Gabriel Dance answers your questions

Gabriel was kind enough to answer some of your questions. He provided them to me via email and gave me permission to post. Thanks for watching his presentation and for making some good observations.
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I really appreciate all of the wonderful feedback to my CUNY talk that has been posted here. In an attempt to answer as many questions as I can, I’m going to keep my answers short.

Undergrad questions:

You talked about time constraints and deadlines. How do you find a compromise between time restraints and creativity? How do you know when to stop being creative and focus on just finishing the project?
In the news business it is all about the deadline. If you don’t hit your deadline, it doesn’t matter how creative or interesting or relevant your project was. The time for creativity is early in the process. That’s the time when you dream big. Then you almost immediately need to start paring back with the absolute goal of hitting the deadline. It’s better to err on the side of getting it done than to say, “I’ll have to work 24 hours a day and still have some luck to get this done, but if I do, it will be incredible!” Believe me, when you don’t get it done, your editor will not care how cool it would have been.

What are some things that you have tried on your sites that maybe worked for other organizations, but not the New York Times?
Most of the things that I feel could work, but not necessarily for the Times, usually have to do with abstract visualizations or non-standard user interfaces. Our audience – while tech competent – is not necessarily tech savvy. We have to make sure that first and foremost our interactives are easy to understand and use. Some other sites have audiences that might be more willing to spend more time with unusual visualizations or interfaces, but when you’re dealing with the news and the weight it carries with our audience, being straightforward is often much more important than being experimental. And that’s ok.

Dance has gone through graduate school and worked on these major websites using Flash, and just making websites in general. What would be some good advice you would give students just starting to learn these programs or who are getting frustrated with these programs.
This is why I start out all of my talks with a little history about my computer science degree and make it clear that I’ve always been interested in computers. I’ve been making websites since the mid-90s and understanding technology is something that I enjoy. For people just starting out doing these things, you have to be patient and you have to be curious. It’s never going to just come together on your first try. It’s just like writing a story. Your first attempt – in retrospect – is going to look amateur. But as you develop and understand the tools more, your competency and skills will develop. So have patience and give yourself time. Oh, and use Google.

As far as being transparent, I think it is important to be transparent in all things not just a job setting. Some people act like you shouldn’t express yourself totally online because it may affect the way a person see you. College kids hear it all the time, “Watch out what you post on the internet.” Yes, we may be drinking a beer in a picture, but we get our work done. What are you thoughts on this?
I would probably have hung myself out to dry if I had Facebook while I was in college (luckily it was while I was in grad school that it first really started getting popular). When I speak about being transparent, I’m speaking about in the news business. As far as transparency in your personal life, that’s a decision that each person has to make. Would I post pictures of myself drinking while I was in college? No. Does that mean it’s wrong to do just that? No. Will your future employers look at these sites before they hire you? Yes.

You mentioned that failure lets you know you’re on the right track or doing something new that’s not in a comfort zone while in college. Do you still fail? How much?
Failure is an interesting thing and there are many different kinds of failure. Do I still fail? Absolutely. All the time. I fail in different ways each day, but what’s important is that I learn from my mistakes – my failures – and try not to repeat them. And one of the best ways to not only realize when you’ve failed, but to also learn from it, is to surround yourself with intelligent, articulate people who you have a respectful and honest relationships with.

Do you ever see yourself pursuing a career outside the New York Times?
Absolutely. There are all different sorts of things that I’m interested in, and certainly not all of these are possible at The Times. I do some teaching, and I enjoy writing, but right now I’m most interested in the development of high-quality multimedia journalism. And right now the best place to explore that field for me is The Times.

Grad questions:

I wonder what it’s like to build a site with a large group of people? What are the problems you run into with the programs when you split up work?
It’s the same as doing anything with a large group of people. There are disagreements, arguments, and moments of great collaboration. There are different roles that need to be played (leader, supporter, dreamer, worker) and people need to adapt to play those roles as they see fit. It’s very important to have an executive producer (or boss) who has a vision that they can clearly communicate to the rest of the team, so people know what they are working towards.

Do you think it is (or will be) essential for students who pursue a career in journalism to learn multimedia skills? Do you think it would be detrimental to a journalism student to not learn the skills necessary for online journalism and instead stick to the practices of traditional journalism (hard news writing, page layout/design, etc.)?
I do think that people who – as you say – practice traditional journalism will still have jobs for the time being, but I don’t feel that is the direction the industry is headed. And, as the need for journalists with multimedia skills grows, jobs will become available. I imagine that’s more and more where young journalists want to be. I see computers and journalism being linked for the foreseeable future, much as i see most other things in life. But I also feel that I’m practicing the same tenets of traditional journalism, just internet-infused.

Do you think you were hired on at the New York Times because of your journalistic talents or your familiarity with technology?
I would like to think some of both.

Do you believe such innovations regarding the Times’ online separate your employer journalistically?
I do. But I also understand that I am in a more fortunate position than many others in the industry. The kind of journalism I practice is new and expensive. And with no real pay model right now, it’s not very practical for a lot of places. The Times has always been one of the true arbiter’s of journalism and I’m very thankful to have had the opportunity to be here.

I know you stated that it is not necessary to have a degree in computer science to work in multimedia, but obviously it has been extremely beneficial to you. Any advice for those without a computer science degree?
Find something you’re good at and enjoy doing and work really hard to become very good at it.

How do you get some innovative ideas for your projects?
It’s very important for me to unplug from work, and this is often where I get most of my ideas. Other websites, the real world around me, books, magazines, video games… The list is endless. It’s not that my creativity is stifled at work, but while I’m there, I’m working. I’m going to meetings or coding or doing something else. I’ve got my head down, so to speak. It’s when I can lift my head up, take a breath, and look around me, that i come up with most of my ideas. That said, the constraints that are imposed at work can lead to some pretty quick creativity.

What are some tips on effective project management? Is it more about organizational skills or communication skills?
Very much both, and I think that’s why it is one of the toughest things to be good at. You have to understand what needs to get done, how that needs to happen, and by when. Then you need to be able to effectively communicate with the other collaborators and get it done. It’s tough for sure.

Is it too late for some companies and businesses to catch up on using the online content to help their own fortunes?
It’s just starting.

Gabriel Dance Guru

Gabriel Dance has a lot of good advice for journalism and multimedia students getting ready to graduate.

One good point was to make sure you pay attention to other sites, especially the company with which you’re trying to get hired. This goes for all careers. If you don’t show any interest in the company you’re applying for, why would they want to hire you when they know that you made no effort to do your research?

He also brought up a good point we have all heard before. Failing is good. Failing shows that you are trying hard.

I also found it interesting when he said that college is the place to try your hardest and make your mistakes because you don’t have any worries about being fired. Your only worry is school and because of that, you should experiment as much as you can and try new things.

I watched the part 8 video about transparency. I thought the panorama was really cool. It shows everything from such a wide angle and from a person in the audience’s point of view. Dance emphasized that this is the best way to grasp how the convention really was.

Questions I have for Gabriel Dance are:  What is your favorite part of making a Web site? What do you find the most fun? And what do you think about the few companies or organizations who still do not have a Web site? I, myself, automatically go to google if I want to find out something about an organization. When there is no Web site, it basically doesn’t exist to me. Why do you think some people haven’t grasped the idea of the Web yet?

Questions for the guru

Gabriel Dance was a very interesting speaker. He talks so casually and seems so real that it makes me think he is trustworthy and I am more than willing to accept his advise. Nothing about him seems fake or like he aims to impress but instead he seems to truly want to educate and help. I really like how he said that you are not going to be the best at everything so just put that thought out of your mind. What is important is knowing and being familiar with several different aspects of multimedia so that your skills can be utilized in many different areas of a project. It makes you much more marketable.

I would like to ask Gabriel:

1) You talked about time constraints and deadlines. How do you find a compromise between time restraints and creativity? How so you know when to stop being creative and focus on just finishing the project?

2) How do you test usability of your sites? Do you use focus groups, experiments, trials, or do you and your team just play with it yourself?

Gabriel Dance

Mr. Dance was inspring, because he seems like an everyday, normal day. The fact that he is very young, is also very appealing. He insprires post grads, and demonstrates that one does not have to be over 35 to get to the senior level. He later states in his speech that recieving a Bachelors in Computer Science really helped to in graduate school. What I liked the best about Dance was that he did not know what he wanted to do when he was an undergrad. He graduated, had his first job, and then realized that it is not what he wanted to do. Later applying to grad school, and choosing University of North Carolina-Chappel Hill, seems like the best decesion he could have made for himself. He urged those confused students that graduate school is a great experince, especially those instituions that offer scholrships for your education. What appeals to me the most about grad school is that he claims it is a great time to experiment with journalism. Its a time to grow and develop your creative skills. One does not have to wory about cost or other real world scenerios.

Dance mostly adviced to students to “push it to the next level”.  There will always be people that are amazing at their work, one can not expect to be the best at every aspect, but the best thing you can do is work hard, push it to the next level, and catch people attention.  Once you are looking for jobs really now the employer, what the focus on, and reaserach their work. Pitch your stories to preospective employeers and sell your self. Create your pitch and sell yourself, while having a good sense of the employeers work.

What Dance said helped him out the best was that he worked quick. He could act quickly and accruatly develop his work. One of his examples was working with reporters in war zones, like those in hte Lebonease/Israel war.

Gabriel Dance was inspring and it makes me rethink grad school.

Questions

1. Mr. Dance, you stated that in Spain, El Mundo, had some of the best graphics in the World, what different aspects and creative ideas does El Mundo have in Spain, as oppose to the New York Times?

2. Working with reporters overseas, especially those in war zones, do you ever find it difficult to meet deadlines? Especially if something drastic happens?

Gabriel Dance and Multimedia Journalism

Gabriel Dance understands multimedia journalism and the power behind it. Dance told students the value of interactive Web sites and pairing them with real, written journalism. He also told students that they have to be completely dedicated, committed and interested in multimedia journalism, otherwise they are not going to produce good and innovative work.

My favorite part of multimedia journalism and interactive Web sites is the user generated content. I love the feeling of being a part of something and contributing to journalism, especially for a publication like the New York Times. Dance showed very good examples of projects he has worked on using user generated content.

“You can tell a story through user generated content,” Dance said.

Two questions I would ask Gabriel Dance:

1. What do you think is the number one thing some interactive Web sites do wrong?

2. What are some things that you have tried on your sites that maybe worked for other organizations, but not the New York Times?

Dance Video

I personally liked what he said in the first video. It’s good to experiment with Journalism while you are still in college. Journalism had the opposite effect on me though. It was still a valid point. And I liked how he said that programming and web programming IS something you can learn on your own but you have to be rather dedicated to it. I really enjoy programming for the web but I think if I were to pursue a career in it I would want to go back to school for it after I get my B.A. here.

 

I also watched the video on Usability. I thought it was interesting that he originally had the time line set up so you click on little events but then added the button in because he could not see other people using the time line buttons. I think that is not something all Web sites consider enough. I always get frustrated when I find something I find handy or useful buried within the site or set up in a more complicated way that I would do it. I especially notice this in video games. I always wonder what goes through the programmers head when they set up these strange menu systems.

 

I’m not really sure what I would ask him. I’m not very curious I suppose.

 

How about..

 

What advice do you have for people who have no idea what they want to do?

 

Is there anything you wish you’d learned more about in college?

Gabriel Dance

Gabriel Dance was a very inspirational speaker to me. He made me feel like it was ok to not know exactly what I am going to when I graduate with my degree. I liked when he said to not following in the crowd but to lead the pack and that if you are not failing then you are not trying. It is cool that with his background in computers that his is now in multimedia journalism, and how such a cool job. All the different classes he took in college and grad school made him a great candidate for the job because not only could he edit audio and work on the web but he could also do this and this. It really made me feel like the skills I am learning now will come into play in my future career hunt.

Question 1: What is your favorite part of multimedia journalism?

Question 2: Do you think working with more with computers is more fun than working for  print or broadcast only?

Gabriel Dance: Transparency & Innovation

The New York Times senior multimedia producer Gabriel Dance has some very good information to provide for university students. I think it’s great that CUNY posted Dance’s speech online for others to enjoy. I think his idea that school is a time for experimenting is awesome! This is one reason why I want to go to grad school to experience and learn other things before being tied down to one job.

He talked about how he got a computer science degree from Colorado State and then went on to follow his dream of being a journalist by enrolling in graduate school. He is a good example for students not to settle on just something to get by and to keep going to school  to do something you love. Like he said if you aren’t happy with what you are doing then what you produce wont be good.

I went to the Chasing Crusoe website and after just playing with Flash I am amazed that entire website was made in Flash.

He emphasizes having multiple skills, especially in multimedia. Be “fluent” in one skill but be able to dabble in other aspects of media. And don’t aim to be “the best.”

Questions:
1) Dance has gone through graduate school and worked on these major websites using Flash, and just making websites in general. What would be some good advice you would give students just starting to learn these programs or who are getting frustrated with these programs?

2)Being out in the professional world do you think all students, in every major, should have some type of multimedia experience while in school? Would you recommend for students to tell potential employers in an interview any type of experience with multimedia even if it’s very little?

Gabriel Dance videos

I think the videos were awesome. I love hearing professional’s ideas about the field I’m going into.

I couldn’t agree more with the simple layout design. We, as young people, are not the only ones using the Internet. Making pages simple for all ages is a great concept that more people/companies should be implementing.

I also believe transparency is important when running an organization or business. People tend to respect you more when they can find answers for themselves without having to track you down and ask all sorts of questions. This way they feel more in-the-loop.

Elaborating on what Sajen asked below (how do you feel about social media as a way of mass communication?),
1)If you like social media, do you feel a person can have too many social media sites? For instance I currently have a Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Myspace account. Who’s to say that there won’t be a new site two years from now. Should I abandon my accounts now or just keep adding to them?

2)As far as being transparent, I think it is important to be transparent in all things not just a job setting. Some people act like you shouldn’t express yourself totally online because it may affect the way a person see you. College kids hear it all the time, “Watch out what you post on the internet.” Yes, we may be drinking a beer in a picture, but we get our work done. What are you thoughts on this?

Media and transparency

Gabriel Dance of The New York Times said school is like a laboratory where people can experiment their new ideas. Students have more time, control and security on campus than they would find at professional settings where people have to consider many factors that may work as restraints: advertising; editing; company bottom line; and job security. Like many innovators, Mr. Dance said it’s okay to fail because that is an evidence that you are trying something new.

Mr. Dance said transparency will be the key in the future of journalism. By providing primary documents online, media organizations can show they are reporting facts, not making up their own stories. Besides, some readers don’t have as much expertise in obtaining documents through FOIA as media do.

His words served as a collateral evidence to show the industry is under public scrutiny in this information age. Showing as many primary documents online as possible was part of this writer’s philosophy at a small-town newspaper. Information is power. People can disseminate it for the benefit of the general public or keep it to act like those in the establishment. Some media organizations have taken the latter choice for a while. Of course, that may not always be the case. Some reporters, believing in public service, did everything they can to provide primary information to the readers. But that is far from the public perception.

Q1: Where should media organizations draw a line between what to publish online and what not to? In other words, should the principle of transparency apply to media management decisions as well as news judgment? Or should it only apply to the primary documents media organizations obtain?

Q2: How much exposure are reporters expected to give? May they keep a low profile or should they publish online who they are, what they look like and what they are doing?