Hello, hacks and hackers! We made it through Valentine’s Day (at least, those of us who live in countries that celebrate it) and we’re now less than a month from the popular NICAR conference. If you’re planning to go, join us for lunch in the hotel restaurant and catch up with organizers.
twttr.widgets.createTweet( '828673369352572928', document.getElementById('tweet-container-828673369352572928'), ); The week ahead:
Nairobi is holding a talk called “think before you post“ Austin is talking about using drones for journalism London is discussing facts, fake facts and alternative facts IRE in Missouri is holding its weekly open lab Chapter spotlight:
Greetings, hacks and hackers! It was a packed week last week for Hacks/Hackers chapters, with Caracas launching its own two-day Data Party, Singapore building tools together and Philadelphia taking a peep at some awesome National Geographic projects.
Plus, New Orleans‘ first hackathon generated so much interest among journos, coders and others in the area it looks like the beginning of a beautiful series of hackathons in the Gulf region. Organizer Samantha Sunne wrote about the hackathon and the cool projects it brought into the world for the Hacks/Hackers website.
By Samantha Sunne Hacks/Hackers New Orleans held its first hackathon this week, digging into dirty assessment data, partial wetlands maps, unanswered recycling questions and other problems just waiting to be solved. The organizers partnered with ONA, which also opened a New Orleans group last year. The HH Nola chapter has grown to almost 200 members since it launched about six months ago.
“We were fortunate to have so many talented participants whose interests converged around issues important to our community,” organizer Troy Thibodeaux said.
Welcome to February, hacks and hackers. We had a packed global call on Wednesday where we first unveiled the new website (still in prototype form). What do you think?
Also, we’ve got journalism jobs on every continent this week, and journalism events leading into May, so read on:
The week ahead:
New Orleans is holding a hackathon with ONA Singapore is building a socio-economic privilege calculator Caracas is holding a Data Party Philadelphia is hearing about cool projects from National Geographic IRE in Missouri is holding its weekly open lab Chapter spotlight:
Welcome to another Friday, hacks and hackers! We’ve got a bigger announcement than usual this week:
twttr.widgets.createTweet( '824347511439720449', document.getElementById('tweet-container-824347511439720449'), ); Several Hacks/Hackers organizers, including Jenny 8. Lee, Burt Herman and Phillip Smith, have launched an anti-fake news event called MisinfoCon in Boston. It’s coming up in one short month, so put it on your calendar and tell your colleagues.
The week ahead:
Warsaw is holding a Q&A with some of the biggest news outlets in Poland New York is holding a workshop on how to build web notifications Brisbane is planning more events in a pub and is therefore meeting for an event aptly titled Planning in a Pub Portland is holding an informal brainstorming session Singapore is collaborating on a ‘privilege calculator’ project Miami and IRE are holding their regular weekly open labs Chapter spotlight:
Happy Friday, hacks and hackers. After a winter hibernation (or summer nap, for those in the southern hemisphere), seven Hacks/Hackers chapters are holding their first events of 2017, including in Asia, Europe, North America and Africa.
twttr.widgets.createTweet( '822329676311961600', document.getElementById('tweet-container-822329676311961600'), ); The week ahead:
Nairobi is looking at tools that help indentify fake news Johannesburg is digitizing legal documents Singapore is learning to make “code art” with D3 London is hearing about projects at the BBC and Al Jazeera Los Angeles is hosting a get-together with ONA LA New York is holding a workshop on building web notifications IRE in Missouri is holding its weekly open lab Chapter spotlight:
It’s a new year, hacks and hackers, and newsrooms seem to be ushering in the new: more than two dozen job openings were posted since our last newsletter, ranging from Research Professor to Motion Graphics Editor. The Washington Post alone named eight new openings on its new rapid-response investigations team.
twttr.widgets.createTweet( '818486192501039104', document.getElementById('tweet-container-818486192501039104'), ); Chapter spotlight:
San Francisco – the original Hacks/Hackers chapter – has held nearly five dozen events since 2009, when it was first founded.
Welcome to a new year, hacks and hackers! 2016 was a tumultuous one for many Hacks/Hackers groups around the world, and 2017 may or may not be more stable. Last week we featured NiemanLab’s predictions for the coming year; this week we look back at ProPublica’s year in visual storytelling.
twttr.widgets.createTweet( '815274401436463104', document.getElementById('tweet-container-815274401436463104'), ); Chapter spotlight:
Austin held a series of events last year, ranging from a D3 workshop to a massive Connect event.
It’s the end of 2016, hacks and hackers, a year of cultural and political trends, movements and upsets. These trends in different regions have led to a serious questioning of transparency (both for governments and journalists), the use of open data and prediction models.
There are certainly enough opinions, think pieces and tweet storms to cover these topics already, so I will focus on what we do best: building the future of news, when we can, and hacking it together when we can’t.
Happy holidays, hacks and hackers, to those of you celebrating. To everyone else, I hope you are staying warm (or cool, depending on your hemisphere). Many chapters are either celebrating or hibernating right about now, but job postings are up in other parts of the world – check out the list below:
Chapter spotlight:
The Hacks/Hackers Africa chapter in Nairobi met last week to discuss how digital activism can aid government accountability, and vice versa.