Sona Patel » The Tribune

Inauguration

Sona — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 06:46:53 +0000

I was browsing some of the front pages around the world on the Newseum’s Web site and came across our Inauguration edition in the archives. I loved the design. Here’s hoping we have the opportunity to do more of that in the future. Definitely turns the newspaper into a keepsake, in my opinion.

Our first live Tweet

Sona — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 07:15:29 +0000

When our crime and courts reporter told me last week that an infamous murder trial was set to begin on March 6, I immediately thought it would be a great opportunity for us to try a live Tweet. She agreed so we set her up on a laptop and had her Twittering from inside the courtroom. The murder trial began with opening statements from prosecutors and followed with testimonies from several witnesses. The trial is for a Cayucos man accused of killing his grandmother, stuffing her body into a suitcase and dumping it off a cliff somewhere near Ragged Point. I’ll spare you with the gruesome details, however, you can read them on our Twitter page to see how our reporter handled the case. Our experiment was a success and I hope to do more live Tweets in the future. And to all you Tweeters out there, be sure to follow @slotribune for breaking news updates throughout the day.

Recreational Cycling

Sona — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 08:11:29 +0000

I finished another mini project at work today. It turned out OK but I would have like to spend a little more time cleaning up the text and fleshing out my interactive map a little more. But hey, I did what I could. I’m happy I finally had a chance to play with UMapper. It’s a great program (included in my list of Top 5 fave sites for embeddable Flash components). It’s very simple to use and doesn’t require an API key to embed straight onto an HTML page.

I like doing these kinds of projects, especially when I have good content to work with. Thanks to Dave Middlecamp for the photos and for creating the SoundSlides project.

I was going to include a few more tips on mountain biking around SLO County (there are a lot of great trails here) but I ran out of time. Instead, here are a few good resources including a book on the topic by my buddy Brian Milne (that’s him on the cover).

The book covers some of the more popular trails including Cerro Alto (starts at the campground between Morro Bay and Atascadero), Blinn Ranch Trail (backside of Santa Margarita Lake accessible via the Pozo area), both sides of Cuesta Ridge and Cerro San Luis. Montaña de Oro also has some pretty good trails.

Mapping these trails on UMapper wasn’t that easy since the only way you can really map a hiking trail is on a GPS unit, according to Brian. I figured my way around this by using UMapper’s Polygon and Line tools. Instead of points and dialogue boxes, UMapper allows you to highlight a section of the map, or draw lines and circles to highlight an area.

My Top 5 — Flash components

Sona — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 05:18:41 +0000

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.

Flash applications

Sona — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 17:34:09 +0000

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.

ESL training

Sona — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 06:21:55 +0000

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.

Morro Bay

Sona — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 07:31:54 +0000

Outside Giovanni's Fish Market

By filling in for a colleague while she was on leave, I got a chance to strengthen my web skills … but at the expense of letting my beat go virtually uncovered for the past three months. I went to a Morro Bay City Council meeting tonight, the first meeting I’ve been to since October. Chief among the City Council’s agenda items was how much the city should invest in promoting itself to potential tourists.

Morro Bay is a cute beach town off Highway 1. It’s no Newport Beach, but it’s a great stop along the Higway if you’re headed south. I’d probably live in Morro Bay if it weren’t so far away from San Luis (it’s 15 minutes, but if you’ve lived in SLO County for more than a year, any destination more than 10 minutes away is considered far). Anyway, if you ever come up the coast, make sure to stop by for some garlic and parmesan fries at Giovanni’s Fish Market, some saltwater taffy at Morro Bay Candy Co., a stroll along the Embarcadero, and a cappucino from that little bakery next to the sea shell shop.