This is your last update until 2016 — the newsletter will be on hiatus until the new year. Happy holidays and may the rest of your 2015 be full of good cheer.

The week(s) ahead:

• In D.C., the group has its holiday mixer with DC Media Innovations and The DC MUG.
• Hacks/Hackers Portland hears from KBOO News Research Club about how and why to access public records.
• In Miami, the group will be taking part in the Massive Journalism Holiday Extravaganza.
• In Birmingham, UK, the group hears from Paul Bradshaw about how to use the Freedom of Information Act for stories and data.
• Hacks/Hackers Toronto continues its Pub Night series.
• Hacks/Hackers NYC and GeoNYC pair up for an end of the year holiday party.
• In Vienna, the group meets about “#GuteDaten” (good deeds for good data), holds lightning talks, and then gathers for holiday drinks.
• In the San Francisco hacks and hackers with gather at the All Media Holiday Party.
• Hacks/Hackers Zürich hosts an event about data journalism in the newsrooms of Switzerland’s largest publisher, Tamedia.

Job openings:

• Code For Africa and the International Budget Partnership has a one-year fellowship in Nairobi to fact check the accuracy and relevance of budgetary and/or statistical claims made by public figures and the media.
• Pew Research Center is looking for a front end developer.

(Have a job opening to share? Let us know.)

Group spotlight: Hacks/Hackers Colorado

Last night, hacks and hackers gathered in snowy Denver to hear from several great speakers, including a reporter who covered the shooting at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs.

Another notable speaker was Open Media Foundation’s Leo Kacenjar who spoke about a tool he built for searching videos of public meetings. Check out the tool and other tweets from the event.  

Leo Kacenjar speaks at Hacks/Hackers Colorado’s meetup on Dec. 8.

Worth a read:

• Amy Webb’s tech trends report (WebbMedia Group)
• New book looks at data journalism in the newsroom (Nieman Lab)
• AP considers ethics of robot journalism with Automated Insights (MediaShift)
• How NYT vet Denise Warren is trying to modernize Tribune Publishing (DigiDay)

Call to action:

Share your favorite pieces of data-driven or interactive journalism of 2015. You can post them on our Facebook page, or share on Twitter using #HHreads.

That’s all for this week.

A note from the author: This is my last week writing the newsletter for Hacks/Hackers. Thanks to everyone who’s replied, contributed, and offered feedback over the past few months. I hope it’s a fun read for you each week. – Julia Haslanger

Produced by Julia Haslanger. Say hi: @JuliaJRH