2012 Summer Paralympic reporting tools
I’ve mentioned mobile reporting issues before but I thought I should discuss exactly what technology I am planning to take with me to London. Hardware wise, I am taking four things:
- Paper notepads and pens;
- An unlocked iPhone 4;
- The “new” iPad with an attachment for my camera memory card;
- A Windows laptop; and
- A Canon EOS 55D camera.
When I get to London, I plan on purchasing SIM cards for iPad and iPhone. There is also supposed to be wireless access available for the media, and a database that I can buy access to to aide in reporting. (I think the database costs 206 pounds. Don’t quote me on that.)
Application wise, reporting wise, these are some of the tools we plan to use and have in some cases tested in the field:
- Dropbox. This application exists on my laptop, iPad and iPhone. We created a special Wikinews folder, worked with Brian, gave access to the folder to several people who might be interested in working on their own articles based on our own notes.
- Genius Scan. I personally love this application. It means I can scan paper copies of media releases from others to either upload to dropbox, or e-mail to Wikinews’s scoop list. I also use it to scan my hand written notes for use on Wikinews.
- FiRe 2 Field Recorder for iPhone. I love this application. I could easily record a sound file, convert it to ogg on my iPhone and then upload it to dropbox. This makes interviewing so much simpler and saves the annoying step of having to transfer the sound file to my computer via e-mail or transferring via iTunes. It costs some, but I’ve found it works pretty well and has been worth the cost.
- Flickr. I’ve got it installed but I’m not certain how much I will use it in the context of making it easier to transfer images to Commons. I had the opportunity to do this during my recent trip to New Zealand as it meant I didn’t have to worry about the fact that you cannot do mobile uploading to Commons but I just didn’t use it.
- Wikipedia mobile. I might use this some. Articles exist for all the 2012 Australian Summer Paralympians. Thus, using Wikipedia as a reference becomes a very real possibility to supplement information found in the press materials and by the Australian Paralympic Committee.
And that is pretty much it. My big concerns are audio and notes in paper format. The Paralympic database that the press has access to means some hurdles should be eliminated and I can save that information to a text file on dropbox or e-mail it to scoop, or paste it to the notes section on my Wikinews articles.
Does anyone have any suggestions for mobile applications or general windows applications to make reporting easier from the field?
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