Cronkite Nation is a searchable interactive platform that allows Cronkite students to find and connect with fellow alumni the world over for professional networking purposes. It also enables prospective employers to search talented Cronkite graduates with the skills needed in their newsrooms.
Urban Devil is a new smartphone and web app that helps students on Arizona State University’s Downtown Phoenix campus find things to do on and around campus.
Urban Devil, available for iPhone and Android and online, features university and student organization happenings as well as relevant events within walking distance of the campus. It also highlights special deals offered by local businesses for ASU students.
The free app can be downloaded from the iPhone or Android app stores. A Web version of the app is available at urbandevil.asu.edu.
The SmartPHX app was created by NMIL students in spring 2011 in partnership with CityScape, the Downtown Phoenix Partnership and the Phoenix Convention Center to help people discover restaurants, night life and other attractions in downtown Phoenix.
Downloadable to any smartphone, the app functions as a concierge, enabling users to search for restaurants, clubs, arts venues, shopping and sports in downtown Phoenix. It filters search results according to personal preference and current location and tells users which venues are open and where to find nearby parking and public transportation.
To download the app, go to www.smartphx.com on your smartphone’s Web browser. Tap + or the iPhone arrow key and then “Add to Home Screen.” Or download from the Android market.
AZ Elected is an iPhone app that helps Arizonans located elected officials based on their geographic location. Students created a database of all Arizona federal, state, county and city officials with photographs, committee assignments, links to their websites, Facebook pages and Twitter accounts along with email and phone numbers.
NewsCloud, which touts itself as a provider of social media software solutions for Facebook, asked the NMIL to help it further develop and test its news community application with real world news organizations. The Lab worked with Gannett Digital and the Detroit Free Press to build several new modules that will help the Free Press digital team better integrate its content into the 1.4-million person Facebook user community in Metropolitan Detroit and to integrate content and community created by those users into Freep.com. Chief concerns included how to engage the community in discussions on Facebook and Freep.com around issues facing Detroit, how to integrate the Freep.com extensive calendar listings into Facebook and how to provide advertising content to the community were chief concerns of Freep.com editors.
The initial set of features is nearing completion. Additional features will be available in summer 2010. The Lab is working to improve the NewsCloud module with new feature sets that better serve news companies and Facebook users.
As Gannett Digital ramped up for the Fall 2010 election cycle, the Lab was asked to help create widgets and applications that would help news consumers get the latest information on candidates for office. The lab created a campaign finance database tracker that Gannett incorporated into 100 of its news sites.
Fact checker widgets can help news consumers gauge the truth about political advertising candidate statements. The Lab wanted to create a flexible widget that would allow news companies to help news consumers check the facts on any number of controversial topics – from global warming to immigration or politics. The Fact Checker widget was built in Flex for The Arizona Republic and gives editors an easy interactive tool that they can re-skin with images for any subject.
The application was delivered to The Arizona Republic.
NMIL was hired by the Newspaper Association of America Foundation to study the adoption and usage of Smartphones by American youth. Students surveyed 1,500 16-to-20-year-olds across the country to understand how they are using the phones. These powerful pocket computers are quickly replacing laptops as the device of choice, and youth are increasingly relying on them to connect with their social networks for everything – from planning a weekend of fun to checking local news.
Click on the image at left to download the study.
The Lab also conducted research for the Gannett Corp. on social media sites to understand 14-to-24-year-olds’ usage habits on Twitter, MySpace and Facebook. The survey delved into usage of Facebook apps, whether Twitter was seen as important and what would make them abandon their current social network.
Gannett is using the findings to help guide its social media interactions and project development within social media and to formulate its mobile development plans.
