Daily Tar Heel reporters and editors are now taking questions via Formspring.

Answering reader questions isn’t a new idea, but we’re excited about trying that with this new platform. This isn’t a tool that was created with a journalistic purpose in mind, but neither was Twitter or Facebook - two tools that have we now recognize have immense value for journalists.

Creating a forum where readers could easily ask questions of DTH staff has been on our radar for awhile, but we’ve been limited by time and ability. Formspring might not be the most nuanced way for us to accomplish this goal (I imagine the ratio of spam to legitimate questions will be high), but I’m happy we’re trying something new. I think this is a really good lesson for other college newspapers: Make the most with what you have, and stop waiting for something better that might never come.

I got my invite to Google Wave more than a month ago but I’m just now starting to realize it’s usefulness. I’ve used it chiefly for internal planning at The Daily Tar Heel and for personal uses, and I’ve still yet to use it for reporting, but I’m interested in trying that out. One thing I realized after countless times of logging in only to see no new waves: It’s only as cool as the people you have to Wave with. As more people I know have gotten on though, it’s becoming more and more helpful. Three ways I’m using it:

A discussion about online goals for the DTH

We’re always evaluating how our online operations are going, but it’s been hard to have frequent conversations with many people at the DTH. Typically, it’s just the online editor, myself and a few others involved in short conversations, or e-mails back and forth. We’ve got a new Wave where we discuss workflow problems we’re having, and solutions, and we’re also using it to discuss the mission of the desk and how it fits in to the paper. Eventually, I’d like us to use the Wave to collaboratively come up with a guiding document for the desk.

Daily updates on multimedia projects we’re working on

The multimedia editors at the DTH and I have a Wave where we keep track of all that they’re working on. If they write that they’re waiting on some information before the project can move forward, I can add it in quickly. It keeps us all on the same page, without us all having to be in the office and updating one another face-to-face, and it massively cuts down on the number of e-mails sent back and forth.

A study guide for a class I’m taking

Finals are coming up, and we’ve started a Wave between three of us in a class to share notes and questions before the exam. Before we probably would have done the same thing but with Google docs, but this way we can add comments easier and share other documents.

Probably my greatest frustration with Wave is just the learning curve. I watched the video guides and read a tutorial, but plenty of people who want to Wave with me don’t seem to get it yet, and I’ve had to archive or trash plenty of Waves that don’t go beyond “I don’t know what to do with this.” Many of my contacts have also disappeared from Wave after clamoring for invites and then deciding they didn’t know what to do with it. Since it’s only as useful as the people you’re waving with, if those people aren’t very savvy or interested, it’s kind of disappointing.

I still like Wave a lot though, and I’m optimistic that people will  pick it up. In these three cases it’s been incredibly useful for me, but I’m also not ready yet to give up e-mail, chat and Google docs as other ways of working collaboratively that I already use. Those tools work pretty well for what I want to do right now, and Wave will probably just supplement those for me.

I started reading Think Python last week because I want to learn at least basic programming. I’ve made slight progress, but I also quickly realized that I won’t have the skill set for a long time to be able to do any of the ideas floating around in my head.

I was getting really frustrated until I found Exhibit, part of MIT’s SIMILE project. I’ve made timelines before using SIMILE and discovered Exhibit while looking back to that. Exhibit basically bills itself as an easy solution to my lack of programming skills:

Exhibit enables web site authors to create dynamic exhibits of their collections without resorting to complex database and server-side technologies. The collections can be searched and browsed using faceted browsing. Assorted views are provided including tiles, maps, etc.

I have plenty ideas for database projects The Daily Tar Heel can use this for, and Andrew Dunn’s already started tooling around with one way to use it. I wanted to try it out first and see how easy it is to use and decided to use it to make a sortable calendar of events, something the DTH lacks.

My HTML skills are rudimentary, and I don’t know CSS well. But I’m decent at following directions, and the kind folks with Exhibit do a good job of explaining the process step-by-step. I saved as while I went along making changes, and the result is my first, second, third and fourth versions. Most of the progress I made was the result of trial-and-error and looking at the source code behind many examples using Exhibit.

My events calendar still still has a long way to go, and Exhibit itself has its drawbacks for a project like this. Exhibit doesn’t seem to work well in Internet Explorer or my older version of Safari at work. The load time is long when there are many events in the database.

But where I think Exhibit excells for any news organization without a handful of legitimate programmers is its ease of use. I can add events to the calendar from a Google spreadsheet, and it republishes instantly when I make changes. The knowledge barrier is low when compared with alternatives. It’s something I could easily see other DTHers picking up and learning quickly. I’m not going to abandon my efforts to learn a real programming language, but in the meantime I can see Exhibit being useful.

Patrick Thornton asked on Twitter yesterday “what’s in your mobile kit?”

Here’s what I carry with me:

• Several pens.
• A reporter’s notebook.
• My Blackberry.
• My Olympus voice recorder and a pair of headphones.
• A Casio Exilim that shoots video, records audio and takes photos.

I wish I would get into the practice of keeping my Nikon D-40 with me more often so I could get better using it, but it’s so bulky for most of my everyday use. Eventually, I’d love to have a MacBook to take on the road with me, but I can send short breaking news text to Twitter or e-mail from my Blackberry until then.

For the breaking news kits I hope to build at the DTH, I think some version of the above is a good start. We use Flip video cameras, and there’s no debating their ease. A microphone for the audio recorders would be useful to gather audio for publication and not just internal note-taking.