Brought to Me By…

I am often asked where I get ideas for new sites to write about. Since I write once a week here, plus do two tech segments a week on TV, it isn’t easy to keep coming up with ideas and new sites to highlight. So I rely on others to send in ideas (to poynter@sree.net) and I liberally “borrow” ideas from others (at Chip Scanlan’s writing classes at Poynter, this act of borrowing is called, with tongue firmly in cheek, “honoring”).

So for this week’s column, here are some excellent new-ish sites (new to me, that is) and quick tributes to the folks I have borrowed them from. I will write about other “borrowees” in the weeks ahead.

The BBC News Styleguide: This new, free stylebook in PDF form, is useful for journalists working in any media and in any country. It’s filled with tips, observations and suggestions worth bookmarking. 
BROUGHT TO ME BY my word guru, author and writing coach Mervin Block, who wrote a useful description of it last week as part of his writing tips.

MagicMinder.com: This is a fun, free tool that helps you keep in touch with associates, friends, and family. You enter the names of people you’d like to communicate with and, on a random basis, you will receive little reminders about them. You can also set it to remind you about specific dates for specific people. This is run by Marc Fest, the former journalist who runs OnlineHomeBase.com (a site I reviewed in January, calling it “a useful service that will simplify your life”).
BROUGHT TO ME BY Pamela LiCalzi O’Connell who writes the terrific “Online Diary” column twice a month in the New York Times Circuits section. The NYT doesn’t have a direct link to her work, but you can see a couple of the recent columns here.

ePodunk.com: This is a site that looks at America as a series of communities — 25,000 of them. It has plenty of statistics, background information, and story ideas on each of these communities, large and small. Incidentally, I was glad to learn I wasn’t the only one who has problems spelling Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, No. 1 and No. 3 on ePodunk’s list of top 10 most misspelled cities.
BROUGHT TO ME BY Al Tompkins, whose Al’s Morning Meeting on Poynter.org is one of the single-best resources for journalists who need story ideas (and who doesn’t?). Each day, he compiles ideas, story links, and more from around the world. Make sure you sign up to recieve the column every weekday morning.  

Have a site you want to recommend? Write to poynter@sree.net (with your name and affiliation; I prefer to hear about sites you are not connected with).

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