I’ve looked at a number of tools in this series, often very new with potential applications for journalism that haven’t been realised. This time I want to turn the spotlight onto tools that you’re using every day, which may not be flashy, but which do a simple job very well – for example:
- in managing or filtering information,
- identifying leads, ideas and contacts,
- producing news itself,
- distributing it,
- or allowing users to get involved.
What have been the most useful online tools you’ve used?
Online Journalism Blog 
I’ve startet using Intense Debate, wich gives commentators opportunity to vote for good comments – giving the readers of my blog more power over content presentation. It’s still fresh, but it looks promising.
Thanks Pal, that looks very interesting indeed. Will have a play.
Turns out I already have an account… well, about time I used it then.
The nifty thing is the import/export function – if you don’t like it, you take your comments with you and leave. So you still controll the content of the blog.
Twitter comment: @paulbradshaw Google reader, Goole Deskbar, twhirl, browser tabs, Mitel Your Assistant (VOIP), Insant Messaging. (http://twitter.com/Viscount_one/statuses/881278085)
Laterloop is a godsend!
One-click bookmarking for all the stuff you want to sift through later but can’t be arsed to tag on delicious (ideal for website recommendations that come through on twitter).
Also has a nifty feature that lets you easy download batches of bookmarked webpages to view offline- handy for train journeys to London.
http://www.laterloop.com
Thanks Nick – looks very useful. I do something similar with starring items on Google Reader on my mobile phone, then following up when I get into work.
Google Reader, Flickr, Mento and/or Delicious, IM, Plurk & Twitter – great for information sharing and finding links.
I’ve also just started using True Knowledge, Dipity and Ask500people, which seem to have some exciting possibilities in terms of information gathering or storytelling. (And I’m off to have a look at Intense Debate after reading the top comment.)
Laterloop looks very handy. Thanks for posting that.
Along a similar line to Intense Debate is Disqus, which I used briefly on my site. I didn’t like the fact that you couldn’t take your comments with you, as you can with ID. You can’t import using Disqus either.
One thing I did like, is the ability to reply to comment notification emails to reply to the comment itself. Very handy when mobile.
I use Newsgator and NetNewsWire on my iPhone. Anything I want to remember for later, I add to my “clippings” which is a similar concept to Google Reader’s shared links. Because everything syncs up, I can keep on top of feed reading when mobile, add to clippings, and then potentially write something up later.
Not a tool in the same sense as some of the other mentioned here but I find http://skitch.com/ really useful.
It’s a screengrab utility but it lets you post to annotate, archive and post to a blog or your own user area on Skitch. Easy to use and not too feature bloated.
I’m a big fan of Google Docs, Zamzar and FMAtlas
More here: http://www.10000words.net/2008/07/tools-i-actually-use.html
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Alison, thanks for those – particularly like Ask500people and curious how to make Dipity work well.
Mark, Zamzar looks hugely useful, thanks.
Definitely Zenbe.com.
Email, Facebook, Twitter and Calendar in one.
It’s a bit buggy, but its still in Beta so you have to put up with a little hassle.
Here is some advice on how to better filter your online survey results http://snurl.com/zoomerangfilters
Many Thanks