This site is a work-in-progress.
I am a developer-journalist.
I create news stories. But with code.
Some newsrooms call this kind of work news apps development. Others call it data journalism or graphics reporting.
My job involves convincing people to give me data, analysing that data and then finding and telling stories using visualizations and custom presentation when needed. Sometimes I build tools to make such storytelling easier and faster.
I love writing (and reading) beautiful code. And I love collaborating with other writers and reporters to tell the best possible stories.
The story thus far...
I did not always have a hyphenated professional identity.
Once upon a time I was an engineer-with-no-hyphenation writing, what some might call, product code.
Like most other people with creative angst, I had a blog which saw moderate success among friends, family and a handful of strangers. I had always secretly been in love with journalism.
So when I came across a Knight Foundation scholarship that funds tuition for people with technology background to get a graduate degree in journalism at Northwestern University, I applied. After six years in the software industry, I was a student again.
In journalism school, I had a couple epiphanies.
I realized that I did not want to stop coding and that, contrary to my belief, my blog was not very good.
J-school introduced me to the world of possibilities of merging my coding and journalism interests. And suddenly I wanted to do everything. When I graduated, I was a printing press short of wanting to be my own media outlet.
It took me another two years to zone in on exactly what I wanted to do. I adopted the hyphenation and embraced the developer-journalist life.
And now I can't think of anything else I would rather do.
Oh no! I am being resized.
