beyond the story-centric model of the universe

eric ulken

who am i?

eric ulkenformer editor, interactive technology, los angeles timesdatabase + visualization + (a little of everything)

the story article so far

born 17th century

served us well for ~400 years

lots of words (~800-1,000 on average)

unstructured

“flat. gray. boring.” —under-30 readers

what else is there?

audio blogs charts databases

hypertext interactive graphics maps

photo galleries q&a ranked lists

tables timelines user-contributed

content video wikis

some examples

text tricks (lists, tables, timelines, q&a, “q&no-a”)

blogs are the new articles

photo galleries as lists, timelines

stand-alone ugc

video: short-form, packages

mapping, charts, data visualization

database applications

public dataraw information

a 3-way mashup

original reportingbackground, analysis

a 3-way mashup

user contributionscontext, conversation

a 3-way mashup

you try it: the no-article zone

a study ranks your city among the worst in air quality

a fire breaks out in the hills north of town

a new law on mobile use while driving goes into effect

5 candidates file for your city’s mayoral race

“american idol” auditions come to town

besides writing articles, how might you tell these stories?

just so i’m not misquoted...

i’m not anti-article

i’m just equal-opportunity

questions?

eric (at) ulken (dot) com