We’re happy to announce our next Hacks Meet Hackers event, to take place in Liverpool on Friday July 16, 2010 from 9.30am to 8pm at the Arts and Design Academy.

The *free* hack day, sponsored by LJMU Open Labs and Liverpool Daily Post & Liverpool Echo, is for both developers and journalists. For additional sponsorship opportunities please contact aine [at] scraperwiki.com.

• You can book tickets on Eventbrite at this link

Can’t get to Liverpool? Don’t worry – we’ve got more UK hack days in the pipeline: get in touch to find out more about attending or sponsoring one.

So what’s this hack day all about?  It’s a practical event at which web developers and designers will pair up with journalists and bloggers to produce a number of projects and stories based on public data.

Who’s it for? We hope to attract hacks and hackers from all different types of backgrounds: people from big media organisations, as well as individual online publishers and freelancers.

What will you get out of it? The aim is to show journalists how to use programming and design techniques to create online news stories and features; and vice versa, to show programmers how to find, develop, and polish stories and features.

How much? NOTHING! It’s free, thanks to our sponsors.

What should participants bring? We would encourage people to come along with ideas for local ‘datasets’ that are of interest. In addition we will create a list of suggested data sets at the introduction on the morning of the event but flexibility is key for this event.

But what exactly will happen on the day itself? Armed with their laptops and WIFI, journalists and developers will be put into teams of around four to develop ideas, with the aim of finishing final projects that can be published and shared publicly. Each team will then present their project to the whole group. Overall winners will receive a prize at the end of the day. Food and drink will be provided during the day!

Any more questions? Please get in touch via aine[at] scraperwiki.com.