Sona Patel

Thanks to the South Asian Journalists Association for including The (San Luis Obispo) Tribune in their roundup of Oscar front-pages. We’re one of only a couple McClatchy papers included in the roundup.  Now, time for a shameless plug: The Trib was recently recognized for oustanding front page design by Poynter for its November election issue. As a result, we’ll be included in Poynter’s upcoming book of top election front pages from around the world. Go Tribune!

Check out a gallery of other SLUMDOG front-pages included in the roundup and comment in the SAJA forum.

Ever since I attended the Knight Digital Media Center’s Multimedia Training for Journalists I’ve only been able to produce 2 Flash applications for The Tribune. I’m trying to get into the habit of creating at least one a month. This week I’m making one on recreational bycycling in SLO County. Anyway, here is a list of some great, easy-to-use Flash applications that will come in handy for any journalist. I encourage you to visit these Web sites and play around with the different tools each has to offer. By the way, the first Flash project I produced at The Tribune was based on a staff photographer’s journey through India. Check out Faces of India.

1) Knight Digital Media Center’s training pages

Check out their tutorial pages on Flash, audio, video, photography and web design. They even provide downloadable templates which you can use to create your Flash projects. Best of all — it’s FREE!

2) Flash Den

FlasDen isn’t really tailored toward the average journalist, but it’s a great site to check out what you can do in Flash. I’ve come up with quite a few ideas for multimedia projects based off the components I’ve seen on this site.

3) SproutBuilder

SproutBuilder is an excellent program for making customizable widgets for your web page. You can even integrate audio, video, web polls, and other content to your Sprout widget. I’d suggest browsing through the “Recently Built Sprouts” section to get an idea of what you can do with SproutBuilder.

4) UMapper

This program allows you to create embeddable Flash maps for free. If you create a Google map in Flash you’ll have to use Action Script to program the points, dialogue boxes, and the ability to add links, video, and audio. UMapper does that for you and then generates embeddable code. You’ll have to tinker with the KML code and Google API keys (I think) but its doable. Check out some of the maps that have already been created and shared on UMapper. There are a bunch of big newspapers already using this program. I’ve had great success with it. Trust me, you won’t want to program your own map (I once spent five hours writing ActionScript to perfect a small Google map. I’ll never do that again!)

5) Advanced Flash Components

I’ve only used once component off this site, but it seems to have great little video players and cool components for interactive maps (I used the component GMap which is free.) Their customer service will also help you figure out how to work with KML code. They’re great at responding to e-mails.

I spent quite a bit of time last night perusing through some very cool easy-to-use Flash applications. Like many other news organizations, The Tribune is trying to get into more multimedia. I plan to use a couple of these applications for a project this weekend on recreational bicycling in SLO County. I’ll post the applications that I’ve used (and plan to use in the near future) in a separate post tonight.

Thankfully the sky will be clear on Thursday, the day the Amgen Tour of California rolls through Paso Robles. Should be fun! The best part of the TOC is the media booth (lame, I know) but it’s fun to see journalists from all over the world huddled into a room waiting anxiously for riders to cross the finish line. It’s a pretty cool sight to see. One of the perks of being a journalist is the media access

This is the first time the race will be ending it’s fifth stage in Paso Robles. For as long as I’ve been at The Tribune the race has finished in downtown SLO. Not sure what prompted the change, but I’m guessing it had a lot to do with $$$ and sponsorship deals.

This year should be the most exciting because it’s the first time Lance Armstrong is competing in the race. Armstrong fans are probably pretty pumped about that. Too bad his time trial bike got stolen after the prologue in Sacramento on Saturday. It’s apparently worth $20,000. Hope he gets it back! BTW — a cash reward is being offered. Armstrong Tweeted about the burglary on his Twitter page. Hopefully the rest of the race goes well for him and the other riders, including Floyd Landis, who is also part of the race this year.

Stay tuned for updates from the TOC, including photos and maybe a video clip or two from the event. For complete coverage of the race visit our special section at www.SanLuisObispo.com/TOC. We’ll have video and stories of the race in Friday’s print edition and online.

Here’s hopin’ that M.I.A, aka Maya Arulpragasam, snags a Grammy on Sunday. Her song “O … Saaya” was featured in Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire and was nominated for an Oscar. She is up for two awards on Sunday including best album Paper Planes and best rap song “Swagga Like Us.” The 31-year-old Tamil artist was born in the UK and was brought up in Chennai.

The American Cancer Society is holding their annual Daffodil Days fundraiser.

This is from the American Cancer Society’s Web site:

“As the first flower of spring, the daffodil is a symbol of hope. To the American Cancer Society, it represents the hope we all share for a future where cancer is no longer a life-threatening disease. You can provide hope to all people affected by the disease by participating in the American Cancer Society Daffodil Days. To raise awareness and funds to help fight cancer, simply click on the map below, and select the Daffodil Days campaign near you. And don’t forget to encourage your friends, family members, and coworkers to get involved in Daffodil Days too.”

You can also send an anonymous boquet to a cancer patient. Order yours today!

I recently signed up to be an ESL tutor through the Literacy Council of San Luis Obispo County. I was inspired by a co-worker and good friend, Sarah Arnquist, who tutored an ESL student while working as a healthcare reporter for The Tribune.  I was pleasantly surprised by the number of people willing to volunteer several hours per week to help local residents essentially become self-sufficient. The program has about 300 tutors from around the county.

I’ve wanted to become a tutor for several reasons.  The job market has been tough lately — even for working professionals with advanced degrees — so I can’t imagine what it must be like for an adult who can’t read and write English at a sufficient level. The woman who conducted the training said we can expect to get a student who is preparing to take their GED, hoping to become a U.S. citizen, or learning English to talk to their child’s school teacher(s). I’m also hoping my tutee can help me improve my español because I’m slowly starting to feel that I’m letting my Spanish degree go to waste.   I’ll post more when I know who my student is! Every county has some sort of literacy council. If you’re interested in tutoring ESL you can likely find an organization that puts on such programs by contacting your city or county offices.