Tech Tools and News
Tech Tools and News
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Overtone.ai
Assesses stories based solely on the content itself, not secondary metrics like clicks or shares to help people communicate better
Techzmag: Free AI
A technology website offering AI news, AI reviews, and insights on the latest AI tech advancements and provides regularly updated content.
Allconnect: Federal Programs Provide Millions for Rural Internet Access
Kandi from Open Weaver
Kandi helps developers find reusable open-source codes and libraries from over half a billion items. A simple natural language search engine for finding open-source libraries for specific functions. kandi uses Artificial Intelligence to offer the best solution and help developers navigate complex decisions for code reuse, such as license, security, quality, installation, and other critical needs, in a straightforward manner.
Tech Republic: 2015 Tech Trends to Watch
BackTweets.com
Similar to ConvoTrack, this site tracks how social media is referencing a Web site. You can see what people on Twitter, Reddit, Digg and other online media are saying about your site.
MobiForms Developer
Develop mobile apps in HTML 5 with no programming. Download the software from this site.
Embed Responsively
Allows you to embed ideos from YouTube and Vimeo, Maps from Google and photos from Instagram so they are responsive on your site and will resize on any device.
New Media and Technology Law Blog
HTML Dog
Learn basic HTML. Primers and tutorials.
Center for Humane Technology
Founded by former tech officers, including Tristan Harris, a design ethicist at Google, who observed the large-scale negative impacts of attention-grabbing business models back in 2013.
Google Journalists Guide
Launched in April 2022, this guide helps journalists learn about the best digital tools and resources from Google and beyond, to help you find, verify and tell engaging stories. Take a course to discover Newsgathering, Data & Visualization and Specialist topics.
Reuters Digital News Report 2022
Data, studies and insights on digital news consumption based on a YouGov survey of over 93,000 online news consumers in 46 markets covering half of the world’s population.
How to Imbed Anything in Your Web Page
Dronestagram
Site for sharing drone photography.
World Intellectual Property Organization
Online News Association: Interactive Narratives Blog
Tech President
A great blog run by the Presidential Democracy Forum that tracks various campaign sites, postings on YouTube, etc. A great snapshot of how candidates are using the web.
Layoffs.fyi
A startup that tracks tech and some media layoffs.
Kandi from Open Weaver
Kandi helps developers find reusable open-source codes and libraries from over half a billion items. A simple natural language search engine for finding open-source libraries for specific functions. kandi uses Artificial Intelligence to offer the best solution and help developers navigate complex decisions for code reuse, such as license, security, quality, installation, and other critical needs, in a straightforward manner.
Techzmag: Free AI
A technology website offering AI news, AI reviews, and insights on the latest AI tech advancements and provides regularly updated content.
For more training videos, visit our YouTube page.
Allconnect: Federal Programs Provide Millions for Rural Internet Access
Zamzar Conversion Tool
A free service that turns a .PDF into flat-file text.
Product Hunt
New digital tools, product launches and more.
Digital Media Law Project
Formerly the Citizen Media Law Project, this organization supports the vibrant online culture of citizen media and independent journalism by providing free legal advice and information on a wide range of media law, intellectual property and business law issues.
Google News Initiative Reader Revenue Playbook
The playbook, exercises, and workshops are informed by insights from more than 50 publishers around the world and represent the collective expertise of our trusted partners and the Google News Initiative.
Social Media Keyboard Shortcuts
Great list of keyboard shortcuts for Twitter, Facebook, etc.
Companies.tools
App stacks of some of the top tech companies in the world. See what tools they’re using.
LinkPopularity.com
Check how many sites link to a particular site.
BuzzFeed
Like Digg, this site tracks funny, offbeat news and videos.
Veed.io Video Converter
Convert videos to different file formats including MP4, AVI, MKV, WMV, MOV, FLV, and more.
Collaborative Journalism: Technology and Tools
Center for Cooperative Media: Tools and Apps to Make Newsroom Collaboration a Lot Easier
Markkula Center for Applied Ethics: Ethics in the Metaverse
This team from Santa Clara University built this code to maintain safe environments and protect those individuals and communities who are relatively more vulnerable and hold less power in cultural spaces.
Journalism AI Starter Pack
A project of Polis – the journalism think-tank at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) – and it’s powered by the Google News Initiative.
Tr.im
Shortens URLs and provides diagnostics/stats on hits.
TVEyes
The site offers “transcript search” of podcasts. The site is fee-based service and allows you to search nearly all major TV networks and some local stations. The site also has a free transcript search of TV news video available on the open web from MSNBC, Reuters, etc.
TechDirt.com
Tracks blogs, news on the tech industry.
ConsumerAffairs.com
Tracks corporate sites, consumer affairs blogs.
News at Seven
A cool tool that allows you to create a virtual newscast pulled from stories, images, videos and blogs all linked by a common news topic. The site generates an avatar that delivers the newscast.
Center for Citizen Media
More resources for citizen media.
Zoomcorder
Zoomcorder.com gives power to people to record Zoom and other video meetings without being at their PC or phone. Simply enter a meeting URL and a recording of the meeting is sent to watch at any convenience time on a phone or PC like a YouTube video.
ScreenStab
Vibrant photographs of computer screens or phones are a popular choice of illustration material for tech-related articles, as they make for particularly eye-catching visual elements. However, photographing a screen in real life requires time and effort. Screenstab is a website for automatically generating this type of photo from ordinary flat screenshots, giving journalists the ability to import them and turn them into beautiful image assets.
How to Change the World
Guy Kawasaki’s Blog on technology and communication.
Twitter Search
Look up thousands of Twitter feeds.
Washington Post: e-QAEDA
A three-part special report that features video reports of experts talking about jihadists’ use of the Web. They describe how al Qaeda and allied groups are using the Internet to recruit more fighters, spread their message and train their followers to commit acts of terror.
Cybercrime Information Center
A repository for studies, measurements, data sets, statistics, and analyses of global security threats involving the Internet’s Domain Name System (DNS), IP addresses, and hosting and cloud networks. The Center identifies DNS and hosting systems abuse and the contexts in which they occur—particularly those in which criminal abuse is highly concentrated.
Wifi Freespot
Listing of wireless hookups around the country.
GIJN Toolbox: Search for Hidden Connections Between Websites
Tools like VirusTotal, SpyOnWeb, etc.
Technet.org
Bipartisan tech network allows you to look up tech-related bills being considered in Congress.
ZDNET.com
A great collection of magazine and daily news articles on the tech industry.
Future News
Analysis, interviews and case studies of innovation and developments in the news media industry.
Wired.com
Tech news headlines and other helpful tools.
The Wayback Machine
An archive of more than 10 billion Web pages dating back five years. It allows you to surf the page as it actually appeared at that time. Very cool!
WiFi Location Finder + Local Info
A Boston company is giving away software that can turn nearly any laptop computer into a global positioning system, enabling users to find the nearest restaurant, hospital, or gas station at the touch of a button.
Electronic Frontier Foundation: Legal Guide for Bloggers
Internet 2
A new, super, high-speed version of the internet being developed by a consortium of university, government and commercial scientists.
For more training videos, visit our YouTube page.
Media Survey
Tracks Web site performance. A good newsletter that offers “expert tech media analysis.”
Podscope
A search engine for podcast.
WiFi Free Spot.com
Listings of provide wireless Internet connection locations around the world.
HotSpotList.com
Search this database by city or state in the U.S., or several other countries for places where you can connect to the Internet without plugging your laptop into the wall. Includes airports, restaurants, etc.
ScamBusters.com
This newsletter site is dedicated to fighting online hype and disinformation.
SpamCop.net
Report businesses and people who submit SPAM e-mails.
Red Herring
Hard-core business and tech news.
MalekTips: Computer Help
Computer and technology help. Tweaking, Windows (including Windows XP), DOS, Microsoft Word, anti-spyware, Internet Explorer, electronic mail, the Internet, digital camera, HTML, buying tips, MP3 players, more.
Processing Algorithms: A Reporter’s Guide
Tools for covering the issue and sources.
HotSpotList.com
Search this database by city or state in the U.S., or several other countries for places where you can connect to the Internet without plugging your laptop into the wall. Includes airports, restaurants, etc.
Tekrati
Free and extensive resources on the IT and telecom industry analyst firms, findings and events.
SiliconValley.com
A good industry site with a Northern California perspective.
E-Bituaries: Home of Dead Dot-Coms
Look up dead sites.
NewsFactor.com
Online news magazine for tech news.
Newsbureau.com
Press release info. for business and technology editors. Click on “for the journalists” link to subscribe.
Podcasting Profs
Listing of college professors using podcasts to reach their students.
Podcasting News.com
News on cutting-edge ways of using podcasts.
Center for Democracy and Technology
SendSpace
Send/share large video files.
Downdetector
Monitor when your favorite services are down or having problems. Good for tracking outages on social accounts, government sites, etc.
Epic.org’s Electronic Privacy Information Center
Internet Advertising Bureau
The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) is the only industry association devoted exclusively to promoting the use and effectiveness of advertising on the Internet.
RoboForm
This software remembers every password, various addresses (which you control by creating different identities) and unlike Gator, contains no spyware. Although the basic version is free, the pro version is available for about $30.
Website-Watcher
Put in the URL of a page you want to keep tabs on and it automatically checks to see if the content has changed.
LetsGoDigital
Online magazine about digital imaging published in three editions (English, Spanish and Dutch).
AlgorithmTips.org
Resources and leads for investigating algorithms in society. A project of the Computational Journalism Lab at Northwestern University.
Webopedia
An online dictionary of computing terms.
BlogDrive: Set Up Your Own Blog
NetworkWorld.com
High-tech online magazine.
WhatIs?
Definitions of tech terms, links to articles and other resources.
HowStuffWorks.com’s Computers Section
Spy on It.com
These “spies” notify you when a Web page changes or information on the page changes.
MobileInfo.com
High-tech online magazine.
PCWorld.com
High-tech online magazine.
TechDirt.com
Tracks blogs, news on the tech industry.
ConsumerAffairs.com
Tracks corporate sites, consumer affairs blogs.
GIJN: Tips for Investigative Journalists Using the Wayback Machine
ConsumerWebWatch.org
It’s mission is to “investigate, inform and improve the credibility of information published on the World Wide Web.”
Online News Association
Good online newsletter with dot-com studies, more.
Electronic Frontier Foundation
An online free speech group.
Digital Music Protection Technologies Paper
This controversial paper by Princeton Computer Science Professor Edward Felten explores how he and a team of hackers broke the code for technology designed to prevent people from stealing digital music.
NetworkWorld
Technology news and blogs.
Beet.tv
Blog about technology and the media.
Scribd.com
A site that invites journalists to publish their work and reach new audiences.
Forbes.com: Best of the Web
Tracks trends in many e-industries and includes lists of links.
Wikipedia.com
Wiki is an “open source collaborative server technology that enables users to access, browse, and edit hypertext pages in areal-time context.” To see how it works check out Wikipedia: the free encyclopedia on the site. The software allows users to add an article or edit anyone else’s article.
SafeKids.com
Tips for safe and productive web use for kids.
Harvard Journal of Law and Technology
Center for Digital Government
Affiliated with Government Technology magazine, this organization has people who will talk to you, although they tend to be on the technology-is-the-solution side of things.
The Good, The Bad & The Ugly or Why It’s A Good Idea to Evaluate Web Resources
From Susan E. Beck of the New Mexico State University Library.
ProfessorDeVigal.org
Great primers and resources from Drew DeVigal, NY Times multimedia editor.
Media Survey
Tracks Web site performance. A good newsletter that offers “expert tech media analysis.”
Wall Street Journal Tech Column
Potomac Tech Wire
An e-mail newsletter about technology stories in the DC area. Has about 30,000 subscribers.
GILC.org
A group for organizations promoting online privacy and free speech.
Association Representing the Wireless Telecommunications Industry (CTIA)
Pew Internet & American Life Project
An initiative of the Pew Research Center, a nonprofit “fact tank” that provides information on the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world. Pew Internet explores the impact of the internet on children, families, communities, the work place, schools, health care and civic/political life.
U.S. Public Interest Research Groups
Transportation, healthcare, money and politics, media reform, tax and budget, law, higher education and environmental issues.
Flock
Web browser that simplifies social and web-based applications by integrating them directly into the browser.
Usability.gov
Yes, the Feds have a set of Web design guidelines.
Garage.com
A venture capital investment bank that features helpful news releases, a resources page and more.
TechWeb.com
Technology news site.
Silicon.com
The 5 W’s of e-business.
Small Business Websites That Work
This is the companion site to my book of the same name and includes lots of helpful background material for writers researching how company Web sites can be made effective. There are a couple of full chapters available for download (including an internet backgrounder called “Getting to Know the Internet”) and lots of links for businessmen and researchers.
Society for Technical Communication
Members include writers, editors, illustrators, printers, publishers, educators, students, engineers and scientists. Both national and chapter sites include permanent and contract job listings.
Harvard Law School Berkman Center for Internet and Society
Digsby
E-mail, social networking and instant messaging.
Techmeme
Links to many breaking tech news stories.
CAUCE, The Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail
Five Elements of Digital Storytelling
From the University of Minnesota’s Institute for New Media Studies offers a site that provides a common vocabulary and structure for understanding new media content.
Adobe.com
Several tips sheets and software news.
MacroMedia Showcase
This page highlights four or five cool Web sites a day. Many are Flash presentations.
FlashChallenge.com
This is a contest site for Flash presentations. Log-in and evaluate different Flash sites, or enter your own. A very highly regarded site for Flash designers.
Interactive Advertising Bureau
RandallRothenberg.com
Blog from the president of the Interactive Advertising Bureau.
MSN: Top Web News Gaffes
A few examples of publishing too soon.
Digital History
A new Web resource that aims to cover the latest trends in digital history and to keep up with the state-of-the-field. From the New Media Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the site is a clearinghouse of current events and news items of interest, and provides selected bibliography of resources. Targeted to scholars, the site has many helpful tools for journalists.
PasswordMeter
Measure the strength of an online password you’re using.
AntennaWeb.org
Choose an antenna to pull in local stations with digital broadcast signals.
National Cable and Telecommunications Association
ComScore
The site maintains massive proprietary databases that provide a continuous, real-time measurement of the myriad ways in which the Internet is used and the wide variety of activities that are occurring online. The company compiles site traffic, trends and shares some of the results in the site’s press room and in company releases.
PBS: MediaShift Idea Lab
A group blog by “innovators who are reinventing community news for the Digital Age.”
TagCrowd
Build free tag clouds of speeches and other text with this free resource, which generates HTML code for you to embed the cloud in your blog.
MattWaite.com
Blog, tips and resources from web developer and CAR expert from the St. Petersburg Times.
ReadWriteWeb
Tech trends, company index and more.
Google’s AdWords Keyword Tool
Input a keyword or phrase and then it shows what search words Google users are using to find this particular subject. You can then use this data to place the right keywords into content of a story, PR release, photo, blog tags, etc.
Monitter
Tool for monitoring Twitter updates.
Friend or Follow
A helpful database for tracking Twitter followers and to track who’s following you.
InfoToday News Breaks
A flash news digest of technology information.
George Mason University: Center for History and New Media
Information Valet Project
From the Reynolds Institute at the University of Missouri, the Information Valet Project is organizing an information-industry collaborative to build, own and operate a shared-user network layered upon the basic Internet.
Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society
The Online Timeline
From David Carlson at the University of Florida.
Internet Resources for Technical Writers
Nieman Journalism Lab
A project of Harvard University.
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