The worlds of hackers and journalists are coming together, as reporting goes digital and Internet companies become media empires.

Journalists call themselves "hacks," someone who can churn out words in any situation. Hackers use the digital equivalent of duct tape to whip out code.

Hacker-journalists try and bridge the two worlds. This group aims to bring all these people together -- those who are working to help people make sense of our world. It's for hackers exploring technologies to filter and visualize information, and for journalists who use technology to find and tell stories. In the age of information overload and collapse of traditional business models for legacy media, their work has become even more crucial.

HacksHackers is a global network 1st launched in the US, but with grassroots driven chapters that are growing fastest in the Global South. In Africa, the continent's largest #OpenData and civic technology initiative, Code for Africa, recognises this and is spearheading the establishment of a network of HacksHackers chapters across Africa to help bring together pioneers for collaborative projects and new ventures.

CfAfrica also runs the www.AfricanNewsChallenge.org and the Civic Prototype Fund ($12,500 per pilot project) to help kickstart the best new ideas, while its d|bootcamp data literacy workshops, DataLiberation scraperthons, Code4Democracy hackathons, and a series of other digital media initiatives help connect pioneers and teach new skills.

Similar initiatives in the US have seen journalist-led startups create things like Storify.com, Apture.com, DocumentCloud.org, Overview.org, EveryBlock.com, etc. Elsewhere in Africa, we've seen journalist-led startups such as Motribe.com, GetConverege.com, Memeburn.com, and 10Layer.com.

We're hoping for even better results in Ghana. So, join up and help us build better digitally connected societies!

Hacks/Hackers Kampala