About CredCon
CredCon, a technology & ideas hackathon brought to you by the Credibility Coalition and sponsored by the Facebook Journalism Project, Craig Newmark Philanthropies, Knight Foundation, Hacks/Hackers and the University of Texas at Austin, aims to address the challenge of reducing misinformation online and strengthening content credibility through interdisciplinary collaboration. The event continued building upon the highly popular MisinfoCon events that took place at MIT, and in London, Kyiv and Washington, DC.
Our team was thrilled to host a diverse group of participants from a variety of backgrounds. We welcomed hackathon newcomers to the event, too - over 40% of CredCon Austin participants. A collaborative environment filled with designers, journalists, developers, communicators, and advocates led to the development of 11 fascinating projects over the course of the weekend. Thanks to our sponsors, we have funding available for small catalyst microgrants so that CredCon Austin groups can continue working on their hackathon projects together.
What Participants Worked On
Building upon the successes of our previous MisinfoCon events in London, Kiev, DC, and Boston, we developed the program for CredCon in a way that focused more on the tangible impacts that individuals and organizations can make in the areas of media literacy, addressing misinformation, and communicating credible content to a variety of audiences through different channels.
CredCon prioritized diversity and representation, encouraging participants with different backgrounds, experiences and perspectives to join us. Together, we began to address interdisciplinary and intersectional issues across the credibility movement.
Questions raised throughout the weekend included - What might a nutrition label for digital content look like? How do we create new scientific abstracts online that are more accessible to individuals outside of the scientific community? Can we create best practices for diversity and inclusion for the implementation of credibility indicator frameworks by platforms?
If you’re interested in hearing more about what happened at CredCon, one of our participants, Dr. Jennifer Jones, founder of Hacks/Hackers Scotland, created a mini-podcast series of the event - Stories of CredCon - highlighting CredCon participants’ experiences & what led them to working in the field of misinformation.
All of the conference notes, workshop details and notes have been compiled into a PubPub page, an open-access community publishing tool - check it out at this link.
CredCon Program Agenda
Below is an overview of the speakers, workshops and overall structure of the hackathon.
CredCon Mission:
Our job is to support you in going as far as you can from where you’re starting, keeping in mind that we’re all learning together
November 16 | Seven Grand (405 E 7th St, Austin, TX 78701)A welcome reception and icebreakers that include an introduction to the credibility community.
6:00 PM - 10:00 PM: Intros, Talks, Music, Food
6:30 PM - 7:15 PM: MisinfoMap Icebreaker & Introductions
7:15 PM - 7:30 PM: Quick Welcome & What to Expect
7:30 PM - 7:40 PM: What is the Credibility Coalition?
7:40 PM - 7:50 PM: Voices from the Field: Credibility in Newsrooms
7:50 PM - 8:00 PM: Presenting the Credibility Challenge
November 17 | Capital Factory (701 Brazos St, Austin, TX 78701)
Speakers and optional workshops will alternate with time for hands-on learning. Collaborate on prototypes, frameworks, best practices, and innovative ideas to share at a Day 1 show and tell at closing.
9:00 AM - 10:00 AM: Registration & Breakfast
10:00 AM - 10:15 AM: Why we’re here & overview of the weekend
10:15 AM - 10:55 AM: Speakers
Connie Moon Sehat, Credibility Coalition
Noah Haber, UNC
Giacomo Boscaini-Gilroy, Logically
Cedar Milazzo, Credibility Coalition UX Working GroupNat Gyenes, Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society
11:05 AM - 11:45 AM: Group Workshop: Inclusion & Innovation
Facilitated by: Tamika Lewis of Our Data Bodies
11:45 AM - 12:00 PM: Coffee Break ☕️
12:00 PM - 1:05 PM: Hackathon orientation & team icebreakers
Overview of the weekend, 60 second pitch for each featured project, 60 second pitches, join or form a team. Featured projects are accompanied by briefs, background materials, and further details that may help you get prepared for working on them in advance of the hackathon. Check out the featured project list in the shared CredCon folder.
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM: Lunch, Science Fair
- Underlay
- WorkBench
- Check
- Montage
- Post Facto
- ** If you’d like to contribute a science project (dinosaurs, baking soda volcano…), or tool demo, for the science fair, email nat@hackshackers.com ASAP!
2:00 PM - 6:30 PM: Hacking Time!
Work on your projects in teams. Mentors will be available to help you with specific questions about design, development, ethics, and more.
Optional Workshops hosted by: Underlay, Logically, Credibility Coalition, BBC Media Action
6:00 PM - 6:30 PM: Day 1 Sharebacks
6:30 PM - 7:30 PM: Working Dinner at Capital Factory
7:30 PM - 10:00 PM: Evening activities include:
A working cocktail party at Capital Factory,
feel free to continue collaborating with your team or network & meet new folksNovember 18 | Capital Factory (701 Brazos St, Austin, TX 78701)
Continue working with your teammates on the projects you began on Day 1! Share final presentations about what you've put together with the rest of the group. You'll have the opportunity to collaborate after this event on a short proposal with the potential for grant funding to continue your team's work.
9:30 AM - 10:00 AM: Breakfast
10:00 AM - 12:30 PM: Hacking Continued
Optional Workshop: Mapping Efforts to Address Information Disorder, RAND & Credibility Coalition
12:30 PM - 1:30 PM: Lunch, feel free to keep hacking, check out the polaroid gallery
1:30 PM - 2:30 PM: Hackathon sharebacks & calls for collaboration
Are there groups/projects that could benefit from some time working together? Join together and create something awesome.
2:30 PM - 4:30 PM: Collaborative hacking or finish up existing work with your team
3:30 PM - 5:00 PM: Final presentations
5:00 PM - 5:30 PM: Closing, Next Steps
5:30 PM - 6:30 PM: Optional dinner
Sponsors
We are very grateful to the Facebook Journalism Project, Craig Newmark Philanthropies, Knight Foundation, the University of Texas at Austin, Credibility Coalition, Bitpress and Hacks/Hackers for hosting, sponsoring and supporting this event.If your organization would like to get involved in our future events, please reach out to nat@hackshackers.com.
Contact Us
Any more questions? Want to stay in the loop for future events? Interested in hosting a CredConX event?
Feel free to send us a message.
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