Project management for collaborative data journalism

Jacopo Ottaviani – @JackOttaviani

Wien, 21st October 2014

I'll illustrate how to:

• Set up a team to develop a collaborative, multilingual data journalism project

• Manage tasks, processes, variables and players

• Publish the project on multiple media in different languages

• Brand the project and maximize outreach

Generation E

• 1 main objective (1 flag)
• 3 main threads
• 5 languages
• 5 data journalists (+ 2 designers)
• 6 media outlets (incl. one radio)
• Several countries involved
• A lot of meanings

Why E?

• Europe
• Expat
• Emigration
• Exodus

• Exile
• Escape
• Easyjet
• Electronic (e.g. e-mail)
• ...

The objectives

Dive into the generation of young south-european migrants

• Connect data to stories (and viceversa)
• Show limits of existing data
• Approach the topic from a pan-european angle
• Publish stories in multiple languages under same brand
• Gather a critical mass of users for future developments of the project

3 tracks

1. Crowdsourcing stories from young migrants
2. Interviews of policy-makers, researchers and associations
3. Data investigation (for each country)

5 Languages — 1 Flag

• Spanish
• Italian
• Greek
• Portuguese
• English

Generation E Team

• 4 data journalists (Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece)
  • Jacopo Ottaviani (project manager + Italian angle)
  • Daniele Grasso (Spanish angle)
  • Sara Moreira (Portuguese angle)
  • Katerina Stavroula (Greek angle)
• 2 designers (J++ Porto)
• 4 Media partners (not involved in the processes)

more info: generatione.eu

Launch 8 September 2014

• Results: 1200 stories in one Excel file
• Multilingual crowdsourcing made with Google Forms
• Handmade design (to be embedded in newspapers)
• Source of stories for post series

Trello

Project management web application

• Trello.com
• Boards, lists & cards 
• Interactions among members
• Comments, deadlines, files upload
• Checklists, mail subscriptions & digests
• Mention users (@username)

Tasks and roles

• Distribute tasks
• Avoid roles overlaps
• Define «areas of responsibility»
• Interact, challenge and inspire one another
• Project manager coordinates the team (e.g. moderate Skype calls, set deadlines, solve deadlocks)

Brand your project

• Nice catchy name ("Generation E")
• Logo
• Co-publication date
• Hashtag (#GenerationE)
• Visualisations to co-publish (e.g., map, charts)
• Shared channels (website, FB page, groups)
• Shared datasets
• Cross links

Enlarge the community

• Create Facebook page & group
• Let users interact, discuss, socialize
• Push the project to involved actors (e.g. NGOs, associations, cultural institutes, etc.)
• Involve more media partners, possibly on different platforms (e.g. Radio, TV, online, offline events)

Next co-publication

Scheduled: 24 November

Thank you!

Questions?

@jackottaviani