A STARTER KIT   

During each of the past five years, a journalist has won a Pulitzer Prize using computer-assisted technology, says Bill Dedman, a consultant and former Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter. Yet when Investigative Reporters and Editors surveyed 308 journalists last spring, many described their computer know-how as either "none" or "beginner." For them and others like them, here's a starter kit:

Hardware
Look around your newsroom. Somewhere there is a computer. That's the one you need to get started. There are lots of great reasons for this: You should start with basic software, most of which runs on just about any machine you can find; and you're a lot more likely to get management to pop for new equipment once you've started showing what you can do with it. If you can find the money, you want to shoot for an i486DX-33 or 66 megahertz PC with eight megabytes of Random Access Memory (RAM), a modem, a hard drive with at least 200 megabytes of memory and a VGA monochrome monitor. Most systems cost less than $2,000.

Software
Start with a spreadsheet, which is a program designed to crunch numbers. The good ones can also be used as databases. A good "shareware" program (try now, pay later) is AsEasyAs, which is available on computer bulletin boards everywhere. The standards are Lotus 1-2-3, Borland's Quattro Pro for Windows or Microsoft's Excel. All can be had for under $300, and Quattro has a new version for under $100. Popular databases include Borland's Paradox and Microsoft's Foxpro.

Resources
• "Exercises in Computer-Assisted Reporting," by Steven Ross, who teaches at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. This helpful book, which costs $59, comes with disks to help get you started. Specify your disk type when ordering from Ross at the Graduate School of Journalism, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027.

• Uplink, a bimonthly newsletter from the Missouri Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting (314-882-0684). $20 per year.

• Online services such as CompuServe (basic access $8.95/month). More than 16,000 journalists (including the editors of AJR) hang out in the Journalism Forum ($8/hour). Take your computer questions to experts. Get advice from other reporters. And drop in on other forums in other fields and talk to experts.

• Conferences. Sponsored by the National Institute for Advanced Reporting, the Fifth Annual Conference on Computers in Journalism will be held in March in Indianapolis. Meet experts like Dwight Morris and learn how they do what they do. For more info, phone 317-274-2773. No time? Have a seminar come to you. Investigative Reporters and Editors plans a series of seminars in newsrooms across the country in the coming year. To find out more, phone 314-882-2042.

• Finally, don't start out with fishing expeditions. Use the computer to enhance reporting on an existing story or one you've got mostly pinned down. No sense wasting a lot of time setting up a database that ends up being useless. If you're stuck, phone me or the other members of the Waterbury Republican-American's computer journalism team at 203-574-3636.
– C.F.