Thanks to all of you who posted ideas for future events at the meetup site. I’d like to bring the conversation over here because meetup doesn’t allow commenting on ideas beyond simply “liking” them.

So far, this suggestion has received the most interest:

Forget “hack day” – Hackers need to learn to be Hacks – Shadow Hacks for a day!

One of the ongoing tensions in this space is that it seems that the tools that Hackers are developing only solve a subset of problems that face journalism today. Many of the Hackers on last week’s panel didn’t quite seem to understand some of the concerns that Hacks have – I heard some very unsatisfactory answers to many of issues that the Hacks raised. The last thing we need is a “hack day” – seems like a lazy response to last week’s meeting. Let’s instead have “Hackers” spend a day shadowing the “Hacks” – doing some learning away from the laptop, and trying a little harder to understand how journalistic content is created. A little personal experience research goes a long way!

That idea came in apparent response to a call for a Hack Day with prizes — which we are definitely looking at doing in the near future.

Can’t we all get along? We need to look forward and both sides need each other to create quality, engaging media.

Hacks/Hackers aims to create a space where everyone can learn from each other. So yes, I think Hackers could shadow Hacks and vice-versa.

I hope we can all appreciate the hard work that everyone does and not point fingers of blame for the sometimes painful transition that we are now living through. Everyone saw the Internet revolution coming, but some chose to stick their heads in the sand.

Can’t we all get along? We need to look forward and both sides need each other to create quality, engaging journalism. We need to get past the pain and seize the opportunities.

Please feel free to suggest other ideas for events below, or reach out to me directly.