So what exactly will a "data editorial" role in Twitter’s media team entail? Back in September 2012, a job ad described the ideal candidate as being able to "create "clear and insightful data-driven case studies" using Twitter’s data for the press, partners, and its own internal communications." Twitter is remaining quiet on the matter of Rogers' appointment, but it can be assumed that his new job will consist in utilising his expertise in the field of data journalism to interpret the dizzying number of tweets that inundate the Twitter network – all this in a format that makes sense to a data-shy public. The most that Rogers revealed in his blog announcement yesterday was that "Twitter has become such an important element in the way we work as journalists. It's impossible to ignore, and increasingly at the heart of every major event, from politics to sport and entertainment. As data editor, I'll be helping to explain how this phenomenon works."

The appointment of a data editor may well be considered the next logical step in Twitter's ever-increasing domination of the news industry. Over the past few years, the real-time communications platform has been dictating the news agenda with growing power and influence, consistently pipping newspapers and websites to the post when it comes to breaking the latest current affairs stories.

Professor Steve Doig, the Knight Chair in Journalism at the Walter Chronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications in Arizona, promotes an unfussy approach to data journalism where simple excel spreadsheet skills and knowledge of how to find and access data, and a journalist’s inquisitiveness are foundations of success.

“Data journalism lets you go beyond the anecdote,” he told a meeting of French newspaper editors in Paris last week. “It lets you step back and look at the larger view, and then put the evidence in. You still need anecdotes to tell the story.”

Doig divides data journalism skill sets into two camps. Those who can take data, look at patterns and find the story and then those who can take those results and make them ready for presentation. There are only a few wizards who can do both tasks effectively.

His toolbox has five items: a web browser, ability to access public records, Excel, in rare cases a heavier programme such as Microsoft Access to bring different tables together and a geo mapping tool.

Equipping editors with the right skills to build and manage data journalism teams is the subject of a special Editors Masterclass on the Newsroom Data Revolution being held on the eve of the World Editors Forum in Bangkok on June 2.

Today, September 19, is Italy's “Day of Transparency:" which activists hope to use to put pressure on the government for the adoption of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in the country.

A group of associations and prominent individuals started a campaign last spring to demand the introduction of a law that allows citizens to have access to  documentation from the public administration. The initiative was presented at the Italian Parliament on May 29 this year. Amongst the organizers are the Italian Association of Newspaper Publishers (FIEG) and the National Federation of the Italian Press (FNSI) and personalities like Valerio Onida, President emeritus of the Constitutional Court.
Gathered today in Rome at the headquarters of the FNSI, the promoters are holding a conference with speeches from professors, politicians and journalists.

Any digital journalist knows that an infographic can tell a thousand words. While stringing a coherent sentence together used to require a great deal of learning in the language of code, this is no longer the case.

Data journalists at publications like the New York Times and the Guardian have, in recent years, elevated interactive graphics and data visualization to an art form. Meanwhile, the proliferation of build-your-own-infographic sites has empowered the rest of us to produce rougher, humbler versions, free of charge.

Tech entrepreneurs HackFwd launched one such site, Infogr.am, in public beta yesterday. The site invites you to log on using Facebook or Twitter, select a template, enter data in an Excel-style worksheet, embellish the automatically-conjured graphic with text, images and quotes, and share your masterpiece through the online channel of your choice.