Haiku Deck is the best free tool for creating simple slides on an iPad. It’s extremely easy to use. You type in a few words for a slide and then let the app search for open-source images to accompany your words. In the new version you can add simple, slick charts and lists as well.

Haiku Deck 2.0 from adam tratt on Vimeo.

Here’s an example of what a Haiku Deck looks like:

Created with Haiku Deck, the free presentation app for iPad

Here’s a list of infographics-creation tools from Hongkiat.com for quickly making your own charts, graphs and diagrams. There’s plenty of powerful software out there for creating great graphics along these lines, but these resources stand out for letting anyone quickly create visually engaging charts and diagrams quickly, easily and for free.

The list includes, among others:

• Visual.ly
• Piktochart
• Easel.ly
• Infogr.am
• iCharts

Full list here: 20+ Tools to Create Your Own Infographics

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Here’s an example of a BeeDocs3D timeline as a Web embed. In this case, it’s a timeline I created about the history of Final Cut Pro:

BeeDocs Timeline 3d is my favorite tool for creating timelines. The software makes it super-simple to quickly assemble a series of dates into an engaging narrative. It has great potential for supplementing online journalism stories, or for adding visual interest to a Web presentation or video.

Here’s how it works: You enter dates, info and optional images/video/audio into a simple event-editing box and the software lays out the timeline for you. That’s it. There’s no need to read complicated instructions or study a manual. As soon as you start using the software you can build something quickly and easily. There are several templates with various color and font styles available. The export options are great, including: PDF, Keynote (for including a timeline in a presentation), video, text (for inserting into a spreadsheet, and PNG (for displaying a simple image of the timeline). You can also publish your timeline to the Web, as I did for the Final Cut Pro timeline example above.

Here’s what the editing interface looks like:

And here’s a brief video overview:

Here’ what a 3D timeline looks like:

BeeDocs 3d is $65. A simpler version, Easy Timeline, is $20, which has more limited publishing and export options. There’s an iOS version for $10 so you can create timelines on the iPad or iPhone.

A good free Web-based alternative— if you’d prefer free software— is Timeline JS, which I may post about at some point in the future.

Tableau has a nice post about the most influential data visualizations.

Below is Tableau’s slideshow illustrating what they perceive to be the 5 most influential data visualizations. And here’s a video with more info on those data visualizations. One of the ones they selected is Hans Rosling’s famous TED talk – I’ve included the video below in case you haven’t yet seen it. It’s an amazing example of how a data visualization can bring a complex set of numbers to life.

In creating a new journalism project, you often need dummy text and images to get started on your design. Here’s a step-by-step guide to generating that filler material quickly, easily and for free. In addition to the services detailed below, sites like placekitten also provide similar services. Here’s a list of eight similar placeholder services for those interested in exploring further.

Here’s a follow-up to my earlier post about Ira Glass, which included the four-part video summarizing his thoughts on storytelling. He spoke on Thursday at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism 2012 graduation. Below is the full video of his 28-minute commencement address. Glass’s speech was peppered with amusing anecdotes and thoughtful advice.

Here’s a summary story about his speech by Lauren Rothman, CUNYJ Class of 2013.

My summary of the two primary points in his talk:

Amuse Yourself. Find journalism stories that intrigue you. Do work that amuses you. Even when doing routine stories, focus on finding elements that you find engaging, humorous or stimulating in some way.

Just Start. Don’t wait for others to give you permission to do what you want to do. Start writing. Publish things. Do the work you want to do, whether others officially approve of it or not. Just start.

Here are two short audio excerpts if you’d prefer not to watch the entire video.

A few additional Glass quotes, selected by April Burbank:

“You’re not going to make any money. You might as well have fun.”

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“Go into the world. Make something interesting for the people. Make something useful.”

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“Being a journalist is about harnessing luck… I wander around in the rain for a long time until lightning strikes.”

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“Don’t wait for permission from anyone to make the work you want to make.”

Photo above of Glass speaking comes from Lauren Rothman’s Twitter account

We’re looking forward to having Ira Glass as the commencement speaker at the commencement ceremony Thursday for the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. To celebrate his upcoming visit, here are a few pithy thoughts from Glass about the art of storytelling.

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

And if you’d like even more of Mr. Glass, here’s his recent Q&A session on Reddit.

[p.s. In case it's of interest, this post was produced using the Clarify App]

To download these slides, or to see an annotated version of these slides, visit bit.ly/jcstartupslides

You may opt to put some of these in a different order. You may also want to include screenshots/images of your product/service to further clarify what it does or how it works, or to illustrate your value proposition. The information you convey on each slide should be visually simple so that those listening to you can focus on what you are saying, rather than on reading small bullet points on a screen. When there’s more detailed info to share, provide that in a short handout that supplements your presentation.

1) OPENING SLIDE FOR A PITCH
Start with your name and the name of your project. In some cases, a presentation will start with an attention-grabbing opening, an anecdote, a dramatic stat or fact, or a question for the audience. These devices help to engage the audience, grab everyone’s attention, and establish your confidence as you get going.

2) DEFINE THE PROPOSITION
Explain what the project/product/service actually is. What does it do? How does it work in very simple terms. This could be a short “elevator pitch” summary of your project so that people know exactly what project you’re pitching.

3) DEFINE THE OPPORTUNITY/PROBLEM
Explain why this product/service is needed and provide some context for your project. Why is the problem worth solving?

4) DEFINE THE AUDIENCE/COMMUNITY
Make clear who this project/service/product is aimed at. Is it for a particular geographic audience, or a particular demographic group? Or is it for people with a particular interest (i.e. a psychographic?) Or maybe it’s for people who have a particular problem or a certain need. Make clear who you are building this product/service/project for so that it’s clear who will benefit from it.

5) HOW YOU’LL GET THE WORD OUT
How will people find out about this product/service/Web site/project? Mentioning vaguely that you’ll use social media to get the word out is generally not sufficient. It’s important to explain how you’ll raise awareness for this in a marketplace that is increasingly cluttered with all sorts of new apps/sites/products/services launching every day. What techniques/tactics/tools will you use, or how will you go about taking advantage of existing or new platforms to reach your intended audience? How will you measure progress in reaching your audience? What will success look like in reaching your audience? What are key metrics/performance indicators that you’ll be assessing as your project moves forward?

6) WHAT DO THE NUMBERS LOOK LIKE?
How will you make ends meet? What do you expect your primary three, five or 10 costs will be? What do you expect your primary revenue streams to look like, and how long do you expect it might take for you to get to that point? Why will people pay for your service/product and how will the value proposition differ from other products/services people are paying for?

7) WHAT DOES YOUR TEAM LOOK LIKE, AND WHY ARE YOU THE ONE TO DO THIS?
What have you done in the past that has prepared you to take on this new challenge? Why are you well-suited to succeed in this venture? How will others help you, and what relevant skills/experience will they bring to the project? How will you go about building your team from here and adding necessary expertise?

8) COVERING YOUR BASES
Fill in additional information here that will answer questions lingering in the audience. What does the competitive landscape look like? What are some obstacles you anticipate you’ll have to overcome? How will your design approach distinguish your project? What unique approach/vision/ideals do you have that inform the project in progress?

9) WHAT’S NEXT?
What are the next steps you need to take? What are the key things you need to do to advance the project in the coming weeks and months? What is your timeline for moving forward? What does the roadmap for your project look like? What are your goals for the upcoming period?

10) WHAT OUTSIDE HELP DO YOU NEED TO MOVE FORWARD?
What amount of money, or what other kind of help would be helpful to you in advancing your project? How can people contact you afterwards to offer help?

P.S. The slides in this template were made on an iPad using Haiku Deck, which is a terrific free app that makes it easy to quickly build a visually-engaging slide deck using your own simple text and Creative Commons images.

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If Twitter were a country, it would already be the 12th largest in the world…

LinkedIn has 161 million members in 200 countries…

5 million Instagram photos are uploaded every day…

These and other stats stand out from the infographic below by g0-globe.com, spotted on a Mediabistro page.

(Source: Go-Globe.com)

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