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Hacks/Hackers

Key links:

Primary website:
hackshackers.com

Primary Twitter:
@hackshackers

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Editor’s Note: Encyclo has not been regularly updated since August 2014, so information posted here is likely to be out of date and may be no longer accurate. It’s best used as a snapshot of the media landscape at that point in time.

Hacks/Hackers is a meetup group for journalists and technologists, founded in November 2009 by San Francisco journalist Burt Herman, New York Times developer Aron Pilhofer, and Medill professor Rich Gordon.

The group works to help journalists (hacks) and developers (hackers) learn from each other and collaborate on projects. Hacks/Hackers runs a blog and holds regular events in about two dozen cities, including San Francisco, New York City, and Boston. It also runs a programming help website, though the site’s future was in jeopardy as of mid-2011.

In May 2010, Hacks/Hackers held a conference, Hacks/Hackers Unite, which was attended by nearly 100 reporters, editors, designers, and others interested in the future of journalism. The two-day-long event included a hackathon during which attendees built 12 iPad news apps. Later in 2010, Hacks/Hackers also ran a six-week online course on journalism and technology in partnership with Mozilla.

Hacks/Hackers is funded through donations and is working to find sponsors and foundation grants, and to become a nonprofit organization.

Peers, allies, & competitors:

Apple, The New York Times, Mozilla

Recent Nieman Lab coverage:

Feb. 27, 2017 / Shan Wang

Getting to the root of the “fake news” problem means fixing what’s broken about journalism itself — The spread of misinformation, as well as deliberate, fabricated news content online, has many heads, and no single weapon exists to defend against it. At MisinfoCon, a summit this past weekend hosted by the First Draft C...

Jan. 20, 2015 / Justin Ellis

Hacking Journalism spent the weekend reimagining video — here’s what they came up with — What, exactly, would Tinder for video discovery look like? How do you wrangle all the live video around a story across social networks? And is it possible to use Mystery Science Theater 3000 as a prototype for a video en...

Sept. 11, 2014 / John Wihbey

What’s New in Digital and Social Media Research: The realities of citizen journalism, and new possibilities for transparency — Recent papers from academe have continued to highlight tensions over letting citizens into the news process, as well as the need to be more open and transparent with the public. Many of the papers below have insights on ...

Dec. 12, 2013 / Caroline O'Donovan

Q&A: Sarah Marshall on leaving Journalism.co.uk for the WSJ and the state of media across the pond — For three years, Sarah Marshall has held a job that’s pretty similar to, well, my job. And I think she’s pretty good at it! But Marshall is moving on, from Journalism.co.uk, the 15-year-old journalism news si...

Oct. 1, 2013 / Caroline O'Donovan

Q&A: Guardian social and community editor Joanna Geary heads off to Twitter U.K. — Debates over commenting culture and how to manage it took center stage last week. The New York Times had an in-depth look at innovations in commenting just as Gawker was set to announce updates to its Kinja community pla...

All Lab posts on Hacks/Hackers »

Recently around the web, from Mediagazer:

All Mediagazer posts on Hacks/Hackers »

Primary author: Mark Coddington. Main text last updated: June 9, 2011.

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