ONALA at the L.A. Times: The ins-and-outs of the Super Pac spending tracker

UPDATE: If you've RSVPed, there's free parking available at the Times' garage at 213 S. Spring Street. The guards at the garage and the Globe Lobby entrance at 1st and Spring (where you should enter) will have your name. See you there!

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The L.A. Times Data Desk will tell us about the work they do, and Data Desk journalist Anthony Pesce will detail the construction of the Times' Super Pac spending tracking app (http://graphics.latimes.com/2012-election-superpac-spending/) — a continually updated visualization of Super Pac spending in the 2012 election cycle. The tracker shows that so far, the majority of money has been spent to oppose particular candidates.

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More about Anthony Pesce (@anthonyjpesce (https://twitter.com/#!/anthonyjpesce)): He's a digital editor, developer, and journalist at the Times. He was once the editor of the Daily Bruin at UCLA, and won a Knight News Challenge grant to build an open source content management system and newsroom workflow tool (https://github.com/anthonyjpesce/digital-newsroom). More links to his projects, including additional 2012 election work, are on his personal site. (http://anthonypesce.com/)

The Times is graciously sponsoring this meetup. Meet us in the 5th floor reception lounge, where we'll have refreshments, and special thanks to Times social media and engagement editor Martin Beck (@latimesbeck (https://twitter.com/#!/latimesbeck)), who did a lot of the legwork to organize this.

BONUS: A tour of the Times' historic Globe Lobby if you can come a bit early. The tour — led by master tour guide Darrell Kunitomi — will start at 6 p.m. The lobby features a large, rotating globe set on a bronze pedestal, 10-foot-high murals by Griffith Observatory rotunda painter Hugo Ballin, and an exhibit showcasing the first 100 years of the Times.

We hope to see you there early or a little later!