beta.boston.com

Technology is rapidly and radically changing the news. The Boston Globe has established a experimental space called Globe Lab in its press building to understand how. We’re looking for a couple of talented undergraduate programmers to join our investigations as paid summer interns in the lab.

We’re interested in OpenCV hacks, Processing, node.js, HTML5 video, Twitter and Facebook, augmented reality, HUGE map visualizations, Kinect, NFC, cheap hardware and in general turning things on their head. We’re seeking programmers that have facility with a web scripting language (python preferred, but something like javascript, ruby, python, php, etc. is fine too) and, ideally, a passion for the news, sports and/or open data.

Our 2011 projects included:

PaperEye: An iPhone/Android app that uses OpenCV & OCR to let you share print headlines on twitter

Shim: An open-source node.js device browser-synchonizer. Read about it on ReadWriteWeb.

Information Radiator: A multiscreen twitter visualization for our newsroom. Nieman lab wrote about it.

Snap: a 4000x3000 pixel real-time visualization of Boston Instragram pictures.

You will be working amidst the machinery of a major city newspaper – both the city room & our printing presses are just down the hall. You’ll get to know writers, editors, technologists, designers and the community of startups we host in our incubator space.

Spend the summer helping keep local news vibrant!

For more information, check out the NiemanLab article about GlobeLab: http://bit.ly/oQpflc

To apply for this position, send a CV & cover letter to cmarstall at globe.com.

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What could happen when you bring together baseball stats geeks with computer geeks and news geeks? We’re about to find out.

The Boston chapters of Hacks & Hackers and SABR are teaming up with the Boston Globe to host Boston Baseball Hack Day on March 24, 2012.

The goal of the hack day will be to collaborate to create baseball-related apps, web sites, or data visualizations. At the end of the day, projects will be judged by a panel of an information designer, a Sabremetrician, and a web journalist, who will hand out awards. It should be a fun event and networking opportunity.

More information on the schedule, technical resources, and judges can be found at baseballhackday.com, or go ahead and register

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Posted by Joel Abrams, Senior Product Manager

I’m doing an intermediate training session today for reporters, editors, producers, and other folks at the Boston Globe and Boston.com, and wanted to share some of the key points and useful resources with those who couldn’t make it.

Google+:

Currently, it’s an early adopter crowd, but Google just announced Google Plus Your World, which will both expose many more users to  Google+ and make it much more useful to have a social network.

One tip: turn off notifications of new followers (which can be very annoying):

•  Go to Account Settings (pull down your name from top navbar)
•  Choose Google+ from the left
•  De-select  boxes next to “Adds me to a circle”

Reporters may want to check Google’s new method to get your profile picture and link next to your stories.

Building a Twitter following:

Engage!  The more social you are in social media, the more impact you will have, and the more people who will know about you and follow you

A nice article by Paul Gillin: Tips for Building a Quality Twitter following

Another good article from Scott Kirsner: Ten tips for attracting a following on Twitter.  His tips include:

•  Put your Twitter “handle’’ everywhere.
•  Share information; avoid self-promotion (don’t just tweet your own stories)
•  Re-tweet other people’s messages (and respond to other people)
•  Pick people or businesses to follow. 
•  Find people who are already talking about you (thank them for tweeting your story).

Bottom line: tell your followers what YOU think is interesting, and listen to what they say.

Twitter account security:

•  Go to your Settings page https://twitter.com/settings/account and check the box ‘Always use HTTPS’
•  Don’t stay logged in on your mobile device - what if you lose your phone?
•  Use a secure password.  One tip: try a long phrase like a favorite song lyric with a punctuation mark between each word (ie: rockin;robin;tweet;tweet;tweet)

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We’re experimenting with a comprehensive interactive approach to engaging users during the Patriots-Broncos game Saturday night; please feel free to pop in during the game and see what’s going on.

While fans are watching the game on TV (the “first screen”), many of them will be on laptops or tablets (the “second screen”) chatting with other fans, posting on Facebook, tweeting, etc.

We want them to be on our site, so during the game we’ll offer:

> Our usual fan chat, with our Obnoxious Boston Fan blogger approving fan comments, updating a scoreboard, and coming up with trivia quizzes.

> Boston.com columnist Chris Gasper will appear in a live Webcam video from Gillette Stadium at halftime to answer questions posed by fans in the chatroom.

> Boston Globe Patriots beat writer Greg Bedard will live-blog during the game, providing insight, analysis, context, and background.

> We will automatically pull in tweets – as we usually do – from Globe and Boston.com football tweeters, such as sports reporter Shalise Manza Young, and writers for other local and Denver news outlets.

> In the right column, we will have a photo gallery of photos transmitted during the game, game preview videos, poll questions, and our Pulse sentiment meter.

This link will go live about 45 minutes before the game starts at 8 p.m. (Channel 4):

http://www.boston.com/sports/football/patriots/multimedia/patriots_virtual_tailgate

Hope to see you there.

Posted by Teresa Hanafin

Director of Engagement and Social Media

Boston.com / The Boston Globe

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Boston.com is teaming with SCHED.it, an angel-stage startup from Greater New York, to add a social layer to the world of events.

In January, Boston.com and SCHEDit will launch My Events, a tool that allows users to integrate their event calendars with their social networks. 

Mimicking the familiar tools available on various social sites, My Events makes it easy to analyze and discover event trends in Greater Boston. Readers can follow calendar activity from friends, venues or performers, and broadcast upcoming events they plan to attend to their broader social network. 

As more readers use the service, visitors will see such things as the gender ratio of attendees, which of their friends and colleagues plan to attend — even the average Klout score of attendees.  

You can pre-register for a My Events account now.  To be notified of the launch, follow us on Twitter!

Vanessa Ferranto, Product Manager

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We’re rolling out a new tool on some stories on Boston.com: “Raise Your Voice” is an easy-to-use “political messaging utility” enabling online readers to write public officials in response to issues they read about and care about.  Clicking the link in an article launches a dialog box in which readers can find their federal, state, and (soon) local elected representatives, write them, and then invite friends to add their voices as well.  You can write to the presidential candidates as well.

You can see the widget in action on stories about defense spending and foreclosures.

“We’re excited to give readers a chance to contact their elected officials, and interested to see what people think about our effort to streamline civic participation,” says Bennie DiNardo, Deputy Managing Editor for Multimedia at the Boston Globe.

“There has always been a connection between the news and civic action,” says Andrew Swayze, co-founder of Raise Your Voice, a Boulder, Colo.-based startup. “Legislators will tell you that half their mail comes in response to newspaper articles.  We’re making that link more direct, and in the process adding a new layer of interactivity for news site visitors.  We’re thrilled that Boston.com is beta-testing the tool.”

Let us know what you think.

Joel Abrams, Senior Product Manager, Boston.com

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