I checked out of my hotel early and hurried over to the Palace Hotel to listen to Rob Curley talk about open source and journalism.  At first I was disappointed because it was just all about using open source as the infrastructure for the computers they were using.  Then it got more interesting … and lived up to my expectations.

He talked about they built interactive "internet stories" around sports in Kansas.  For example, the town changed the stadium seating and it was based on a complicated points system – the next day they had a little calculator on the web that not only allowed people to calculate their points, but showed them where those seats were in the stadium AND showed them what the floor looked like from that seat.  (He called it "internology" – an intern took a picture from each seat for the database.)

Another site they set up was the "game" site – all about Tball in this small town in Kansas.  They set up text messaging system that sent people text messages about game cancellations, scores during the game, final scores, … they had people setting it up to text message them every 15 minutes during the game!  (I have an uncle who could use that – he has his daughter text message him every 10 minutes during his grandson's games.)

In another project, KUsports.com, they had a huge stats database plus bios written by reporters and all the stories about the team.  So for example, in the player bio it would say "has a knack for getting into trouble" and if you mouse over trouble, you'd get his arrest record! 

After the game they'd call every players' mom for the stats!

He had lots of other great examples of using technology to further journalism.  All built on open source technology of course.  If you get a chance to see Rob Curley talk – go for it!

Note: Thanks, Demian.  I neglected to say that this was all this cool technology was enabled by an open source project they created called Django.