Show HN: Datastringer, a tool for hacker-journalists
bbc-news-labs.github.io
Show HN: Datastringer, a tool for hacker-journalists
1–10 of 19 posts
Re: Show HN: Datastringer, a tool for hacker-journalists
#2It looks like a meta Google alerts, but it's open source and hackable, which can be really handy. A documentation of how to write custom alerts would be useful, I guess.
Also, you should host a demo somewhere.
Re: Show HN: Datastringer, a tool for hacker-journalists
#3It looks like a meta Google alerts, but it's open source and hackable, which can be really handy. A documentation of how to write custom alerts would be useful, I guess. Also, you should host a demo somewhere.
Yeah, we thought about a demo. It was kind of hard to picture a way to demo it, given that you can't really see it in action. Any suggestions welcome.
Re: Google Alerts - you're right... to a certain extent. Here, you can mash up datasets, compile them, tweak them, THEN and only then compare them to parameters you set. Alerts++, then.
Re: Show HN: Datastringer, a tool for hacker-journalists
#4The install procedure is a bit complex, this should just be done with a "npm install -g ..".
Especially the install.sh only works on Linux.
Otherwise very cool idea :-)
Re: Show HN: Datastringer, a tool for hacker-journalists
#5The install procedure is a bit complex, this should just be done with a "npm install -g ..". Especially the install.sh only works on Linux. Otherwise very cool idea :-)
Hehe, yes, there's an opened issue about the install process on Mac - we couldn't perform tests over the weekend!
Cron wouldn't work on Windows either, by the way.
Re: Show HN: Datastringer, a tool for hacker-journalists
#6The install procedure is a bit complex, this should just be done with a "npm install -g ..". Especially the install.sh only works on Linux. Otherwise very cool idea :-)
Yes, we are still a bit new with Node and the best practices when it comes to installation process. I went for what came in mind immediately, but there's obviously room for improvement. Any thoughts or comments are welcome! Thank you :)
Re: Show HN: Datastringer, a tool for hacker-journalists
#7It looks like a meta Google alerts, but it's open source and hackable, which can be really handy. A documentation of how to write custom alerts would be useful, I guess. Also, you should host a demo somewhere.
Yeah, we thought about a demo. It was kind of hard to picture a way to demo it, given that you can't really see it in action. Any suggestions welcome. Re: Google Alerts - you're right... to a certain extent. Here, you can mash up datasets, compile them, tweak them, THEN and only then compare them to parameters you set. Alerts++, then.
How about a screenshot of the alerts configuration page, and the screenshot of an alert, in your mail client?
Re: Show HN: Datastringer, a tool for hacker-journalists
#8I got my first reporting job after writing a bot to scrape the SEC for filings by major financial figures.
Data journalism is very sexy! Unfortunately it's still very hard to find that story needle, and increasingly so when you open up the data aperture.
Re: Show HN: Datastringer, a tool for hacker-journalists
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, we thought about a demo. It was kind of hard to picture a way to demo it, given that you can't really see it in action. Any suggestions welcome. Re: Google Alerts - you're right... to a certain extent. Here, you can mash up datasets, compile them, tweak them, THEN and only then compare them to parameters you set. Alerts++, then.
How about a screenshot of the alerts configuration page, and the screenshot of an alert, in your mail client?
A very large part of the work is configured by the user, and the "alerts configuration page" is not yet functional.
Here is a screenshot of the alerts I received this morning: http://imgur.com/vG0PqDf
The alert was set for London Euston area.
I will add an issue to the repo because, as you see, the styling is not very pretty - and the wording is far from eloquent!
Re: Show HN: Datastringer, a tool for hacker-journalists
#10The install procedure is a bit complex, this should just be done with a "npm install -g ..". Especially the install.sh only works on Linux. Otherwise very cool idea :-)
PS: I just created an issue on github to adress your remark: https://github.com/BBC-News-Labs/datastringer/issues/11
Feel free to contribute :)