Miami plans its first Media Party; Brisbane relaunches

Happy Friday, hacks and hackers! I thought about putting an April Fool’s joke in here, but don’t worry. I wouldn’t do that to you.

Before we see what the groups are up to, I want to bring your attention to the Website Action Group’s Request for Interest for developing and designing a brand new website for www.hackshackers.com.

Interested parties should read the RFI and submit their proposals to info@hackshackers.com by April 11, 2016. Questions and comments regarding the RFP can be addressed to the Website Action Committee via GitHub.

The week ahead:

And last but not least, the Hacks/Hackers global open call will take place next Tuesday, April 5, at 1600 UTC. There are options for joining online, dialing in from outside the U.S., and simply following along on the notepad. Tune in!

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Group spotlight:

Brisbane, Australia, held a showcase last week featuring work by not just a graphics designer, but also its own members. Co-organizer Simon Elvery said committing to a monthly meetup schedule has helped the group re-launch this year.

”It’s really helpful to have shared responsibility for organising them and also that one organiser is an academic at one of Brisbane’s biggest journalism schools (Daniel Angus) while the other (me) works for the News Digital division of the national broadcaster (the ABC).”

Worth a read:

  • The NYT is joining the podcast bandwagon with a new team to create several news and opinion podcasts by 2017 (Nieman Lab)
  • Sarah Jeong explains how Microsoft could have prevented their Twitter bot from spiraling into abhorrent racism (Vice)
  • Digital news is thriving more in Finland and the UK than other European countries (Nieman Lab)
  • That media startup by Jill Abramson – the one that was going to pay writers $100,000 – will probably never materialize (Poynter)

Job openings: