Open Source Bridge

Excerpt

Description

As more news organizations embrace and experiment with the possibilities of journalism on the open web, the community of coders, designers, and data geeks working within newsrooms continues to expand. Civic hackers and open source developers are joining newsrooms or developing projects that connect journalists and readers with information to better understand the world around us. Plus, people who have been at this for years are eager to share their expertise and support the development of new leaders.

Knight-Mozilla OpenNews has found that there are a variety of ways to support this community and leadership development within it. Central to our approach is meeting people where they are already at and giving them the support they ask for, not dictating what we think they need. In this talk, we’ll discuss some of what we’ve learned about:

• Engaging new members in the community, often from different fields or backgrounds that are under-represented in journalism technology
• Reaching out to existing groups to collaborate and share resources and lessons
• Creating spaces for community members to share and learn from one another
• Supporting community members in developing leadership skills and broadening the group of people peers look to as leaders

Journalism development has a long history with open source, as tools like Django and Backbone began in newsrooms. The community-driven ethos of open source remains a part of much newsroom development.

Tags

journalism, leadership, community

Speaking experience

Speaker

• 

  Erika Owens

  Knight-Mozilla OpenNews
  • Website: http://opennews.org/
  • Blog: http://erikaowens.com/
  • Twitter: erika_owens

  Biography

  Erika is a web journalist based in Philadelphia, Pa. She works with Knight-Mozilla OpenNews to help journalists, developers, designers, data geeks, and civic hackers create awesome projects together on the open web. Prior to joining OpenNews, Erika was web editor at the Philadelphia Public School Notebook where she oversaw the Notebook’s site as it became the go-to place for news and conversation about public education in Philadelphia. She loves nonprofit journalism, people watching, and laughing heartily.

  Sessions

  • * From navel gazing to ass kicking: Building leadership in the journalism code community
    • Title: From navel gazing to ass kicking: Building leadership in the journalism code community
    • Track: Culture
    • Room: B301
    • Time: 2:30 – 3:15pm
    • Excerpt:

      Amidst all the hand wringing surrounding the “future of journalism,” developers, designers, and data geeks working in newsrooms are building projects and tools that engage readers and ripple across the web. We’ll discuss ways this community welcomes, supports, and promotes new members and leaders.

    • Speakers: Erika Owens