My first jlog post

This is not a blog.

This, is a jlog. (a "journalism-log" rather than a "web-log"; pronounced like "jog" but with an L after the J)

The purpose of this jlog is analysis. Specifically, numerical analysis.

On this jlog, my goal is not to write stories, but to learn to use numbers to write stories. The rest of the journalism-wide-web can be held accountable for questions, answers and quotations. data46, so it will be named, will be held accountable for one thing only - describing reality with numbers.

Also on data46, there will be no editors. If off-the-cuff numeric analysis can ever exist, it will be found here. Besides, every good jlogger knows that the only real editor on a jlog is the reader.

IMPORTANT NOTICE TO data46 JLOG READERS-

You are the editors. I will work hard to make sure that my numbers are telling the most accurate stories possible, BUT if my analysis is wrong, false, misleading or obscure it is up to YOU to comment so that both the public and I can be corrected.





On this jlog, comments are where stories are to be pitched. Want a different angle? More data? Tell me and post it.

Here's the thing - the world wide web is stuffed full of professional news organizations that publish mountains of original content - a small portion of which is number-based. Any journalist who has used data to tell a story knows that it can take weeks, months and occasionally years to obtain sufficient anecdotal and numeric evidence required for publication. The process, while long and difficult, is important.

After publication, a numbers story diffuses from its web page on its publisher's website, to the journalism-blogsphere. (note the important difference here between a journalism-blog and a jlog)

The journalism-blogsphere then comments, re-posts, re-hashes, re-words and re-edits the original story.

data46, in hopes of becoming a leader in jlogs, isn't going to do this.

As a jlog, data46 will feature original, numeric-based content. Numbers, data and the search for trends are at the core of this jlog.

Like a journalism-blog, data46 invites readers' (aka editors') comments and feedback. Unlike a journalism-blog, data46 is not going to re-post or comment on other new stories.

data46 also invites professional news organizations to take the data published here and further report on it for formal publication.

And so now we give a cheers to data46 - bound to be a fine jlog - and commence our search for numbers.

Best-

Alando


PS - food for thought:

http://www.poynter.org/uncategorized/28337/what-journalists-can-learn-from-bloggers/

http://www.poynter.org/uncategorized/28544/what-bloggers-can-learn-from-journalists/