+Ory Okolloh <https://plus.google.com/104641326637215074423> helped change the way that Africans monitor elections & politicians when she cofounded the +Ushahidi crisis-mapping platform and the Mzalendo website that tracks the performance of Kenyan Members of Parliament in 2007. She is currently Google's manager for policy and government relations in Africa. Okolloh will share ideas and feedback on *new* ideas from HacksHackers members for empowering ordinary citizens in the run-up to the next Kenyan elections. This will include discussion, during an "open mike" session, about new civic technologies, open data, and mobile platform opportunities for the media and other civic watchdogs. The talk is the 2nd in a series of civic brainstorming sessions and Code4Democracy hackathons planned by +Hacks/Hackers Africa<https://plus.google.com/112462779059220191902>'s network of chapters in Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda & Zambia. Join the umbrella G+<https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/112462779059220191902/112462779059220191902/posts> or Facebook <http://www.facebook.com/HacksHackersAfrica> pages if you want to be kept informed, or sign-up at HacksHackers Nairobi's gGroup<https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/hackshackers-nairobi> . HacksHackers Nairobi chapter members will also showcase some of their own project proposals to the $1m +African News Innovation Challenge and will strategise about which common resources and civic media projects should be prioritised as collaborative ventures for the chapter. The Nairobi meetup will take place at iHUB, *at 6pm on August 7*, in partnership with the Code4Kenya open data initiative, the Pawa254 journalism incubator and the Bloggers Association of Kenya (BAKE). *PROGRAMME >* 6.00pm - Opening & brief intro to the global HacksHackers movement 6.10pm - Launching Nairobi's chapter of HacksHackers (HH-NBO) 6.20pm - 10 Kenyan civic media submissions to ANIC 6.30pm - OPEN MIKE SESSION with Ory Okolloh (Google Africa policy manager) 7.20pm - HH-NBO Project Proposals - civic watchdog ideas for HH collaboration 7.40pm - Quick overview of voting process for project selection 7.45pm - Refreshments / Networking *BACKGROUND > HacksHackers* The worlds of technologists and journalists are coming together, as reporting goes digital and Internet companies becomes media empires. Journalists call themselves "hacks", someone who can churn out words in any situation. Hackers use the digital equivalent of duct tape to whip out code. Hacker-journalists try to bridge these two worlds. But not all hacks can be hackers, and not all hackers can be hacks. HacksHackers therefore brings together everyone who is working to help ordinary citizens make sense of their world. It is for hackers exploring technologies to filter and visualise information, and for journalists who use technology to find and tell stories. In the age of information overload and the collapse of traditional business models for legacy media, their work has become even more crucial. The African Media Initiative <http://www.africanmediainitiative.org/> (AMI), the continent's largest umbrella association of media owners, recognises this and is spearheading the establishment of a network of 20 HacksHackers chapters across Africa to bring together pioneers for collaborative projects and new ventures. Other AMI digital initiatives include the www.AfricanNewsChallenge.org <http://www.africannewschallenge.org/>, Code4Kenya, the AMI Prototype Fund, and Code4Democracy partnerships. *Please register: * https://docs.google.com/a/africanmediainitiative.org/spreadsheet/viewform?fo...