Hacks/Hackers at the Frontline Club
Hacks/Hackers is a global movement where hacks (journalists) and hackers (developers) meet for talks, demos, hackathons and socials. It started in San Francisco and New York in 2009 and there are now 30 meet-up groups across five continents. The goal of Hacks/Hackers is to create a “network of journalists and technologists who rethink the future of news and information”.
All are welcome to attend. We ask that new members join our meet up group here.
Speakers for this month’s meet up are still being confirmed. So far we are able to announce:
1. Creating a mobile-first site of ‘topical funny stuff’
Martin Belam, Us Vs Th3m.
Us Vs Th3m launched in May. It’s a site of ‘topical funny stuff’ designed to be read on a mobile phone. The idea for the site came out of a one-day ideas workshop at Trinity Mirror (which publishes the Mirror newspaper) in April. Five weeks later, the site was up and running, with the team of four/five based next to the Mirror’s digital team. Martin Belam will talk about creating the site, and sharing lessons from the first few weeks.
About Martin Belam:
He one of the people behind Us Vs Th3m, a new mobile-first site from Trinity Mirror. He will be well known to Hacks/Hackers regulars. He has been working in digital product development, information architecture and user-experience design, for organisations like the Guardian, Sony, Vodafone and the BBC. He writes about user experience, journalism and digital media at MartinBelam.com.
2. Telling the story of Firestorm
Jon Henley and Robin Beitra will take us through the creation of Firestorm, the Guardian‘s multimedia story on a bushfire in Tasmania. Henley will talk us through the storytelling and Beitra will be able to explain how it was built.
Jon Henley was the writer on Firestorm. A senior Guardian feature writer and former foreign correspondent, he has reported for the paper from more than 20 countries and was for 10 years its chief Paris correspondent. His work has been shortlisted for several awards including Feature Writer of the Year (British Press Awards) and Best Digital Innovation (Foreign Press Association, for the Twitter-based series Greece on the Breadline telling the stories of ordinary people in Greece’s economic crisis).
Robin Beitra is a software developer with a background in creating museum installations and online games. As part of the Guardian Interactive Team he now works on a wide range of multimedia projects for the website, and was a core member of the Firestorm team.
Lightning Pitches – 3 minute windows into the worlds of:
Alex Wood, Tech City News
Tassos Stevens, Coney
Also an early heads up: Hacks/Hackers July Meetup will be on whistle blowing. Keep an eye out for further announcements.
