The global network that works for the future of journalism has found its niche in Asunción, Paraguay’s capital, since May of this year. With the support and enthusiasm of Web developers, designers, journalists, communicators, and professionals from different fields, Hacks/Hackers Asunción has launched its first activities eager to build an active community of innovators ready to take journalism to the next level.

In order to spread the concept of data journalism — relatively new in Paraguay — and to discuss the implications of this emerging field, a number of introductory workshops with journalists have marked the initial stages of Hacks/Hackers Asunción. ABC Color and Ultima Hora, two of the most well known newspapers in the country, and the digital news site Ea, were the first to receive members of HHAsu for the workshops. The presentations and discussions centered around the evolution of journalism through the years, the definition and the relevance of open data in our daily lives, and the opportunities that digital tools offer to journalists to amplify the impact of a story. Cases from the The Guardian, The Washington Post and La Nación Data served to exemplify the kind work that can be done in Paraguay and motivated brainstorming sessions for future projects.

Members of the local group have also been to radio shows and discussion panels to talk about Hacks/Hackers and to invite more people into the initiative. “We found out about Hacks/Hackers in September 2012, at the Media Party in Buenos Aires“, says Maricarmen Sequera (@marsebu), a member of HHAsu and the civic-tech NGO TEDIC, in an interview for La Factory magazine. In October, Jazmín Acuña (@simonajaz), also a member of the local group, was part of the panel “The challenges of journalism in the open data era“, led by Daniel Santoro from Argentina’s Clarín and Carlos Huertas from Connectas.

At the panel, organized by the Foro de Periodistas del Paraguay (FOPEP), the International Center for Journalists and Connectas, speakers discussed about the limitations and the advances in the struggle to access public information and the role of journalists in this context. Acuña emphasized that training is key to process large flows of public data. “Data journalism is not an option. It’s a necessity“, she expressed.

In the future, Hacks/Hackers Asunción will continue engaging people with more activities to expand and strengthen the HHAsu community, which already has more than 50 members. In the short run, the introductory workshops for journalists will keep on, while members of the local group are already preparing a set of advanced courses for those interested in learning how to use digital tools. Also, through a number of informal gatherings between journalists and developers, we expect to render some projects. Last but not least, HHAsu is preparing the ground for Futuromedia 2014, the first international event in Asunción on data journalism upcoming next year.