Over the last week and a bit, Michelle Thorne (@thornet) and myself have been on a bit of a road-trip — up, down and around the UK (Dundee, London & Manchester), promoting the Knight-Mozilla News Technology Partnership. These physical events formed part of the whirlwind worldwide schedule and related specifically to the x3 #MoJo challenges.
The Quest: ‘Hack the Future of Journalism Online.’
Take a room full of designers, developers and journalists — add Beer, Pizza & Fun — team them up with innovative peers and brainstorm ideas that help journalists take advantage of the open web and engage with citizens in new ways.
Along the way any entrants have the opportunity to directly qualify for a yearlong paid fellowship at The Guardian, BBC, Zeit Online, Al Jazeera English, Boston Globe by entering their ideas during or after the jam to the online challenge platform.
The Challenges
The focus of the events centered around three specific challenges:
- Unlocking Video: Tell stories better w/ video online
- Beyond Comment Threads: Re-invent commenting and discussion
- People-Powered News: What would you build to make news better for the people who create and read it?
Event #1: Dundee
Supported by Mozilla, Knight Foundation & Product Design Dundee — over 100 enthusiastic, albeit bleary-eyed jammers, led by Jon Rogers attended.
After dragging ourselves out of bed for a 9:30am start, we made our way to the Student Union to kick-off this fun, intense & action-packed day fueled by Irn Bru. We were also joined by Devon Walshe (Hacks/Hackers Edinburgh) & Paul Egglestone (University of Central Lancashire).
Video Highlight
One of the days highlights was this hilarious sketch ‘Anatomy of a Comment Thread‘:
Coverage
Some of the coverage on the blogosphere included:
- ‘Mojo Dundee Roundup‘ (Devon Walshe)
- ‘Jute[bar], [Ideas] Jam, and Journalism – #ProductDundee finds its #MoJo‘ (Jon Rogers)
- ‘Knight-Mozilla Ideas Jam‘ (iGiveADamn)
- ‘Mozilla Mojo Liveblog‘ (Ryan Cormack)
- ‘Edinburgh hacks and hackers teaming up for news innovation day‘ (Michael MacLeod)
Event #2: London
Supported by Mozilla, Knight Foundation & The Guardian — 75 enthusiastic folk from various disciplines & backgrounds came together to jam, last Saturday.
The day kick-started with a few ice-breakers followed by talks from Mark Surman (Mozilla Foundation), Paul Lewis (Guardian), Alastair Dant (Guardian), Jonathan Austin (BBC). Joining us were also two Hacks/Hackers chapters represented by Joanna Geary (Hacks/Hackers London) & Jennifer Lee (Hacks/Hackers NYC).
Video Highlight
One of the days highlights was the slightly oddball ‘Badger Project‘ featuring Voldemort as an expert!:
Coverage
Some of the coverage on the blogosphere included:
- ‘Knight-Mozilla News Innovation Jam‘ (Martin Belam)
- ‘A Bit of NewsJam MoJo – SocialGeo Twitter Map‘ (Tony Hirst)
- ‘Typical f***in’ hack – brings a pen to a laser fight‘ (John Paul Simpson)
- ‘Paul Lewis, Alastair Dant & Jonathan Austin at the Knight-Mozilla News Innovation Jam‘ (Martin Belam)
Event #3: Manchester
Although our batteries were running low — we recharged, boarded a Virgin tilt train up north, and headed to the BBC Manchester Club. It was a small, intimate crowd of about 20 jammers who spent around 3 hours powering their way through multiple ideas.
In attendance was Andrew Leimdorfer from the BBC Specials Team — the team within which one of the lucky fellows will find themselves placed. We were also privileged to be joined by Ian Forrester — a BBC stalwart that shared some of the thinking from the BBC R&D team.
What is the Knight-Mozilla News Technology Partnership?
The Knight-Mozilla News Technology Partnership (aka “MoJo”) is a three-year partnership between the Knight Foundation and Mozilla to harness open Web innovation for journalism. Through a series of innovation challenges and community events, we will identity 15 fellows that will be embedded in leading newsrooms around the world. These fellows will create new tools, ideas, and news experiences that benefit both readers and newsmakers—all using open technologies. Learn more.
To stay informed follow @knightmozilla on Twitter and sign up for our community list to stay up to date with the challenges.
How to Enter
To enter, simply submit a rough idea or napkin sketch. You can do this however you see fit. For this first stage, we’re interested in learning how you would tackle the problem. We can work together to advance your ideas.
You have until June 5th at 11:59 ET (GMT -5) to make your submission. Good luck!
Tags: al jazeera english, bbc, boston.com, drumbeat, dundee, hacks/hackers, journalism, knight news, knight-mozilla, manchester, mojo, mozilla, news, the guardian, university of dundee, zeit online
