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This month, 100 developers, designers and journalists spent a weekend at the Guardian creating a collaborative, experimental toolbox of tricks for the coming SXSW music, film and interactive festival in Texas.

Articlr was the winner hack, a simple composition tool for writing news on location, with Zemanta-like features.

Organizer Jemima Kiss says that what characterised the project was a curiosity and openness that breached the wall around institutional journalism.

Why do journalists have to struggle with outdated and inefficient tools, when just a peek at the outside world reveals how simple the alternative is?

Charged with curating the world’s information, with mastery of storytelling and with the responsibility of speaking truth to power, journalists have no less of an obligation to explore and exploit the very best ways to develop their craft.

But institutionalised journalism has built a wall around itself, a wall that conceals and disconnects, one that rewards introspection and laborious conventions.

Links

• Guardian Hacks SXSW: The winners (guardian.co.uk)
• Guardian Hacks SXSW: New box of tricks hints at journalism’s future (guardian.co.uk)