The Journalist-Engineer

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Philip Valentino

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Oct 28, 2015, 5:24:48 AM10/28/15

to Open Data Manchester

Lately, some of the best articles in the NY Times and Bloomberg are 99% code. They’re created by developers, not writers.

https://medium.com/@matthew_daniels/the-journalist-engineer-c9c1a72b993f#.x6sdwk9iw

( via the D3 Newsletter from https://www.dashingd3js.com/ )

phil

Kim Foale

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Oct 29, 2015, 12:28:00 PM10/29/15

to Open Data Manchester

This is the kind of article where I find the content interesting but the premise broken.

Why can't people be developers AND writers? Vi Hart who was part of the Parable of the Polygons for example, is a writer by trade so it's not even internally correct (she does a really good video blog). Seems to me part of the "developing/computers is this special skill noone else has". Also lots of the things it suggests can be done with no code: for example, using something like Tableux to make an interactive data vis. It draws a really weird line.

Anyway. Just find it curious that people feel the need to box people so much. I'm a researcher but I wouldn't say "I'm a researcher, not a writer". All these skills are useful in combination and give different opportunities. People don't wear one hat.