Chat Answers Tech Q’s For Journalists

Two technology experts recently put themselves at the mercy of journalists and their tech questions.

And the end result is an interesting and informative webchat, full of advice, suggestions and lots of links to further resources.

Hosted by Poynter Online, “Ask a Geek” gave reporters, developers and students the opportunity to put their posers to Tyson Evans – interface engineer at nytimes.com – and Jacob Kaplan-Moss – lead developer of django.

Among the subjects discussed are: News widgets, Twitter, interactive features, content management systems and the best ways to start a website from scratch.

Powered by CoveritLive, the webchat has become an archived chat and is well worth a look.

Journal Hosts Football Debate Live Online

The future of crisis-hit Newcastle United was the topic for debate on the Journal’s first ever live webchat.

Chief sports writer Luke Edwards spent Friday afternoon taking readers’ questions about both on the pitch and off the pitch happenings at St James’ Park.



Joining Edwards was multimedia editor Matt McKenzie, who also gave his views in response to comments and queries from a multitude of Magpies’ fans.

Using CoveritLive liveblogging software, the platform enabled users to put their questions straight to the journalists and encouraged debate about the troubled club.

It included several ad hoc polls, asking the audience to give their verdict on interim manager Joe Kinnear and predict Newcastle’s table position come August.

And the chat also incorporated inbound links to previous Journal articles as well as external links to related sites which were submitted by users.

BBC Gives Users Control Over Debate

The BBC recently invited two regular contributors to its online debates to lead a webchat on the future of the Anglican Church.

Both participants are frequent participants in the corporation’s Have Your Say (HYS) section and have different views on Anglicanism.

Writing on BBC blog The Editors, Matthew Eltringham says that the reactively moderated discussion essentially took the form of “an extended webchat”.

He notes: “It was our first experiment in trying to find new ways of engaging the audience and evolving a more dynamic and more thoughtful approach to HYS.”

The assistant editor of interactivity also asserts that the contributions of the two users enhanced the online discussion.

“Quite a few contributors put straightforward questions to the pair, which they were able to answer directly.

“They both enjoyed the experience and would have continued for longer than the two-hour slot.”