The first, biggest change to the fourth annual BarCamp NewsInnovation is that, for the first time, it isn’t free for everyone.

We are charging $5, though those with a valid student ID can still get in free.

Like other unconferences and high-quality eventin recent years, we’ve struggled to coordinate between estimates for attendance and those who actually come — complicating supplies, rooms, food and more. Many have found a nominal fee can often help attendance reflect RSVPs more closely or at least more consistently. That’s what we’re hoping.

It’s a small fee, and if that total will keep anyone from coming, we will happily make accommodations — just contact us. Whatever money comes from it will go to breakfast, lunch and the after-party. Come on, where else are you going to get a day’s worth of food, beer and news innovation conversations for what you got for allowance as a kid?

Feel free to let us know if you think we’re being fools!

BarCamp NewsInnovation 2012 will, like last year, be among the closing events of Philly Tech Week, a region-wide celebration of technology and innovation.

See many of the other launch events here. The week takes place from April 23-28, in addition to a kickoff weekend of pre-events.

The third annual BarCamp NewsInnovation was live as ever with three prominent advancements.

1. Group Session: We had the dazzling Wall Street Journal social media editor Zach Seward talk deep analytics over lunch.
2. Open Gov Hackathon: With the support of the Tropo team, we had a hackathon focused on tools that journalists could use, and the OPA Data Liberator was among the results.
3. More free food and beer: We’ve always tried to give people value for their time, keeping people fed and quenched while they were talking the future of the news conversation. Well, if you don’t mind our saying, we’d suggest we outdid ourselves, with the generous support of the Center for Public Interest Journalism, we had an after-party at the nearby Draught Horse bar full of free beer and good eats.

The 150 journalists, practitioners and friends were fed well, talked much and learned plenty. Thanks to our sponsors.

Some roundups here:

• Bloggers, others gather — Inquirer preview on BarCamp NewsInnovation in print local section, in addition to a follow up piece after the event here
• BCNI Philly: GitHub for news by Daniel Bachhuber
• Do news orgs have a responsibility for action?: Notes from BarCamp NewsInnovation 2011 by this reporter
• More photos on Facebook

Thanks!

News production and technology are sure to continue to converge. It was why running concurrently with BCNI this year, we also organized the Open Gov Hackathon presented by Tropo.

“Journalism and coding collide in an explosion of awesome,” as Tropo developer and open gov enthusiast Mark Headd put it.

In the Temple TV studio, from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., three projects, with practical roles in informing communities were conceived, developed and unveiled, and all the hard work was celebrated with prizes, thanks to great sponsors.

1. As shared on Technically Philly, the day’s big win was the OPA Data Liberator, an online database of Philadelphia property owners searchable by name.
2. Code for America fellows polished off the Philadelphia Mural Guide, first shared at the Philly Tech Week Signature Event.
3. Headd continued work on his as-yet-unreleased side project: Philly Phinder, a text messaging service to find nearby locations of schools, libraries and other institutions.

For a day’s worth of work, ample prizes were bestowed, something we hope to do more of in the future:

OPA Data Liberator team members

• Team Captain Tim Wisniewski has earned a trip to the Glue Conference in Colorado later this month. This prize, secured in partnership with the organizers of the Glue Conference, will provide a trip to the conference to represent Philly and the project itself.
• Team Members Adam Hinz, Joanne Cheng, Mjumbe Poe and Gil Raphaelli received Tropo prize packs, including t-shirts and swag, in addition to tickets to see the Phillies play the Rockies on May 18th, thanks to Drupal development shop Zivtech.

Philadelphia Mural Guide members:

• Code for America fellows Aaron Ogle and John Mertens will each receive an Amazon Kindle, thanks to Tropo.

Mark Headd, well, he receives the joy of the open government movement.

Thanks to all who participated. Look for other hack projects, organized by Technically Philly and others.

Thanks to our sponsors!

Title and Happy Hour: Center for Public Interest Journalism

Event Space: Temple University Journalism department

Hackathon Sponsor: Tropo

General Sponsors: WarNewsRadio, Mozilla and Newsworks from WHYY

Hackathon support: Azavea

Like we did last year, we figured we’d get a little more excitement flowing by sharing just some of the logos from brands attendees will be representing tomorrow:

Here is a more detailed rough schedule for the 2011 BarCamp NewsInnovation:

Throughout, we’ll be encouraging BCNI attendees to check out the hackathon in the TV Studio room.

• 9 a.m.: Doors open at Annenberg Hall, Temple University, North Philadelphia
• 9:30 a.m.: Welcome, coffee and bagels [Board opens]
• 9:45 a.m.: Hackathon introduction with rules and timeline overview
• 10 a.m.-11 a.m.: Hackathon ideas and timing
• 10 a.m.-10:50 a.m.: First BCNI sessions
• 11 a.m.-4:30 p.m.: Hackathon building
• 11 a.m.-11:50 a.m.: Second round of BCNI sessions
• 12 p.m.-12:30 p.m.: Lunch, provided by the Temple University Journalism Department
• 12:30 p.m. -1 p.m.: Zach Seward group session and remainder of lunch
• 1:10 p.m.-2 p.m.: Third sessions
• 2:10 p.m. -3 p.m.: Fourth sessions
• 3 p.m.: Hackathon judges begin circulating
• 3:10 p.m.-4 p.m.: Fifth sessions
• 4:10 p.m. -5 p.m.: Sixth sessions
• 4:30 p.m. -5 p.m.: Hackathon internal presentations for judges
• 5:05 p.m.-5:10 p.m. Introduction of Center for Public Interest Journalism, title sponsor
• 5:10 p.m. – 5:25 p.m.: Hackathon winner presentations to group
• 5:25 p.m.-5:30 p.m. Thanks and BCNI overview
• 6 p.m. After party presented by the Center for Public Interest Journalism

After a hard day of talkin’ shop, it’s only proper to relax with your fellow journos.

Thanks to our friends at the newly created Center for Public Interest Journalism, BCNI afterparty attendees will dine on the finest sliders in North Philadelphia and be able to redeem a drink ticket for one free draft beer.

Beginning a half hour after BCNI, the afterparty will take place at the Draught Horse, a short walk away from Annenberg Hall (see right).

Data Camp Philly. Photo by John Mertens

You already know that we’re organizing an Open Gov Hackathon presented by Tropo during BCNI 2011. As you can see in our FAQs here, the event is part and parcel in our day-long news innovation conversation.

Now we’re ready for some details.

WHAT: A one-day hacking event bringing together coders, designers, hackers and journalists to build useful apps and data visualizations with open government data from the City of Philadelphia. [Register here]

WHO: Coders and designers. We will encourage journalists and other BCNI attendees to cross-pollinate and offer perspective

WHY: Build tools that show the power of data and connect journalists with the power of coding and coders with perspective from journalists

WHERE: Saturday April 30, 2011, Temple University, Annenberg Hall

Schedule:
9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. — Registration / Networking
10:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. — Introductions, overview, proposal and teams form
10:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. — Coding, Hacking, Building [Judges will circulate in the afternoon]
4:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. — Presentations / Judging
5:00 p.m. — Winners presentations and BCNI closing

Find the judges, criteria and more below.

JUDGES: Robert Cheetham, Azavea founder; Clinton Johnson, City of Philadelphia Division of Technology Software Development Manager; Andrew Kortina, mobile payment solution Venmo co-founder

DATA: On the Monday of Philly Tech Week, a new City of Philadelphia data catalog will be released. Hackathon participants will be encouraged to use this resource. The following data categories will be available:

• Arts and Culture
• Economy
• Education
• Elections and Politics
• Environment
• Food
• Human Services
• Parks and Recreation
• Public Safety
• Real Estate and Land Records
• Religion
• Transportation

JUDGING:

The goal of the BCNI 2011 Open Government Hackathon is to develop civic applications and data visualizations for and about the City of Philadelphia. Projects will provide a benefit to city residents or visitors, or present data in a manner that provides insights on a public policy issue facing the city. Three judges with knowledge of development will make the final determination of winners and the distributions of prizes for teams. Their decisions are final. By participating in this hackathon, attendees agree to abide by organizer and venue rules, in addition to judge decisions.

Hackathon participants that wish to present their projects at the end of the day will compete for one of several different prizes. Judging of projects will be based on the following criteria:

• Potential impact on City of Philadelphia residents and visitors.
• Magnitude / scope of the issue(s) project addresses (i.e., public safety, transit, budget, etc.).
• Originality and creativity of the project.
• Quality of implementation / demonstration (can others view, use the project).

Projects will be judged by a panel of three judges, and awards will be granted in the following three categories:

1. Best overall use of Philadelphia open government data.
2. Best data visualization.
3. Most innovative project.

Resources:

Hackathon participants will have access to a catalog of open data from the City of Philadelphia that they may use as the basis for their projects.

Participants may use other sources of data relating to the City of Philadelphia (i.e., Census Bureau, PASDA, etc) that are publicly available. Participants may also use data extraction / conversion tools to generate data from other sources for their projects.

Whatever data source is used, all projects wishing to be evaluated for prizes must be based on data relevant to the City of Philadelphia. Of course, we encourage participation, so if you have another project you want to work on, then come on out and get to work.