Hackathon & Beyond Discussion of December 3-4, 2010

Overview What is it about How did it start What did it entail What lies ahead?

What is it about? Format similar to unconferences, MashPit, Foocamp, and BarCamp, but generally follows: –Day 1 Registration Talks 24 hour hack starts –Day 2 24 hour hack finishes Presentation of hacks to audience of peers Awarding of prizes

How did it start? AITP (Jonathan Stassen) MCS (Dave Munroe) Recruitment Excitement Timeline Social media

How did it start?

What did it entail?

A match making service for small bands and venues. Match making is based off of the bands location (or wherever they would like to play) and their genres they play.

What did it entail? A application that would take various rss feeds stories, rank and filter them bases on the types of social attention they were getting.

What did it entail? A calculator for figuring out different apartments living costs, as well as showing them on a Google Map with those that match vs. dont match the criteria.

What did it entail? You are an evil flying fairy out to crush helpless people with stones by pushing them off ledges and using clouds. As levels advance you have to destroy the good faries that arrive to try to stop you from crushing people.

What did it entail? iPhone App. You are a ball that is falling through a maze, see if you can make it to the bottom of each level. The levels are created using JavaScript, Divs with background images, and a ascii map file.

What did it entail?

What lies ahead? Most impressively, I found that many of the students who attended the event had some very unique and innovative ideas. Students created everything from useful calculators and mapping applications to full-fledged iPhone apps and games - all in 18 hours. The variety and depth of the projects attempted was noteworthy and impressive - especially given the time-frame. It was refreshing and reassuring to see the level of socialization amongst the students and obvious collaborative efforts going on with code.

What lies ahead? Moreover, from my perspective, present-day programming is generally a collaborative effort that not only requires socialization and collaboration - it thrives on it! Hackathons certainly support this idea as well - it's amazing the synergy that can be developed when working in a group on a coding project. –Adam De Fouw, Hackathon Judge oCreative Design

What lies ahead? LinkedIns Hackday, a monthly competition that pits the entire company in a battle to produce some of the coolest, geekiest, and most compelling hacks. The winners are rewarded with fame, fortune, and (most importantly) the hope to launch their hack as a product for all of our users.

What lies ahead? Over the Air is a free developer event & hackathon that is non-aligned (not pushing a particular technology or approach) but instead seeks to inform, energise and empower mobile "builders" to work with each other to create great stuff. A place where developers, designers, enthusiasts, entrepreneurs and academics can come together to celebrate, discuss, learn, chill and geek out for 24 hours of intense fun.

What lies ahead? Yahoo Open Hack Day. We will be fueling your creativity with a variety of Yahoo! technologies and APIs, including YUI, YQL, Flickr, Updates, Answers, and more. We will introduce you to lots of wonderful data sets that are ripe for mashup and visualization. We will keep you fed, watered and entertained for the duration of the event. All you need to bring is your creativity, your laptop, and your toothbrush.

What lies ahead? What: Business Model-a-thon When: Tomorrow, 2:00pm – 8:00pm

What lies ahead? When: Saturday 12:00pm – Sunday 12:00pm Where: –Chicago, New York, Madison –Milwaukee: UWM Peck School of the Arts Kennilworth Building, 1915 East Kenilworth Place, rd Floor open space. What you need to bring: Hardware and software including computers, monitors, cables, etc. What well provide: Wifi, tables, chairs, food, beverages and fun!

What lies ahead? Develop an application that enables consumers to better navigate the Zappos product catalog. For example, how might people discover and browse products they dont not know Zappos sells (e.g. underwear and toaster ovens)? Imagine the future of online / mobile shopping. What does it look like in 1 year? 5 years? How might consumers interact with Zappos, products or other customers in the process? Create the Zappos happiness application. This application should uniquely integrate Zappos core values, world class customer service and fun culture to best convey the Zappos experience.

What lies ahead? Direct Supply will award one team $500 that can best come up with a mobile or web application that breaks down the barriers of the internet for seniors. For example, how will they stay connected with friends and family? Or make more informed life decisions? Purchase products and services with ease?

What lies ahead? Benefits? –Pushes new ideas to logical limits –Helps demonstrate and gain experience in agile processes –Gets everyone working together in the same place at the same time, whereas day-to-day we tend to work on products in small groups or individually Culture Excitement Results