On December 4th and 5th, Random Hacks of Kindness is holding a multi-city hackathon to create software to “mitigate or respond to disasters around the world and save lives.” The Hacks/Hackers community is invited to participate.
The organizers of Random Hacks of Kindness think both developers and journalists — who play such an important role in communications about natural disasters — can both contribute to the projects being developed.
This is the third Random Hacks of Kindness event.
Journalists and developers at the first Hacks/Hackers event in Belgium launched an effort Thursday to gather information on open databases in the country and on the European Parliament and Commission.
Almost 50 people attended the event in Brussels, mostly hackers but with a strong representation from national media (like Le Soir, RTL-TVi, RTBF *) .
The group is looking to hold their first hackaton in January. As an initial effort, the group decided to create a Google doc to collect URLs of open databases in Belgium and Brussels (European Parlement/Commission), which are quite lacking at the moment.
An MIT research project is looking for beta testers for its Knight News Challenge proposal for a WordPress data visualization plugin. Sign up on their blog.
As Professor David Karger writes, his team has created a WordPress plugin called Datapress that lets folks WYSIWYG author interactive visualizations of any data without any programming. Using the tool, users can drop maps, timelines, tables, charts, lists, thumbnail grids, and graphs into your article the same way images drop in an image.
Brussels (and Belgium) is joining the Hacks/Hackers community.
The first Hacks/Hackers Brussels meetup will be 7:30 to 10:00 p.m. Nov. 18 at The Pixel Wine Bar, in Brussels (map). RSVP here (cool place, but only 40 seats available).
Stay tuned via Twitter (@hackshackersbru) and our Facebook page
For Hacks/Hackers Atlanta‘s inaugural event and ONA Atlanta‘s second event, come learn about the Knight News Challenge, a grant competition for open-source news and information projects in geographic communities that gives away up to $5 million a year and has helped launch startups like Adrian Holovaty’s Everyblock and David Cohn’sSpot.us. In last year’s awards, the News Challenge received over 2,300 applications and gave out 12 grants totaling $2.74 million. Anyone can apply — domestic, international, individuals, companies, for-profit, non-profit. This also doubles as a social/networking event, with doors opening at 6:00 p.m. and casual presentation/info session starting at 6:45ish p.m.
Where: RíRa Midtown (1080 Peachtree St NE, Atlanta, GA 30309)
When: Monday November 22, 6:00 p.m.
Panel: Jennifer 8. Lee, Ian Bogost and Patton Hughes
News and tech nerds gathered at Havana Social Club Thursday night to kickoff the Seattle chapter of Hacks/Hackers and nosh on Hawaiian-Korean eats from Marination Mobile (thanks to Patch.com).
The coming out party brought a nice mix of hacks (The Seattle Times, Seattle magazine, MSNBC, InvestigateWest, Capitol Hill Seattle blog and more) and hackers (including Adobe, Microsoft, Intersect, BigDoor and other local start ups) from around the Puget Sound area. Guests sipped on signature cocktails (The Hack, a shot of whiskey and a beer; the Hacker, a cocktail of Maker’s Mark, fresh lemon and honey), and shared ideas for future events.
The New York City chapter of Hacks / Hackers met on Nov. 9th for a jam packed information session on information and data visualization. The four presenters covered the gamut of information visualization, from online data-viz products, to just launched prototypes, to critical analyses of how graphics are being used in the media.
The four speakers for the evening included Marc Rueter from Tableau Software, Matthew Ericson from the New York Times, Alex Lundry from TargetPoint Consulting, and Santiago Ortiz from Bestiario.
The first St. Louis chapter meet-up was a great success.
Fifteen hacks and hackers met for happy hour last Thursday, and expectations are high. When asked “Hacks/Hackers should ___,” the overwhelming answer was “be awesome.” (There was also a vote for “be pretty.” We’re going to try for both.)
Participants are already talking about ways to work with data. In December, we hope to join several St. Louis tech groups for a bowling outing.
The Seattle Hacks/Hackers chapter is kicking off on Thursday night at Havana on Pike Street. Reporters from The Seattle Times, Seattle Magazine, KING 5, Reuters, the Associated Press, MSNBC.com are all going to be there.
Thanks to sponsorship from Patch, the event is free, but tickets are required. There are only twenty left. So hurry.
Details are below.
Date: Thursday, Nov. 11
Time: 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Where: Havana, 1010 E.
