application was well received. Again, I think people here are just more clued in to local government and more intelligent about the issues involved. I also want to do something with local eateries. Nicole Aksamit, who does our food reviews, is absolutely awesome. And moving here from Phoenix, where the Yelp community was so vibrant… well, let’s just say I’d personally welcome the opportunity to learn more about great places to eat.
Paul is also an expert on property taxes. I’d bet we go whole hog when those new numbers get released.
What are some of the other traditional outlets or startups that are doing these types of features well?
The New York Times and Los Angeles Times, of course. I really like keeping an eye on LA because they have a small development staff and use Django, too. The Spokane Spokesman-Review has some really killer ideas. The Des Moines Register has some cutting-edge mapping/mobile apps. The Texas Tribune. The St. Petesburg Times, a bunch of the other Florida papers. ProPublica. Those local nonprofit journalism nonprofits that are sprouting up everywhere are incredible, too. Honestly, this is just an unbelievably exciting time to be doing journalism. Or doing anything, for that matter.
