Once again, some reader recommendations:
Robert Keough writes in with a tip timed for the Democratic National Convention:
For handy facts about Massachusetts, check out MassFacts, a new page posted by MassINC, a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank that publishes CommonWealth, the quarterly magazine of politics, ideas, and civic life in Massachusetts, of which I am editor. Covering such matters as household economics, quality of life, education, jobs and the economy, taxes (enough with Taxachusetts, already!), and politics, MassFacts draws on a wealth of MassINC research as well as U.S. Census and other sources.
MassFacts also provides links to a couple of dozen “State of the State” features — 50-state rankings on indicators ranging from health insurance coverage to higher education spending — drawn from past issues of CommonWealth. Indeed, it would be worth any reporter’s while to root around the entire website for solid research on the state, not to mention eight years’ worth of CommonWealth, the entire contents of which are posted, fully searchable, and available free of charge.
But for factoids on Massachusetts politics, economics, and civic life, MassFacts can’t be beat. And for background on the hottest issues at the Massachusetts State House, take a look at IssueSource.org. IssueSource is a free public service operated by MassINC and the State House News Service, a 100-year-old state government wire service here. Launched in 2001, IssueSource provides background information and detailed chronologies of Massachusetts state government issues in the news.
We are currently tracking 24 issues — from auto insurance and the Big Dig to gay marriage and MCAS to special elections (including the battle over how to replace John Kerry as U.S. senator, should he win the presidency) and unemployment — updating them daily as events unfold. Our issue archive contains information on 58 issues from past years.
IssueSource serves as the issue-tracking tool of the Massachusetts state government website, and is featured on the news page of www.boston.com, the Boston Globe‘s Web portal. Think of it as an online clip file of the biggest issues in Massachusetts state government — and, as far as we can tell, the only site of its kind in the country.
Belinda Weaver, who runs Journoz.com, a site that helps Australian journalists find information online, says that “while Google is a good search engine, telling journalists always to start there is a mistake, in my opinion.” Instead, she writes, she teaches journalists and journalism students to “think first about where the information they need might actually come from.” She continues:
Then I teach them strategies to find those organizations, experts, sections of government, companies, and so on. When people search exclusively, they don’t learn where information comes from. My approach equips them to find material when searches fail, as fail they often do.
Since much of what I teach them to find — material from databases, directories, statistics, reports, etc. — cannot be found by search anyway, equipping them with an information strategy based on actual sources actually helps them master the Web, and overcome the feeling of information overload that searching alone fosters. Before good search tools developed, early Web users had to think hard about provenance — “Where in the real world would this info be?” They would then find that organization online if they could. I contend that that’s still a good way of looking at it. For any questions, I think “What do I need to know?” and then “Who is likely to have that information?” I do further triage — Am I looking for a fact? A definition? General background? Deeper research? I then choose sites accordingly.
For facts and definitions — look-up type questions — I use virtual reference collections. For something deeper, I might use bibliographic or directory databases or find relevant organizations in the field.
Amy Newport, freelance journalist, writes:
I have recently begun using Mozilla’s Firefox browser after a friend, who is a computer technician, recommended it. I really like it. I get much less spyware, virtually no popups, and a built-in Google search engine. According to my friend and Mozilla’s website, it is open-source software. Which translates into fewer bugs, fewer updates, and better performance.
Whenever you download a file it provides a list of recent downloads and asks where you want to save it. It automatically imported my bookmarks. I have only come across one website that Mozilla could not load and it was the Microsoft updates page. Since downloading Mozilla a few weeks ago, I have used it almost exclusively. It has a clean, easy-to-use design, and — best of all — can be downloaded for free (although donations are requested). Check it out at Mozilla.org.
YOUR TURN: Send site suggestions to poynter@sree.net.
Sree’s Links:
