Code Convening Austin: April 2016
Are you or your colleagues working on a bot or automated project that would be useful to the journalism community? Do you need some structured time away from daily work to put the finishing touches on an open-source release? Then you should apply to participate in our OpenNews Code Convening this April in Austin, Texas.

Developers, journalists, and analysts have been crunching numbers with code for years, but now we're starting to see algorithms take on a whole new class of tasks. They keep watch for earthquakes, and automatically file news briefs every time one strikes. They let reporters know when the name of someone they cover matches a report from last night's police logs. They make updating servers as simple as typing "deploy plz" into chat. Well-written bots and automated scripts are tireless, and they can humanize the way we interact with data, code, and stories.

If you're working on a project involving automation or conversational UI, we'd love to hear about it. On April 18-19, OpenNews will bring a cohort of news developers and journalists to Austin, where you'll get a chance to introduce your work and get feedback from others, then spend two days polishing code and writing documentation before releasing a fresh open-source version of your project. We've found this format to be productive and fun, and we'll spend plenty of time helping you prep before the actual event.

Code convenings are designed to give promising newsroom projects the last nudge they need toward an open-source release. These events works great with teams of two, or with individuals, depending on the scale of work. OpenNews will cover your travel, hotel, and meal costs; all you need to bring is a great project to get out into the world.

Project proposals will be open through Wednesday, March 23, at 9pm Eastern. We have space for a small number of individuals and/or teams for this event, so apply now and we'll be in touch soon.
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About you
Name
Email address
Employer
In what city are you based?
Your project
What project are you working on?
Name, description, and GitHub link would be great. An example of it being used in the wild is really helpful, too.
Do you have permission to open-source this project?
How might it be reusable by other news organizations?
What type of work would you plan to do at the convening?
Will two days of work be enough time to finish up a new release? If you feel like your project will need more work, tell us here! We do a lot of prep before these events, so we can find ways to make longer timelines work.
Your team
Who would you bring to work with you?
We love to see colleagues pair up on projects, so if there's another developer, designer, or fellow journalist you'd like to work with, please tell us about them here. If you need help finding the right person, or if you think you're fine working solo, you can let us know that, too.
Are you able to spend two days at this event?
It's important for your news organization to understand that these are focused events, and you would not be available for day-to-day work (unexpected fires excluded, of course.) If it would be helpful for us to provide details to a manager or editor, just let us know.
Tell us about your news organization; what do you think it will bring to this event?
One of the things we love about this format is the cross-team collaboration, taking advantage of being in the same room even while working on different projects. We're excited to have new or underrepresented points of view in the room.
Members of underrepresented communities
It's important to us to gather a diverse cohort for each code convening. This question is strictly optional and all answers are confidential—we may discuss our demographic data in aggregate, but we will never reveal specific answers. If you are comfortable doing so, please check any boxes that apply to you.
Do you identify as a:
Please note those underrepresented groups here:
(If you checked "Member of another group underrepresented in journalism or technology")
Closing
Anything else you think we should know?
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