Help us design the Hacks/Hackers and Mozilla course for journalists and programmers

A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the New York Times “Moment in Time” Project

The latest Hacks/Hackers NYC gathering was all about photojournalism, hosted in the breathtaking Open Plans penthouse (with a wraparound balcony and a fantastic view) on July 27. Jonathan Tepper, co-founder of Demotix, talked about his crowdsourced photo wire based in London, and the team behind The New York Times’ “Moment in Time” discussed their project that mapped 14,000 user-submitted images onto an interactive globe.

Around 70 people attended with a good mix of programmers and content folk. There was a big contingent from Newsweek, which arrived together, and we even had a representative from 10gen, the company which makes MongoDB, the database that was used for the “Moment in Time” project. (He came wearing a MongoDB T-shirt, so was easy to spot)

Congratulations Corey Takahashi: Winner of the Hacks/Hackers scholarship to Poynter

We’re delighted to announce that freelance journalist Corey Takahashi is the winner of the Hacks/Hackers scholarship to Poynter’s workshop on programming for journalists / journalism for programming. Based in Los Angeles, Corey is planning to apply the digital skills from the Poynter workshop to revisit demographic trends that he wrote about during the 2000 Census through a data-focused lens. As part of his trip, Corey also will create a video reflecting on what he learns at the workshop and lessons from bringing together the cultures of journalism and programming — and we’ll be sure to post that here.

Introducing Hacks/Hackers Los Angeles

We’re proud to announce the addition of a Los Angeles branch to the ever-growing Hacks/Hackers nationwide network. Thursday, July 8, more than a dozen members of the Los Angeles journogeek scene joined up for the first introductory Hacks/Hackers LA meetup at Redwood Bar and Grill, conveniently located across the street from the LA Times. Our first meetup was a mingling event for our community members to get to know each other and for us, the organizers, to get a feel for the kinds of ideas and interests floating around the Los Angeles community.

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Data Viz Stars Wattenberg+Viégas Demo At Boston Meetup

Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg (“fm” as the two data viz specialists are known to call themselves) demoed their newest venture into the journalism space at the Boston chapters first event Meetup on July 20. In front of a crowd of between 40 and 50 at the Microsoft N.E.R.D Center (Microsoft’s status jumped in our eyes for that name alone), Fernanda and Martin showed TimeFlow, a new open source project for displaying large data sets on a time line, targeted at helping investigative journalists sift through information.

Boston Meetup Highlights Data Viz at Microsoft’s NERD Center on July 20

The Boston chapter is having its first speaker Meetup at the Microsoft NERD Center, 1 Memorial Drive, on Tuesday, July 20, organized by Matt Carroll et al. Munchies are sponsored by Microsoft and The Boston Globe/Boston.com. Interested in learning more about the cutting-edge world of data visualization? Want to know how to turn lifeless data into game-changing charts, maps, and visuals? Martin Wattenberg and Fernanda Viégas, world-recognized leaders in data visualization, will be the main speakers.

Hacks/Hackers Chicago is Now in Session

Hacks/Hackers goes to the heartland with its new Chicago chapter. This will be spearheaded by Rich Gordon, a Northwestern prof who is one of the original founders of Hacks/Hackers, and Tracy Schmidt of ChicagoNow. We have high expectations for our Chicago chapter with Tracy’s organizing prowess and Rich’s Northwestern connections. We’re still looking for organizers for other chapters: Austin? Seattle? DC? Email burt@hackshackers.com if you’re eager.

NYC Meetup at Meetup Recap: Games, Ads, APIs and Scott Heiferman

Thanks to the 80-some of you who came to the Hacks and Hackers NYC meetup July 14. We’ve received a lot of positive feedback about the event. We’d love to hear your ideas for future talks about the intersection of journalism and technology. Leave a comment or email us at nyc[at]hackshackers[dot]com.

So on to it.

Nick Diakopoulos, a post-doc research associate at Rutgers University, talked about his work on turning data into information graphics games. One example is Salubrious Nation, which challenges players to guess the public health of a communities nationwide based on county demographics.

Another is Vox Civitas, which analyzed Twitter messages posted during President Obama’s State of the Union address. Graphing keywords on a chart showing time and message volume and adding a tweet window revealed interesting patterns. For instance, Nick and his colleagues noticed a spike about 28 minutes into the president’s speech. Turns out air force bases issued a burst of tweets as he spoke about funding for military family support. Search on the keyword “military” to see for yourself.

Win a Scholarship to a Poynter Journalism Programming Seminar

Hacks/Hackers and The Poynter Institute are offering one full scholarship (a $795 value!) to attend the institute’s three-day seminar in St. Petersburg, Florida: Programming for Journalists / Journalism for Programmers (More info at http://hckhc.kr/doUlhi). The seminar takes place from August 25-27, 2010. Faculty includes Hacks/Hackers co-founder Aron Pilhofer of The New York Times; Matt Waite, who designed the Pulitzer Prize-winning Politifact at the St. Petersburg Times; and other industry leaders. It’s designed to help hacks and hackers better understand each other ‘s thinking through hands-on training.