The New Year for OpenNews kicked off with an incredible feature on Source about the “Snow Fall” story in the New York Times. It was awesome how Erin Kissane made that story happen in a week that many people (including me) were on vacation. She had it ready to publish on January 1. On top of the kickass story, a great conversation began in the comments. And people just keep commenting. The comments demonstrate so clearly the community that is coalescing around Source and around journalism and code more broadly. My favorite comment came from an educator who talked about ways to use the original story and the Source follow-up in her undergraduate class. It just so perfectly encapsulated what I’m looking forward to with OpenNews for this year: documenting great work, learning together, and supporting this growing community.

It’s January, which means it’s time for Fun-a-Day. I’ve dabbled with Fun-a-Day in the past and always enjoy the wrap-up show. Last year I wrote zine-related journal entries. Didn’t want to just write again this year, but I have no skills in the visual arts so, photo captions! It’s still writing, but will get me thinking about images and thinking about documenting events. Looking back at old photos, even a few words on the back can bring the image to life instead of it being a static scene of who knows what. I’d like to get better at documentation of many forms this year so I hope this will be one step in that direction, and in the process I may learn a little about family, friends, and what the heck I’ve seen on my travels.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to my call for writing suggestions. I got about 27 responses and rounding up, that’s $150 to donate to literacy organizations. I chose to split it between For Love of Children in D.C., Young Chicago Authors, and the Center for Literacy in Philly.

A lot of the advice boiled down to: Just fucking do it. Just write. Do it. Whatever you need to do, wherever you need to be, however you need to motivate yourself, do it. I appreciate the wide variety of examples people shared about how to actually get out of your own head and start getting words on the page. It was neat to hear stories I never knew from old friends and to hear from folks I’ve never even met.

I marvel at that map. OpenNews sponsored 21 hack days around the world during 2012. Mozilla, of course, is an international organization, and that map shows so clearly how international it and the journalism technology community are. And, 2013 is already on track to include events in Africa and in areas of Europe and Asia where OpenNews has not been before.* So, what all do those pins on the map represent?

In the same way that all kids love dinosaurs, I think everyone spends at least some portion of life loving words. Whether it be their commandment power over parents that is more effective than vague crying or the aggressive quality when wielded against classmates or the way a well-written assignment could earn the admiration of teachers or the transporting power of a psychedelic school bus. Some of us then become paleontologists and writers, while others of us take photos of animatronic dinosaurs at museums and aspirationally list “writer” as occupation on their passport.

As Mitchell Baker put it in her Mozilla Festival keynote, “imagine if you had to ask permission every time you wanted to write something on a piece of paper.” The liberating power of writing is what gets a lot of people into journalism and into programming. A pen and a pad. A keyboard and a command line. Simple items that hold power to inform, engage, motivate.

Baker was referring to the work Mozilla is doing to open up mobile, but that concept is also applicable to the work of OpenNews. Throughout the Festival, some of the brightest folks in the journalism-technology community showed the possibilities for journalism when you have the skills to analyze, develop, and report, without needing to ask permission.

This year there’s a new feature at the Online News Association conference, The Midway. After people took to the halls last year to have unconference sessions, ONA organizers decided to create a space for discussion and learning about new projects. At 2:15 p.m. on Friday, I will be there to chat about the just-announced Code Sprints and OpenNews generally, including the big news of an official launch date for Source: October 16!

At last year’s conference, OpenNews director Dan Sinker led a post-lunch keynote about open source in the newsroom. After a rebranding of the project and a year of incredible work, there’s a lot of news to share about OpenNews. More than that, Code Sprints and Source are both focused on strengthening, and helping to expand, the community of news developers. Code Sprints are designed to solve real problems in newsrooms and I’m interested in talking with folks, particularly from smaller news organizations, about project ideas for the program. For people already working on awesome projects, Source is a fabulous opportunity to share lessons and suggestions with the broader news development community. I look forward to meeting folks who have pieces they’d like to contribute or suggestions of types of posts they’d find most useful.

This week, in the midst of Olympics excitement, The Guardian and BBC described what it’s like to host a Knight-Mozilla OpenNews fellow and encouraged you to apply to join them or one of six other news organizations as a 2013 Knight-Mozilla Fellow.

The Guardian posted a video featuring current fellow Nicola Hughes talking about what it’s been like working on the Guardian’s interactive team. At the BBC, there will be major changes in 2013 and Andrew Leimdorfer detailed how their Knight-Mozilla Fellow will be involved.

In 2013, the Knight-Mozilla fellowship will place eight developers in leading newsrooms around the world. The deadline to apply is coming up very soon: August 11. We need your help getting the word out. To that end, I’ve drafted some pitches for different groups who may be interested in the incredible experience this fellowship offers:

• Hackers who love to build stuff and would like to spend 10 months doing just that
• Grad students and other folks looking for adventures as they figure out their next step
• Developers who want to get engaged in the international tech-journalism scene
• Hacker activists who are interested in open journalism that empowers communities

Hackers

What if going to hackathons were actually part of your job? Apply to be a Knight-Mozilla OpenNews fellow and you could spend 10 months traveling the world attending hack days while being anchored with a major newsroom. You’ll get the best of both worlds: a variety of problem types and teammates at the  hack days and journalists to work with on longer-term projects at your home newsroom. After 10 months, you’re sure to leave with an expanded skillset, a bursting github account, and some captivating travel stories.

Sometimes I like to shout things at inanimate objects. The TV. My computer. Cars that are trying to kill me while I’m biking or are just parked halfway into the road. You know.

When I saw that the Knight-Mozilla OpenNews project was hiring a Community Manager, I shouted at my computer “that’s me!”

And, turns out, it is me. It actually is. I signed the papers this week and will be starting with Mozilla next month as the OpenNews Community Manager. I am beyond elated and cannot wait to start working full-time supporting this incredibly inspiring community around journalism and code.