January 27, 2020 | Elections, Innovation, Registration
Texas Tribune, ISOJ and Hacks/Hackers join forces on hackathon to promote engagement ahead of 2020 election
Due to the cancellation of in-person events for ISOJ 2020, this hackathon has been canceled.
Developers, designers, researchers, journalists and political junkies are invited to convene to build tools to inform and educate voters ahead of the 2020 election.
The Texas Tribune, in partnership with the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas and Hacks/Hackers, will host the “Code before the vote” hackathon in which attendees will find ways to encourage engagement throughout this election year. Same as in 2019, the organizations are holding the hackathon in advance of the International Symposium on Online Journalism (ISOJ).
“We’re excited to host an event like this for a second-straight year,” said Andrew Gibson, Texas Tribune front-end engineer. “Elections always offer opportunities for experimenting in digital media, and bringing in international participants from ISOJ means the projects should have relevance to more than just an American audience.”
On Thursday, April 23, participants will meet at Studio 919 at The Texas Tribune for a day of collaboration and coding in cross-disciplinary teams. Each group will present its tool or concept to a panel of judges. The projects must be nonpartisan in nature.
Those wanting to participate need to RSVP for this free event by filling out a brief questionnaire. Breakfast, lunch and snacks will be provided.
Last year’s hackathon focused on building tools to “measure and boost trust in news.” People from across the globe participated, with the winning team developing a “nutrition facts” label for news articles.
Registrants for this year’s hackathon are invited to also register for ISOJ, which takes place at the Blanton Museum of Art on the University of Texas at Austin campus April 24-25. The conference brings together media executives, journalists, academics and others interested in the news industry for a conversation on the present and future of online journalism.