Hack Omaha will take place April 13-15 in the Omaha World-Herald’s downtown office.

The Omaha World-Herald, Nebraska’s oldest and most-read newspaper, is doing something innovative. But don’t go looking for it in the World-Herald’s print product or on its website. Instead, to see it, you’ll need to visit the World-Herald’s offices in downtown Omaha later this month.

From April 13-15, the World-Herald will host Hack Omaha, the area’s first programming competition focused on using public data. Similar to Startup Weekend, the event will run through Sunday evening and pit teams of developers, designers, marketers and business professionals against each other in a quest to invent, develop, design and pitch a product in 54 hours.

Heading up the event is Matt Wynn (left), a World-Herald reporter who’s been heavily involved with the organization’s data journalism projects. Wynn’s work, such as Curbwise, has been highlighted on Silicon Prairie News. Most recently, he was the subject of a Prairie Portrait.

In preparation for Hack Omaha, we conducted an email interview with Wynn on Tuesday to hear about the recipe of a successful news app, a few of his favorite news apps and, with his programming prowess and inclination to innovation, why he chooses to remain at a 125-year-old newspaper.

To learn more about Hack Omaha and SPN’s role as a media sponsor of the event, see our post: “World-Herald to host programming competition Hack Omaha in April“.

Registration for Hack Omaha ($10) closes today, you can register at hackomaha.com.

Silicon Prairie News: To start off, what’s your favorite news app or news startup of the past few years?

Matt Wynn: Seems like there’s always something new coming along and sweeping me off my feet. The Guardian’s Twitter visualizations provide analysis you’d be hard-pressed to create in story. It’s explanatory, revealing and just plain cool. There has been a boatload of stuff since Google began charging for maps. That change in policy led news devs to get off their duffs and start dabbling in beautiful, custom cartography. The Chicago Tribune has been pushing the envelope there.

The coolest hard news app, I think, was the LA Times’ ballsy app that allowed people to grade teachers on their performance. Finally, they aren’t news apps, but I’m enamored by some new reporting software, including mind bending hotness like AP’s Overview project. They claim it’s Ruby, but I’m pretty sure it’s just magic.

SPN: For those competing in Hack Omaha, what’s the simple recipe of a successful news app?

MW: Well, we’re not necessarily looking for news apps. We’re looking for cool products made with civic data. Nine out of ten will be analogous to news apps, I assume, but what participants come up with is bound only by the materials they have to use.

Bottom line: Make something people want to use that tells them something they didn’t know. That’s about that. There’s no one recipe for success. For example, we built a schools app. So did ProPublica, the Lincoln Journal Star, the Chicago Tribune and the New York Times. They’re all different. Each is crafted with a different goal in mind and based off different data. They all do things well and fall flat elsewhere.

That said, news apps seem to share some common traits. They tell the big picture, showing trends over time or on a big scale. But then they allow users to drill down and find the story that matters most to them. Scott Klein, a swell guy at ProPublica, called this “the near and the far.” Most apps also tell a story in some way. They have an easy-to-find lead that tells the main point. Then there’s a nut graf, with some more context and meaning. Last up, there’s the supporting details. Information hierarchy – deciding what matters and what doesn’t – is key.

SPN: Hack Omaha judging criteria states, “Design matters. Make something pretty.” What’s important to the design of a news app?

MW: I’m lucky enough to work with Ben Vankat, who is freaky talented and handles the design work for me. But I might have been flippant when equating design with beauty. It’s waaaay more. Design is what keeps readers – who may not have been looking for an interactive experience – from leaving. It lets them know that the app has something worth seeing. A well-planned design lets them get what they want without working too hard.

I’d bet that somewhere in the around half our time on apps is spent on design strategy. We figure out what pages to have, how they should link together. We decide what a search should index and if there are any additions we have to make to data to make it easier. We put information in. We leave superfluous information out. Finally, we have to write language and add signposts that communicate to users how it all fits together. It’s a huge job.

At Hack Omaha, especially, judges are going to be making calls about a number of apps in rapid succession. To pretend aesthetic won’t matter would be disingenuous.

SPN: At the World-Herald, what news app has provided the most value to users?

WL: Hands down Curbwise, though we have an app in the works that’s going to blow that record to bits. Curbwise was great because it solved a problem that’s been around for decades. People used to spend weeks putting together protests to get their home’s tax valuation reduced. Now, they can pay less than $50 – chump change given the hundreds a successful protest will save – and make the process painless and fool proof. We’re rolling out a new version in May that will be better, bigger, stronger. I’m pumped.

SPN: Through making government data more accessible, has there been a World-Herald news app that has not been well-received? If so, how was it handled?

WL: Erstwhile KFAB rabble-rouser Tom Becka told me that our recall app “singlehandedly killed the petition process in Nebraska.” So.

Still, I stand behind it. People had all sorts of questions about that petition period, and the app answered all of them. People wondered if it was a partisan issue. People wondered if it was driven by non-voters. People wondered about the role of paid circulators. The app helped users understand what was happening. It also ensured us that there was no overt fraud – only 12 people claimed their name was incorrectly on the petition, and none were terribly convincing.

Our executive editor stepped up the the plate in a big way after the blowback, and took part in a two-hour long chat with readers explaining why we did it. We lost a couple subscribers, but I think we’re all proud of what we were able to put together.

SPN: With your interest in building apps, what keeps you at a 125-year-old news outlet? Have you ever thought about starting a company yourself?

MW: 125-year-old doesn’t mean complacent. I have freedom to do projects that are worthwhile, buy-in from above and I’m guaranteed a huge audience. What developer wouldn’t want that?

I’ve thought about running a business in the abstract. It’s in my blood. My parents, my sister, my in-laws – all are small business types. But I think most people start businesses so they can do something that aligns with their passion, right? I have that already, so maybe that helps keep me grounded.

SPN: Anything else you’d like to add?

MW: Don’t think so. If people are interested in this weird corner of journalism, they should check out the interviews O’Reilly’s been putting together with some of the best in the biz.

Disclosure: Silicon Prairie News is a media sponsor of Hack Omaha and has provided planning support.

Credits: Photo of Omaha World-Herald newsroom from hackomaha.com. Photo of Matt Wynn courtesy of Wynn. Screenshot of Guardian Twitter visualization from guardian.co.uk. Screenshot of World-Herald’s recall app from dataomaha.com.