Just a couple of days before I hit the road for Georgian Bay last month (for some much-needed hangout time with friends), with the huge help of my comrades in hacker-journalism arms, we managed to organize a darn-fine little Hacks/Hackers Toronto event.

Stealing more than a bit of inspiration from the ever-awesome David Crow and his marry band of DemoCampsters, we adjusted the evening’s format to be more casual than our usual #hhto events, and — instead — asked five local software companies to come out and run the gauntlet of a six-minute demo.

Fueled by Steamwhistle and a roaring crowd, these folks completely crushed it. Almost each of them finished before the bell rang. Probably a first in the history of a #hhto event.

A big thanks to the fine people at the rather fabulous Workplace One for hosting the event.

For those of you that weren’t able to attend, I managed to capture videos of each of the demos. Enjoy! (And plan on coming out to the next event, which is likely to happen at the new Mozilla HQ in Toronto.)

Demo by Thoora

Demo by CoveritLive

Demo by FileMobile

Demo by Polar Mobile

Demo by Plastic Mobile

Quick closing note: If you have an idea for a Hacks/Hackers Toronto event this fall or winter, please get in touch.

Sunday was a glorious day here in Toronto. And what better to do on a glorious day than ride your bike down to Toronto’s first Mini Maker Faire.

“Toronto Mini Maker Faire is the ultimate celebration of making, crafting, DIY-ing, tinkering, hacking and sharing. It’s a weekend where makers of all kinds will show off their projects and hold how-to workshops, with hands-on activities for all ages. Exhibits on display will include robots, laser cutting, letterpress printing, a 3D print gallery and kinetic sculptures.” — Toronto Mini Maker Faire Web site

With more than seventy ‘makers’ demonstrating their work or wares at the event — including several makers of the gastronomic kind — it was a feast for the senses.

If you missed it, here’s a quick, 180 second, peek into the Toronto Mini Maker Faire:

I’m almost embarrassed to mention that this was my first trip to the Evergreen Brick Works, one of the most interesting and lively re-developed areas in Toronto. If you haven’t been yet, you should definitely check it out on a weekend.

Over and out for today.

I had the opportunity to catch a talk by veteran “Open Data Reporter” Bill Dunphy at last week’s Online News Association Toronto meet-up. If you missed it, I’ve posted a thirty-minute video of the talk online.

Bill and I first met a few weeks ago and I was immediately impressed with the range of descriptions he applies to his work, like “A hack, a journalist, sometimes a writer” and “Tech evangelist and trainer, columnist and investigative reporter.” Humble yet accomplished, I thought.

Both turn out to be true.

Bill’s career spans some thirty years, yet he started out his talk by assuring us that he’s “not an expert” He went on to propose that “there are no open-data journalism experts in Canada,” and that the field is — pretty much — wide open to those journalists that are “not afraid of numbers or programming.”

Here are two examples of the kind of open data reporting that he and his colleagues at the Hamilton Spectator have been working on:

• Our City: Our Information - Public data should be, not just public, but freely available and useful.
• Code Red - Code Red is about your health and your neighbourhood.

Bill concluded the talk by proposing that journalists need to roll up their sleeves and start collaborating: with other reporters, with their communities, and with academics and social scientists — basically, with the people that have information and are looking for opportunities to share it.

Kudos to the ONA Toronto folks for organizing a solid event. Again, the whole thirty-minute talk is available to watch online.

If you’re hungry to get moving on Bill’s advice, pick up a copy of Fred Vallance Jones’ & David Mckie’s classic “Computer-assisted Reporting: A Comprehensive Primer” at your local Chapter-Indigo, and get reporting!