By Gino Cingolani
What will this year’s Media Party hackathon look like?
If Web1 favored blogs and Web2 saw the rise of platforms, the next generation of innovations—known as Web3—aims to empower users. Web3 has the potential to revolutionize media: blockchain, NFTs, the metaverse, crypto, and artificial intelligence come together with newsrooms in a collaborative workspace known as the hackathon. Backed by ICFJ and Decentraland, the event offers $14,000 in prizes.
Media Party, the largest media innovation conference in Latin America, calls on developers, designers, content creators, and blockchain communities to join the hackathon taking place on Saturday, August 27, at Ciudad Cultural Konex. The hackathon follows two days of keynotes, workshops, and the Media Fair.
Why is this year’s focus on accelerating ideas around decentralization?
In recent years, content distribution platforms have become a double-edged sword for journalism and democracies. Through them, we achieved unprecedented access to content from all types of sources; however, driven by profit and organizational management mechanisms, platforms have turned into user data aggregators and frequent amplifiers of disinformation campaigns.
If Web 1.0 was the internet of portals and Web 2.0 boosted user-generated content and social media, Web3 is built on decentralized technologies that promise to return power to users—allowing them to control the data generated by their online interactions and gain real ownership of content through cryptographic token-based monetization strategies.
What role can media outlets and content creators play in this global trend? How will journalism evolve in expressive interactive environments like virtual reality and metaverses? Can journalists benefit from decentralized technologies to safeguard their privacy and that of their sources? ICFJ and the Decentraland Community Grants program will provide $14,000 in prizes for projects addressing these questions.
What topics will be explored?
- Journalism in the Metaverse: Using decentralized virtual reality, what possibilities does it offer for media?
- Decentralized tools for journalists: Ways to bypass censorship or distribute information.
- Token-based funding: Can content be paid for with crypto?
- Token-gated content access: How to create paywalls or registration gates using digital value units?
- Token incentives for subscribers: Can users earn “virtual credit” by browsing a website or completing specific actions?
- Media DAOs: Can a news outlet be built using a Decentralized Autonomous Organization structure?
What is the hackathon dynamic?
On Thursday, August 25, and Friday, August 26, there will be talks and workshops on Web3 to build knowledge across the media community. International speakers include Eric Mack from JournoDAO, KevinOnEarth from Decentraland Report, and Tinshui Yeung, ICFJ Fellow researching Web3 journalism. To register for the event, visit mediaparty.info.
Ideas can be submitted on the Media Party 2022 Hackdash until Saturday, August 27, at 11:00 AM. Each individual or team will have 3 minutes to pitch their proposal and form a team with in-person participants.
Starting at 12:00 PM, teams will spend the day building prototypes or drafting high-impact media projects. Around 6:00 PM, teams will pitch their projects or prototypes, whether functional builds or mockups. A panel of judges will decide which projects will be funded by the Decentraland and ICFJ donation, announced that same evening.
Why hold this event within Media Party?
Media Party is a productive conference reaching its tenth edition this year. Hosting a hackathon within Media Party is a natural fit, as Buenos Aires is undergoing a crypto revolution, boasts a strong community, and is becoming one of the world’s leading crypto capitals. Projects such as Proof of Humanity, Kleros, POAP, Decentraland, OpenZeppelin, HardHat, and Muun have roots in Buenos Aires.
Meanwhile, Media Party has been the most innovative space bridging technology and journalism globally over the past decade. Like other Web3 movements, Media Party grew out of a community organized by independent members within the global Hacks/Hackers network. It is a productive conference where participants come to learn and teach through peer interaction.
Anyone interested in these topics can participate, regardless of technical background. The goal is to create an exchange space that improves knowledge of blockchain and metaverse projects for those who have never experienced them, showing an alternative way to rethink how information flows across the internet.
Media Party is supported by ICFJ to bring international speakers on these topics, as well as Decentraland Community Grants to fund hackathon projects.
Supporters:
- Main Partners: Meta Journalism Project, Google News Initiative, ICFJ, and IWPR
- Super Sponsor: Hacks/Hackers
- Technology Partner: Telecom
- Sponsors: NewsPack, DosUnos, and MDIF
- Allies: Hacks/Hackers Buenos Aires, Decentraland, Muchnik, News Product Alliance
