Introducing…Hacks/Hackers Manchester

Update: I’ve been alerted to the fact that some people have already been working on this for Manchester, but it’s been under wraps until now. Nonetheless, we’re going to co-operate and hopefully produce something in the near future. The post below still stands as a mission statement, but I’ll leave it up to the concerned parties to announce where Hacks/Hackers Manchester is headed.

Hacks/Hackers is an organisation in the US that encourages people from journalism and technology communities to come together. Recently they leapt across the pond with last week’s launch of Hacks/Hackers London. A whole new realm of possibilities can be created from this kind of participation.

It’s with this in mind that I’d like to announce the formation of a similar event for Manchester. The city already has a friendly, knowledgeable and prolific journalism and digital scene. It’s already very open to collaboration, and events like the Social Media Cafe regularly show that people from across all industries frequently come together to chat and exchange ideas. I’ve been in touch with Hacks/Hackers HQ as to whether we’ll officially integrate into their wider online community, but we certainly have goals and aspirations that are in line with their mission statement.

In many ways, data-driven journalism has been thrown into the mainstream by the recent coverage of Julian Assange’s Wikileaks over the past month. For many people, it represents a goldmine of new opportunities and strategies. With Columbia University launching a combined master’s degree in journalism and computer science, and national newspapers starting to specifically employ coders, journalists are grasping the nettle and widen their understanding of the web to implement ideas previously written in a notepad and never followed up.

I’ve always wanted to be able to make data visualisations, and that’s now possible by presenting a coder with the raw information and letting them get to work on the nitty gritty. The value of this is two-fold. First, I can use these projects to better engage a reading audience and add value to text-only stories. Second, coders (hopefully) get an exciting project to work on using real statistics as a form of digital storytelling.

By virtue of this, Manchester is the ideal place to launch another branch of Hacks/Hackers. A passionate hyperlocal scene in the northwest (the likes of Inside the M60, Blog Preston and Saddleworth News) has already shown it’s the ideal proving ground for innovation. Hacks/Hackers Manchester has the potential to be a really worthwhile event that can enrich new forms of journalism by harnessing the power of data and programming proficiency, as well as providing a social event for people who are interested in the ideas listed above.

I’m meeting with a few people next week in order to think through some strategies to get it going, and we’ll be presenting a few ideas at the next Manchester Social Media Cafe. If you’re a coder looking to collaborate with some journalists or vice versa, then come along to hear what we’ve come up with. Alternatively if you fall into neither of the above then feel free to turn up as well! The concept is very much in an embryonic stage and we welcome ideas from everyone.