ABSTRACT
The Belgian chapter of the international grassroots group “Hacks/Hackers” was
founded in 2010. As an organization, Hacks/Hackers (Lewis and Usher 2014) promotes
collaborations between journalists and technologists. It is a loosely organized interna-
tional network, with local informal groups-called “chapters”—free to join the organiza-
tion by organizing meet-ups and other locally coordinated activities. The Belgian
chapter first met in November 2010. It was an informal gathering of about 40 people
in a Brussels cafe. The organizer of the meet-up, who was then the social media
manager of the French-speaking public broadcaster, declared the event a success,
attended by “mostly hackers but with a strong representation from national media.” A
short report on the event on the Hacks/Hackers website further announced two out-
comes: a soon-to-be hackathon and the launch of an “open data effort,” namely a
shared list of “URLs of open databases in Belgium and Brussels.”
