The Linchpen

A random late-night thought and a few of the responses:

Journos & programmers are both curious about how systems work. The relationships & how they interact w those systems is different. Or not?

— Greg Linch (@greglinch) February 12, 2013

Space permitting, I would’ve cc’ed @jonathanstray @jayrosen_nyu on bit.ly/12pRIjh P.S. Has anyone explored “journalism as hacking?”

— Greg Linch (@greglinch) February 12, 2013

@greglinch @jayrosen_nyu they share some logic, but “hacking society’s systems” is way, way harder than programming jonathanstray.com/papers/Rittel_…

— jonathanstray (@jonathanstray) February 12, 2013

@jonathanstray @jayrosen_nyu True. But even at a basic level, exposing “vulnerabilities” in system & reporting them, there’s some similarity

— Greg Linch (@greglinch) February 12, 2013

@jonathanstray @jayrosen_nyu Ah, yes. I recall that paper and others from your solutions journalism post bit.ly/VQkBYD Good stuff!

— Greg Linch (@greglinch) February 12, 2013

@greglinch The Wealth of Networks, maybe not quite what you had in mind, is nonetheless fascinating.

— Sam Petulla (@spetulla) February 12, 2013

@jonathanstray @greglinch @jayrosen_nyu My pet theory is that economics is journalism hacking at the extreme.

— Sam Petulla (@spetulla) February 12, 2013

Ripe for discussion

Have you heard talk of “journalism as hacking?” (Not to be confused with journalists involved in hacking.) If so, please share links — or any thoughts — below!

I did a quick round-up of today’s #asnechat on news hackers. Enjoy!

Update: ASNE also Storified the chat.

Browsing my Google Reader on Sunday, I found a Q&A on Wired with Douglas Rushkoff discussing Program or be Programmed, a book I’d recommend to everyone.

Now before you leave because you don’t care about programming (you should care) or you think this will be too technical (it’s not), I need to clarify that the book is not so much about computer programming as it is about the more general concept of programming, plus understanding the biases of digital technology. As Rushkoff says, you either use the software or you are the software; you’re either the passenger or the driver, but not necessarily the mechanic. » Read the rest of this entry «

I’ll be gathering tweets and posting updates from the Poynter programming for journalists/journalism for programming seminar (see previous post) in this CoverItLive blog.

In sharing some SXSW links on Twitter yesterday, I mused about proposing a panel on rethinking our thinking and computational thinking.

But — alas! — Blake Eskin, editor of NewYorker.com, proposed a session on Why Journalists Need to Think Like Geeks (thanks for the heads-up, Will Mitchell). Based on the description and questions (a few are excerpted below), it seems to cover the bases pretty well:

2. How can we teach journalists to think about technology?
3. What’s the difference between how journalists and programmers think?
5. If technology gets better and easier to use, does journalists still need to understand its inner workings?

If you think it’s a good idea, mosey on over and give it a thumbs-up.

P.S. I really want to go SXSW Interactive 2011. Perhaps I could get invited to join a panel (nudge-nudge, wink-wink)…

UPDATE: Hacks/Hackers co-founder Burt Herman tipped me off to a related session he proposed. Check it out and vote it up, if you’re so inclined:

Hacking the News: Applying Computer Science to Journalism