Hackathon Hack Day
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In an age where new technology plays a bigger role in journalism than ever before, hackathons are a great opportunity for journalists and developers to work side by side to develop new tools and learn new skills and ways of working.

The Guardian, Vox Media and most recently Al Jazeera have all held internal or invite-only hack days as a way to get their teams flexing their creative muscles and coming up with ideas for new features and products.

And news outlets such as the BBC and The Times and Sunday Times have also organised public code events which are open to anyone with an interest in new forms of journalism.

"It's a really great way to get journalists into a more digital mindset of working [and] expose them to the benefits and styles of working with developers," explained Joseph Stashko, news development editor at The Times and Sunday Times and one of the co-organisers of Build The News.

Following the first Build The News event in February, The Times and Sunday Times were so impressed with the winning idea – a Twitter analysis tool called Ferret – they ended up taking on the team behind it for a fortnight of paid work.

Stashko added that hack days were also an opportunity "to enthuse developers about journalism and show that there's lots of creative ideas for them to work with and make it attractive for them too".

When it comes to how journalists can get the most out of hackathons, he noted that it was not necessary to have any previous coding experience to take part.

"All the journalists who've partaken from The Times and Sunday Times have had no coding experience whatsoever," he said.

"The reason why that's been such a good thing is everyone's pretty accommodating on a hack day, everyone wants to get on and bounce ideas off each other.

"The journalist who sits down with developers also has a lot to bring, you know, story sense, editorial direction, which a lot of the developers don't necessarily have."

There are more tips and advice on how journalists can ensure they get the most out of attending hackathons in this recent Journalism.co.uk podcast.



Below is a round-up of media-friendly hack days, hackathons and code events taking place in 2015. If you know of any others you can let us know in the comments, on Twitter or by email and we will add them to the list.

For anyone thinking of hosting their own hack day, check out this list of do's and dont's from the Hack Day Manifesto.

The Online News Association's Hack the Journalism Curriculum is also offering grants of up to $35,000 (£22,404) for universities to partner with news organisations. Applications close on January 15.

January 5: OpenHack, London

Though not specifically aimed at journalists, OpenHack is a monthly meet-up which welcomes novice hackers and aims to offer opportunities for people of "any skill level and interest" to work together on projects.

If you don't have a project underway you can find someone to buddy up with, although it's also fine to go along and just observe what others are working on.

January 17 – 18: Hacking Journalism, New York

Taking place at Condé Nast's offices in the Big Apple, this 48-hour hackathon will focus on developing new tools and platforms for video. By registration only.

January 23 – 24: Dropbox Hackathon, London

Dropbox is a handy tool which is popular with journalists for storing and sharing files. To mark the opening of the company's London office, this hackathon offers entrants the chance to compete for prizes including £1,000 cash. Entry is free, but by registration only.

January 30: Hackathon NewsReader, London

Hosted by ScraperWiki, this free one-day hackathon offers data journalists and analysts an opportunity to try out its NewsReader tool by analysing 6 million articles relating to the global automotive industry.

ScraperWiki is also running a similar event in Amsterdam on January 21.

February 6 – 7: Hackastory, Amsterdam

Billed as a hackathon around "storytelling in the digital world", this 48-hour event is part-organised by documentary platform IDFA Doclab. More Hackastory events, yet to be announced, are planned for later in the year.

February 20 – 21: Open Data Day 2015, Mannheim

Open to journalists, developers and anyone with an interest in open data, this event will focus on topics including immigration and migration, demographics and cultural heritage with an emphasis on collaboration rather than competition. Free to register and non-German speakers are also welcome.

March 21 – 22: Media Hack Day, Berlin


Part of the Digital Innovators' Summit, this two-day hackathon is an international affair, bringing together programmers, designers, journalists from all around Europe.

The topic will be "connected car", looking at new ways that news outlets can reach people travelling in vehicles, as well as create new revenue streams.

March 28 – 29: Build The News, London

Organised by The Times, Sunday Times and the Sun, this two-day codejam runs a few times a year. March's event is now open for entries (topic tbc).

April 25 – 26: Maker Faire UK, Newcastle upon Tyne / worldwide

Again, not specifically aimed at journalists but this community-based event is open to all with an interest in tech innovation. The UK flagship event, held in Newscastle on Tyne, promises to bring together around 300 people of all ages and backgrounds, from hackers and coders to scientists and "garage tinkerers". By ticket only.

There are more Maker Faires and Mini Maker Faires planned for other areas of the UK and worldwide, see the full list of events here.

  • Other hack days to look out for in 2015 (dates tbc)
Hacks/Hackers, Worldwide

Hacks/Hackers in a global network of journalists (hacks) and technologists (hackers) with regional chapters who meet to discuss and demonstrate ideas. Find your nearest group here.

Knight-Mozilla OpenNews, Worldwide

This Knight Foundation and Mozilla partnership offers support for funding and planning to anyone organising a code event and also partners with organisations to host their own events, listed on their website (none upcoming at the time of publishing).

#newsHACK, UK

A collaboration between BBC News Labs and the Global Editors Network, previous #newsHACKs have taken place in London, Dublin and Glasgow, examining themes such as curation and automated news services.

New York Times Hack Day, New York

An annual event hosted by NYT developers, the 2014 hack day saw hackers collaborate with developers from the outlet as well as partners such as CartoDB, Enigma and Google. By registration only.

POV Hackathon, New York

Regular hack weekends for filmmakers and technologists aiming to "re-imagine the documentary for web". Free to attend, applications for future hackathons are taken on a rolling basis.

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Update: This article will be updated to include new hackathons as necessary. It was updated to include the POV Hackathon on 09/01/2015, and to include the date of the Build The News codejam on 15/01/2015.

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