Tools, Tips & Trends | Knight Digital Media Center

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Mobile-friendly e-mail: guidelines, templates from MailChimp

Wed, March 13, 2013 | 2:53 p.m. PDT

E-mail is one of the most popular things people do on their cell phones. Perhaps as much as half of all e-mail messages are now read on mobile devices -- which means if your e-mail alerts and newsletters aren't formatted in a mobile-friendly way, mobile users might skip what you have to say.

Using Google Analytics to understand mobile traffic

Wed, March 6, 2013 | 4:52 p.m. PST

by: Amy Gahran

Google Analytics, one of the most popular and versatile tools for understanding how people engage with your website, offers several features for tracking and analyzing how people interact with your site via mobile devices. Google's mobile analytics tutorial is a must-read for anyone running any kind of site, since mobile devices are an increasingly important part of any site's audience.

Smart disclosure apps can spur community engagement on consumer issues

Wed, February 27, 2013 | 2:56 p.m. PST

by: Amy Gahran

Every day companies and government agencies gather lots of data on U.S. consumers -- and in aggregate, that data can help consumers in your community make better decisions. Several mobile and web apps from Data.gov (as well as other organizations and developers) leverages "smart disclosure" to put data about and concerning consumers to good use. Sharing these apps with your community could spur constructive exploration and examination of important local issues.

Sunlight Academy: Free open government tutorials

Wed, February 20, 2013 | 2:50 p.m. PST

by: Amy Gahran

Need help unlocking government data? Sunlight Academy (a collection of free online tutorials from the Sunlight Foundation) explains several useful open government topics such as:

Tow-Knight grants for digital journalism research projects

Tue, February 12, 2013 | 1:53 p.m. PST

by: Amy Gahran

The Tow Center for Digital Journalism at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is accepting, on a rolling basis, proposals to fund research projects.

Kindle Fire surprisingly popular -- time to try e-books?

Wed, January 30, 2013 | 12:43 p.m. PST

by: Amy Gahran

In the recent holiday season, sales increased sharply for tablets of all kinds. While one in five U.S. tablets are an Apple iPad (or iPad Mini), other tablets -- especially Android models -- are gaining ground, largely because they tend to be more affordable. Here, one of the interesting surprises is the popularity of Amazon's Kindle Fire.

Ushahidi crowdmapping app: Why recommend it to your community?

Wed, January 23, 2013 | 3:37 p.m. PST

by: Amy Gahran

Crowdmaps are a great way to engage communities around local or regional issues -- both as a way to encourage participation and sharing, and as a visually powerful, location-aware storytelling tool.

What cell phone owners like (and not)

Wed, January 23, 2013 | 2:45 p.m. PST

by: Amy Gahran

To succeed in reaching your community via mobile media, it helps to understand what cell phone users tend to like -- or not. A Pew study offers some useful insight.

Basecamp provides web-based tools for project management

Tue, January 22, 2013 | 9:51 a.m. PST

by: KDMC Staff

Looking for a simple and effective way to manage your projects? Basecamp offers an online system that allows your whole team to access, share, update, and discuss all the aspects of your projects.