A picture that makes me happy

Regrettably I was not able to attend the International Journalism Festival in Perugia in 2013. Though, something came out of it.


Creating connections is important. The question though is what you create those connections for: Is it for short term wins (aka sales) or for the community?

Since 2009/2010 I am putting a lot of effort into advancing data-driven journalism. I think this particular field of work gains importance in a general way. I believe that future generations will wonder how people in our generation got to conclusions not having powerful, personal, interactive data apps working on their side. 

This perspective drives me to be quite active on Twitter, generally trying to post links of value combined with the hashtag #ddj. 

So, in Perugia they made an analysis of the network of the ddj-community. And though not being present in Italy as the year before, the outcome showed - to some degree - that by creating connections in Europe, the US and the world, something was achieved in the course of the last two years. 

Using Twitter I created connections to many people I have by now met in real life. Being loosely connected via Twitter helped in many ways to tap into new ideas, exchange resources, get new ideas and to meet new people.