The “Fifth Power” Media Hackathon Taking Place in Chisinau: How to Make Money Online

The Independent Journalism Center and Internews are holding the third edition of the “Fifth Power” hackathon, whose topic is “How to Make Money Online.” The event takes place at Tekwill IT center from Friday, July 14, until Sunday, July 16.

Journalists will be encouraged to build a new relationship with the audience, so consumers could become interested in funding certain media products and could be able to make direct donations via some apps. Organizers aim to encourage the development of new projects and applications that would help media to make money from online content.

Opening the event, moderator and media researcher Victor Gotisan presented the results of the first study on the topic “Monetization in Moldova.” The teams that entered the event with ideas for projects had the opportunity to make their presentations, too.

Several invited experts – Jakub Gornicki, Outriders, Poland; Dmytro Tuzhanskyi, Ukraine; Razvan Baltaretu, VICE Romania; Vitalie Esanu, co-founder of Privesc.eu; Tudor Darie, IT and media entrepreneur; and others – will make presentations and will give master classes. Topics to be discussed: What to do for the audience and with its help; What Native Advertising is, how it works and how it is done; Working process from news to traffic and entertainment; Crowdfunding; etc.

22 teams registered for the hackathon, and 14 of them, specialized in IT, journalism, communication, librarianship, civil society and other areas, took part in the final competition. The list of participants who entered the hackathon can be viewed here: http://hackathon3.media-azi.md/links/

The jury will name three winning teams, which will receive grants of 4,000 $ each to develop their projects, as well as other prizes from the partners of the event.

Members of the jury – Cornelia Cozonac, president of the Journalistic Investigations Center; Dona Scola, co-founder of Generator Hub and of DNT Association; Dmytro Tuzhanskyi; Jakub Gornicki; and Razvan Baltaretu – will assess projects based on criteria of usefulness, feasibility and novelty, and also based on the progress made by the team during the hackathon

The third edition of the “Fifth Power” hackathon has been organized as part of “Strengthening Independence in Communication Media in Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia” project implemented by the Independent Journalism Center of Moldova and Internews.