Knowledgewebb: Try One Free Tool Every Week

By Benét J. Wilson, DJTF co-chair, Online Managing Editor-Business Aviation, Aviation Week Group

On Jan. 26,  NABJ’s Digital Journalism Task Force held a joint webinar with the great people at Knowledgewebb – 10 Steps to a Tech-Savvy You.  The notes from that  session are posted.  And you can check out the #kwchat on Twitter here.

Step #3 is try one free tool every week. This is a great piece of advice, because it seems like developers come out with tools every day that can help us all do our jobs better.  Amy Webb gave us some great places to look in the session notes.  But to that end, I’ll share five tools in my Multimedia Tools bookmark folder you may not have heard of.  Do you have some tools to share? Let us know.  And TODAY is the last day for NABJ members to receive a 30% discount off a $129 yearly Knowledgewebb subscription.  Just use the code NABJDIGI.

1. Volke – this web-based platform allows you to host your own online show or event and have live video discussions with your audience.  See how it works with an episode on Feb. 16 about how to break into broadcasting.
2. Audioboo – a mobile app and web-based platform that allows you to record and post audio for anyone to hear.  See how Al Jazeera English is using this service to report from Egypt.
3. Dipity – this free digital timeline website allows you to organize content by date and time. It also allows you to create, share, embed and collaborate on interactive, visually engaging timelines that integrate video, audio, images, text, links, social media, location and timestamps. Check out this timeline on the uprising in Egypt.
4. ScribbleLIVE – I saw this web-based platform demonstrated by Morgan State University Prof. Allissa Richardson at last year’s NABJ convention.  It allows users to have real-time journalism and audience engagement using a branded website.  Here’s how Canada’s The National newspaper used it to cover local elections in October.
5. Umapper – This web-based program lets you create cool embeddable Flash maps. Check out this map of closed-circuit TV cameras placed around Sydney, Australia.