Mediafabric 2011 Presents Global Visions on News Media

Mediafabric, a one day conference on news media, will take place on October 21st 2011 in Prague, the organisers Sourcefabric have announced. Speakers include former MI5-agent Annie Machon, Nepali Times founder Kunda Dixit and Leo Prieto, founder of the most popular Spanish-speaking blog in the world.

With ten presentations taking the form of "visual essays", the conference aims to return to the roots of journalism with concise focuses on the what, who, why, when and where of contemporary news media. Sourcefabric is a non-profit organisation supporting independent media worldwide and has gathered an international roster of speakers. The Prague-based organisation has offices in Berlin, Cluj, Toronto and Guatemala City, and recently won a Knight-Batten Award for Innovations in Journalism.

Speakers include Annie Machon, who was an intelligence officer for MI5 in the 1990s before leaving to become a media sensation with her whistleblowing. Mariano Blejman has built software to automatically extract data from the crime documents of Argentina's last military dictatorship. Kunda Dixit is one of Nepal's leading journalists and editors (founder editor of Nepali Times) and an international authority on the press in Asia. Leo Prieto pioneered the web design industry in Chile and is the founder of FayerWayer, the most popular blog in the Spanish-speaking world.

Following the conference, Mediathon will allow participants to hack the conference's ideas into reality on 22nd and 23rd October. Using cutting edge hardware, software and techniques, thirty participants will build the future of journalism in a two-day media lab. From tablets to twitter, iPhones to InDesign, Mediathon will build toolsets and skillsets to serve journalism in the 21st century.

More information can be found at conference.sourcefabric.org. Designers have a chance to win free tickets, travel and accommodation for Mediafabric by entering the Newscoop design contest.