Researching and developing non-traditional analytic methods and communications tools for journalism.

Ver 1.0 Proceedings ON SALE NOW!
Co-directors:
  • Steve Doig - Tempe
  • Tom Johnson - Santa Fe
  • Steve Ross - Boston
    Fellows:
  • Patrick Mattimore - San Francisco & Geneva, Switzerland
  • John R. Sadd - Boston & Santa Fe
  • George T. Duncan - Pittsburgh, PA & Santa Fe

    Recent IAJ publications,
    presentations and workshops
    Postings This Month
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    Year Archive
  • View Article  Ver 1.0 kicks off. Statician George Duncan opening speaker.
    Late this afternoon, the 20 participants in Ver 1.0 will be gathering at the Inn of the Governors in Santa Fe, NM for the first session of the workshop.  The first, set-the-tone speaker is George Duncan, professor of statistics at Carnegie Mellon University.  George will be speaking on "Statistical Confidentiality: What Does It Mean for Journalists’ Use of Public Databases?"

    We will post George's address as soon as possible, along with those of other participants in coming days.

    We are very pleased with high-powered thinkers who are in or coming to Santa Fe to address the major problem of how do we verify the data in public records databases.  The proceedings of the workshop will, we hope, be published by the end of the month and also available online.



    View Article  Simulated Journalism? Not exactly, but a topic of relevance
    Simulation modeling is one of the four cornerstone areas of interest to the IAJ.  It's a relatively new, and largely unknown, field that can be of great advantage to journalists if we can take the time to learn how it works and then how we can apply it to our field.  The best resource to date for journalists is the J-Lab, (http://www.j-lab.org/) at the University of Maryland.

    But today along comes this announcement of a rich issue of the Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation.  It's filled with deep thinking and application.

    =============================================
    The Journal of ...   more »
    View Article  System Dynamics Society
    System Dynamics Society
    System dynamics is a methodology for studying and managing complex feedback systems, such as one finds in business and other social systems. In fact it has been used to address practically every sort of feedback system. While the word system has been applied to all sorts of situations, feedback is the differentiating descriptor here. Feedback refers to the situation of X affecting Y and Y in turn affecting X perhaps through a chain of causes and effects. One cannot study the link between X and Y and, independently, the link between Y and X and predict how the system will behave. Only the study of the whole system as a feedback system will lead to correct results.
    View Article  Bogus Visual Stats from CNN

    Media Matters for America points out a bogus use of bar charts by CNN.  Yes, the scale and base line DO matter.  See http://mediamatters.org/items/200503220005
    Update: CNN corrected its chart.
    View Article  Black Coaches in N.B.A. Have Shorter Tenures

    DAVID LEONHARDT and FORD FESSENDEN of The New York Times delivered a straightforward analytic piece today.  "Black Coaches in ...   more »
    4 Attachments
    View Article  Animated map of fires following San Francisco's 1906 earthquake
    Elementary but interesting application of animated maps of an historic event.
    http://www.archive.org/download/ssfBURNMAP/ssfBURNMAP.AVI
       more »
    View Article  LECTURE: The Internet, Epidemics, and Kevin Bacon: The Emerging Science of Networks
    Abstract: There are networks in almost every part of our lives. Some of them are familiar and obvious: the Internet, the power grid, the road network. Others are less obvious but just as important.... This lecture looks at some new discoveries regarding networks, how these discoveries were made, and what they tell us about the way the world works.   more »
    View Article  What is System Dynamics
     <>The System Dynamics Group was founded in the early 1960s by Professor Jay W. Forrester at MIT. At that time, he began applying what he had learned about systems during his work in electrical engineering to every day kinds of systems. What makes using system dynamics different from other approaches to studying complex systems is the use of feedback loops. Stocks and flows help describe how a system is connected by feedback loops which create the nonlinearity found so frequently in modern day problems. Computers software is used to simulate a system dynamics model of the situation being studied. Running "what if" simulations to test certain policies on such a model can greatly aid in understanding how the system changes over time.
    See http://web.mit.edu/sdg/www/
    View Article  Links on Cybernetics and Systems
    For a good jumpstation related to GST, see:
    http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/CYBSYSLI.html
    View Article  What is Systems Theory?
    Systems Theory: the transdisciplinary study of the abstract organization of phenomena, independent of their substance, type, or spatial or temporal scale of existence. It investigates both the principles common to all complex entities, and the (usually mathematical) models which can be used to describe them.
    See: http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/SYSTHEOR.html
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