Thoughts about Hackathons

Some of the problem with Hackathons:

Pre Hackathon:

• Don’t know what project to build
• Can’t find another team member

During Hackathon:

• Can be completely quiet as everyone is hacking
• The social interaction is happening offline at the hackathon, need to bring people who can’t attend the hackathon to the event

Post Hackathon:

• No archival of a project
• Hard to search up on work done on a project
• Hard to get in touch with people who used to work on a project
• People forget what they wanted to follow up on
• No motivation to continue

In general:

• Infrequent
• Hackathons feel like silos

What Hackathons are about:

1. Moving fast, and breaking things.
2. Done is better than perfect.
3. Building things.
4. Social events.

What Hackathons are NOT about:

1. Solving problems. You don’t have to necessarily solve a problem during a hackathon.

Rules of a Hackathon:

1. You must demo something at the end of the hackathon.  No powerpoint presentations.
2. No assholes.
3. There are no other rules.

Venue Rules:

1. No bittorrenting
2. No sniffing the network
3. No hacking into other computers

Conclusion:

• Hackathons are not silos.  Hackathons are a community thing. They are a social event.
• Hackathons are about moving fast, and breaking things.
• Don’t run away from that.
• Hackathons are not just about software, Hackathons are about building things.  Software is just what I am familiar with.
• Each hackathon should have a focus.
• At the end of the hackathon, it is really about having something to demo. No powerpoint presentations.
• Presentations throughout the hackathon.  If possible.