The combination of styling with SQL on CartoDB gives a surprising range of freedom to create data visualizations. I find myself often thinking about creative solutions to mapping data in interesting ways.

At CartoDB, it is our goal to give our users the tools necessary to create compelling visualizations with their data. We are continuously looking for new innovative technologies that will enable data-driven storytelling.

We had a great time last week at the Online News Association (ONA) annual conference, held in San Francisco. The world’s largest and most important conference on online journalism was an opportunity to hear about “what’s happening now and what will be happening in the future” in online media, as Stanford’s Jim Bettinger says. There were more than 1,400 people in attendance and 34,505 tweets labelled with the hashtag #ona12.

From its very beginning, CartoDB has always been about making it easier for you to create map driven applications online.

We recently announced a “Show up your maps” initiative to see and share with the community the types of things CartoDB users were building. Thus far we’ve had some pretty cool responses and while we’d love to show you all of them, we’ve for the time being selected three projects.

The Online News Association (ONA) and its academic partner, the School of Communication at the University of Miami, have announced the finalist for the 2012 Online Journalism Award. CartoDB is nominated for the Gannett Foundation Award for Technical Innovation in the Service of Digital Journalism.

It is with great excitement that today we announce the public launch of the CartoDB partners program. Designed around the core needs of our current and prospective partners, the program’s versatility can be seen from the onset though the diverse array of industries that our launch partners service, spanning non profit work, biotechnology consulting, and digital creative agencies.

Code for America is a non-profit organization developing open source projects for city governments. Through several initiatives, it’s building a network of cities, citizens, community groups, and startups “committed to reimagining government for the 21st century”.

The horrific shooting occurred on July 20 in Colorado has reignited the debate in US over gun control. How bad is the problem?, asks The Daily Beast in a new piece of data journalism based on a list of 431 shootings in US with more than one victim since 2005.

Online activists are having a key role documenting the ongoing civil war in Syria. As this terrible war unfolds, they are posting dozens of videos and live streams on the internet, and curating data to fight the so-called “electronic war”.