Dear Hacks and Hackers, We’ve long sought to bring everyone together and enable journalists and technologists to connect regardless of their geographic location. We also want to make sure Hacks/Hackers survives as a sustainable movement long into the future. To make that happen, we’re applying for funding in the latest Knight News Challenge media innovation contest to connect and grow the Hacks/Hackers network. You can see our application here: http://newschallenge.tumblr.com/post/19479493999/connecting-the-global-hacks-hackers-network.  We want to help people to connect online to collaborate, making the network stronger as a collective with the wisdom of all hacks and hackers. And we would like to bring together people from across the world for an in-person gathering at some point early next year for the first-ever global Hacks/Hackers unconference. We need your support and input to make this happen, and strongly encourage you to comment on our application at the Knight News Challenge Tumblr site: http://newschallenge.tumblr.com/post/19479493999/connecting-the-global-hacks-hackers-network. We also want to hear what you'd like to see, so please make your voice heard! Our chances of success there depend in part on showing we can rally a network to our cause, so please help us by expressing your support. Meanwhile, I look forward to seeing you tomorrow at our Drone Journalism event with Wired editor in chief Chris Anderson, Occucopter, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Pulitzer prize winner Matt Waite. Thank you, Burt