Groups kick off 2016 with meetups and Connect events

Welcome to 2016, hacks and hackers! It’s been six weeks since our last newsletter and several groups have been keeping the fires burning, including San Francisco, which had its first Connect event last weekend. Here’s what’s coming up next:

The week ahead:

• Amsterdam stages a hackathon for refugees on Friday and Saturday, aiming to find solutions to the current migrant and refugee crisis in the Netherlands.
• The Missouri group holds its weekly lab in Columbia, Missouri, on Wednesday.
• Miami gathers for their weekly OpenHack on Monday to work on individual projects.
• Berlin hosts scientists on Tuesday to talk about what they and journalists can learn from each other.
• Halifax is having its first full session on Wednesday, featuring social media journalists from local outlets.
• London comes together for a Connect event on Friday and Saturday. Keep reading for more on the Connect series.

Group spotlight:

San Francisco held its Connect event last weekend, a two-day media entrepreneurship extravaganza, aimed at planting seeds for new media ventures. Check out some of the lessons learned at #hhconnect and #hhcxn.

The next Connect event will take place in London next week, Feb. 5-6. Applications to be a participant have closed, but they’re still looking for volunteers – email cassiewerber@gmail.com if you’re interested. You can find the details on the event here and follow along on Twitter.

Worth a read:

• Jeremy Merrill, a journalist and programmer at NYT, and one of the brains behind Tabula, made an airplane tracker for his windowsill (Mashable)
• Speaking of air travel, Quartz tracked private helicopters in Switzerland using a hand-built antenna on an apartment rooftop (Quartz)
• The latest round of Knight News Challenge projects had the theme of “data,” and 17 winners were announced on Tuesday (Knight)
• The “Snowpiercer” Scenario: WNYC is bunkering down and planning for the ultimate snowstorm using data, interviews and wild speculation (WNYC)

Job openings:

• The American-Statesman in Austin, Texas, is looking for a news apps specialist
• Northeastern University in Boston is looking for a Digital Production Manager with a passion and expertise for turning storytelling into a digital experience
• The Reynolds Journalism Institute is taking applications for fellowships in Columbia, Mo.
• The BBC has an opening for a Social API Developer in London

Call to action:

Let’s start 2016 with a clean slate: What is something you learned in 2015? Just one thing. Doesn’t have to be the best or deepest or most important – just pick one at random. Shoot me a response to this email and I’ll share it, or share it with everybody at #hackshackers.

Another call to action: If you know of a job, event, group to highlight or even just a reading suggestion, respond to this email and it will reach Samantha Sunne, our new newsletter writer. Thanks, everybody! Here’s to a 2016 full of journohacks.

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