This week, we upgraded older document embeds on MuckRock and released a small timesaver for DocumentCloud users.

We’re three-quarters through migrating newsrooms over to the upgraded DocumentCloud platform, so we wanted to take some time to walk through what we’ve learned so far and what newsrooms need to know for a smooth transition. The video of our discussion last week — including Q&A time where we answered burning questions — is below. We also upgraded MuckRock’s servers to offer a faster, more responsive experience.

MuckRock’s software is written in Python on top of the Django platform, and we’re doing a major upgrade from Python 2 and Django 1.11 to Python 3 and Django 2.2. It’s one of our most major MuckRock changes in years — and one we hope will have a minimal impact on day-to-day usage.

In March, as government agencies closed or reconfigured operations at all levels, we paused our automated follow-up systems. Now that agencies are getting back to work at the new normal, we’re resuming our automated follow-up systems to ensure requests get a timely acknowledgment and response.

MuckRock launched a special contest in January in search of great public records request ideas. Today we’re pleased to announce the winners.