Blog Post

To Plan a Successful Hackathon, Start with “Why?”

The key to organizing a hackathon is to start with “Why?”

As Simon Sinek says in "Start with Why", great leaders inspire action because what motivates them is the meaning of a situation, not what to do or how to do it.

Sinek explains how the Wright brothers, young farmers who never finished high school, became the first to build a machine that could fly, although their main rival for that claim had financial support from the U.S. War Department and was beloved by the New York Times. Why did the Wright brothers succeed?

The Unstoppable Ascent of Data Journalism in Latin America

Not only will the upcoming DataBootCamp of Bolivia be the first event of its kind in Latin America, it will be the highest-altitude data journalism event the world has seen so far.

Journalists, programmers and designers will gather in the capital, La Paz, whose altitude reaches more than 11,800 feet (3,600 meters) above sea level.

Journalists Can Now Use OpenData Latinoamérica to Find, Share Reliable Data

We can’t do data journalism without reliable data. Accurate source data is just as important to data journalism as a reliable human source is to a reporter’s interview. We need a central repository where you can share the data that you have already proved to be reliable. Our answer to this need: OpenData Latinoamérica, which we are leading as ICFJ Knight International Journalism Fellows.

How Journalists in High-Risk Situations Can Encrypt Their Documents

In high-risk situations, it is essential that journalists develop skills to protect their information. This is especially important for those who obtain sensitive or confidential data. The data stored by investigative journalists often show evidence of corruption by public officials or matters related to organized crime. For this reason, those who seek to attack journalists usually go after their computers or their mobile devices such as phones or tablets.

HackDash Helps Global Media Innovators Organize Teams and Projects

The concept behind HackDash is simple yet powerful: a web platform that brings people and ideas together and allows anyone to know the state of a project.

Site on Latin America’s Rich and Powerful Gives Users its Content

Poderopedia is a platform that reveals the relationships among elites in a country or region, especially in places where power is concentrated in the hands of a few people.

After winning the Knight News Challenge in 2011, we launched Poderopedia in Chile last fall.

Tsinghua University Forges Bloomberg Staff, Alumni Networks

May 8 (On Bloomberg) -- Editor-in-Chief Matthew Winkler spearheaded a groundbreaking project in China when in 2007 he set up a Bloomberg terminal lab at Tsinghua University.

Pakistan's Rural Reporters Use Social Media to Cover the Elections

ICFJ recently conducted a program training rural Pakistani journalists how to cover the country's upcoming general elections with the aim of highlighting issues important to rural citizens. As the country prepares for its first democratic transition of power May 11, the program provided almost 40 rural journalists with mobile devices, their own wireless "hotspots," and taught them to use Facebook and Twitter to cover issues important in their communities.

Tools From SXSW That Could Improve Access to News and Information

For the past two years, I’ve gone to South By Southwest’s (SXSW) Interactive Festival in search of ideas and tools to bring to journalism.

How to Create 'A Vibrant Space for Media Innovation'

We invited everyone who wanted to rethink journalism to our city’s first Hacks/Hackers event, and drew about 120 people.

Less than two years later, at 1,700 members strong (and growing), we’ve held more than 20 events and a Media Party with keynotes, workshops and a hackathon. Hacks/Hackers Buenos Aires has become a vibrant space for media innovation. We believe many people in Latin America would benefit from participating in Hacks/Hackers, so I'm helping drive its expansion in the region as part of my Knight International Journalism Fellowship.