This year there's a new feature at the Online News Association conference, The Midway. After people took to the halls last year to have unconference sessions, ONA organizers decided to create a space for discussion and learning about new projects. At 2:15 p.m. on Friday, I will be there to chat about the just-announced Code Sprints and OpenNews generally, including the big news of an official launch date for Source: October 16!

This week, in the midst of Olympics excitement, The Guardian and BBC described what it's like to host a Knight-Mozilla OpenNews fellow and encouraged you to apply to join them or one of six other news organizations as a 2013 Knight-Mozilla Fellow.

The Guardian posted a video featuring current fellow Nicola Hughes talking about what it's been like working on the Guardian's interactive team. At the BBC, there will be major changes in 2013 and Andrew Leimdorfer detailed how their Knight-Mozilla Fellow will be involved.

In 2013, the Knight-Mozilla fellowship will place eight developers in leading newsrooms around the world. The deadline to apply is coming up very soon: August 11. We need your help getting the word out. To that end, I've drafted some pitches for different groups who may be interested in the incredible experience this fellowship offers:

• Hackers who love to build stuff and would like to spend 10 months doing just that

• Grad students and other folks looking for adventures as they figure out their next step

• Developers who want to get engaged in the international tech-journalism scene

• Hacker activists who are interested in open journalism that empowers communities

Sometimes I like to shout things at inanimate objects. The TV. My computer. Cars that are trying to kill me while I'm biking or are just parked halfway into the road. You know.

When I saw that the Knight-Mozilla OpenNews project was hiring a Community Manager, I shouted at my computer "that's me!"

And, turns out, it is me. It actually is. I signed the papers this week and will be starting with Mozilla next month as the OpenNews Community Manager. I am beyond elated and cannot wait to start working full-time supporting this incredibly inspiring community around journalism and code.

I'm sad to be leaving the Philadelphia Public School Notebook, but I'm so grateful that I had the chance to learn so much during my nearly five years with the Notebook. To learn about journalism and open source and community engagement and nonprofits and education policy and so much more. I'm also extremely appreciative of what I've learned from, and the relationships I've built with, amazingly talented colleagues, bloggers, volunteers, interns, and our devoted and opinionated readers.

I'm giving another introductory talk on CiviCRM at this year's Drupaldelphia. In the past year, there have been some noteworthy developments for CiviCRM. Let's start with some of the basics.

What is CiviCRM?