Morons.org - Engage Your Brain. Our Strange World - Give Me Your Weird, Your Morbid... Palewire. The Knight-Mozilla OpenNews project has posed a question: Why should talented computer programmers decide to work in a newsroom? I can’t say it as roundly as Derek Willis, as encyclopedically as ProPublica’s crew or as big sisterly as Michelle Minkoff. But, if the World Wide Web would welcome yet another humble opinion into congregation, let me lift up for a minute. Why develop in the newsroom? Because data are used to tell stories. This is not news. You may have heard them say things like: We must close dozens of public schools to improve education; Aggressively frisking people makes our city a better place; Or, a personal favorite of mine, a balloon-payment mortgage with no money down is the bank doing you a favor.
Our society needs independent voices that can understand, vet and — if necessary — challenge the claims underpinning such stories, where powerful forces use facts and figures to justify their actions. I’m proud to say, my colleagues in the media have often answered the call. Johnathon Weare - Johnathon Weare. Current work GreenGeek Ltd Managing Director Free Open Source Software (FOSS) Advocacy/Access Free Open Source Software (FOSS) Projects Also © 2009 Johnny Weare. Hackdiary. Free the Media | "Don't hate the media. Become the media." Jello Biafra. Simply Appalling. PressThink. Think Progress.