It was a busy Monday morning in two corners of the hacker journalist community: EveryBlock is acquired by MSNBC, and Y Combinator announces a “request for startups” to address that whole “future of journalism” question hanging out there in the open air.

Want to catch up?

Start here:

Msnbc.com acquires local news Web site
MSNBC.com | August 17, 2009
Ryan Sholin says: MSNBC acquires Everyblock. This brief includes a reminder that they bought Newsvine some time ago. Not a bad stable of news sites to have around.
Tags: Media & Journalism, EveryBlock, msnbc, Adrian Holovaty, hyperlocal

MSNBC.com acquires EveryBlock
blog.everyblock.com | August 17, 2009
Ryan Sholin says: From Adrian’s post at the EveryBlock blog: “MSNBC.com has hired our whole team, and they’ve made it clear to us that we’ll be driving the site’s strategy and implementation, and that our site will remain an independent destination as a community service.”
Tags: Media & Journalism, Adrian Holovaty, msnbc, EveryBlock

knightfdn: Wondering if EveryBlock’s code remains open-source? Yep. Download it at the links posted here: http://kflinks.com/everyblock
Ryan Sholin says: The source code, as it was when the Knight News Challenge grant expired, will remain available. I wouldn’t expect to see an open-source fork maintained by the crew now employed by MSNBC, though.
Tags: Media & Journalism, EveryBlock, knight news challenge, msnbc

Msnbc.com acquires EveryBlock, what it means for local media
Lost Remote | August 17, 2009
Ryan Sholin says: Cory Bergman of LostRemote and MSNBC on the EveryBlock acquisition: “One of our first conversations will be how we can share EveryBlock data with local media partners. Our plan is not to compete with the local news ecosystem, but identify ways to reinforce it. After all, data complements coverage.”
Tags: Media & Journalism, EveryBlock, msnbc

Msnbc.com Acquires EveryBlock… Welcome Brother!
Mike Industries | August 17, 2009
Ryan Sholin says: Here’s Mike Davidson of Newsvine — acquired by MSNBC a ways back — on the EveryBlock news: “The organizations that succeed in local news will be the ones who respect all of the great journalism and increasingly available data in cities and neighborhoods across the world while creating better ways for people to consume it.”
Tags: Media & Journalism, EveryBlock, msnbc, Newsvine, Mike Davidson, Technology

YCRFS 1: The Future of Journalism
ycombinator.com | August 17, 2009
Ryan Sholin says: The first YCombinator “request for startups” asks: “What would a content site look like if you started from how to make money—as print media once did—instead of taking a particular form of journalism as a given and treating how to make money from it as an afterthought?”
Tags: Media & Journalism, ycombinator, journalism, newspapers, Technology

Y Combinator Starts Seeding Ideas To Startups
Ryan Sholin says: MG Siegler pens the TechCrunch post on Y Combinator’s new “Requests for Startups” including the first one, on the future of journalism: “This RFS is just the first of 3 to 5 that Y Combinator hopes to get out there before the October 26 Winter 2010 class application deadline, Graham tells us. Startups applying specifically for these RFS ideas will be able to indicate that on their applications.”
Tags: Media & Journalism, Technology, startups, funding, Business, ycombinator

Y Combinator’s “request for startups” in journalism
Wordyard | August 16, 2009
Ryan Sholin says: Scott Rosenberg on the “future of journalism” request for ideas from Y Combinator: “Graham’s challenge is elegantly simple: Instead of starting with the journalism and then puzzling out how to support it, start with the plan for revenue, then figure out what journalism might complement it. Recognize that the realm where innovation is most needed is the business side and how it relates to the journalism.”
Tags: Media & Journalism, ycombinator, startups, journalism, Technology, business model, Business, Scott Rosenberg

And, two links related to last week’s posts on tr.im’s near-death experience and the FriendFeed/Facebook status update:

Tr.im to Go Open Source, Community Owned
ReadWriteWeb | August 17, 2009
Ryan Sholin says: Now tr.im is going to open-source their code, open their data, and give away their domain to a nonprofit to be named later? Sounds great. Let’s see what happens next.
Tags: Technology, tr.im, URL shorteners

VIDEO: The Secret Behind The Real-Time Web

rosstmiller on YouTube | August 13, 2009
Ryan Sholin says: In this video, FriendFeed (comically) reveals the secret little orderly process that keeps updates flowing through their network in real-time. A little industrial for my tastes, and proponents of the DRY principle in programming might throw up in their mouths a little bit. (Spotted via ReadWriteWeb.)
Tags: Technology, FriendFeed, video, legos

(Curated with ease using Publish2, thanks especially to Social Journalism features.)

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