Financial Times first Hack Day kicks off

The Financial Times's first Hack Day, which will bring together developers and external guests to build new products using media APIs, starts this afternoon. From 12pm developers will be using media APIs, including the FT's content and search APIs, to "create new, cutting edge products" with FT content, in the first of what the FT has said will be a "series" of hack days to follow in the UK and US. A number of other news outlets in the UK and overseas have also held hack days in the past, such as the Guardian, which also liveblogged the activities at their hack day late last year. The FT's hack day will run today and tomorrow and will be delivering its own live coverage of the event via @FThackday and #fthackday on Twitter. In a press release FT.com's managing director Rob Grimshaw said the FT's HTML5 web app is one example of the "ground breaking products" which have previously been produced around FT content. "This is the first in a series of FT Hack Days, providing an opportunity for developers to use their expertise in emerging web technologies to create new digital products and services that will benefit FT readers." journalism.co.uk .