zen and the art of the hackathon

Zen and the Art of the Hackathon

27 Sep 2013 / Geeks on a Beach / Jim Ayson

Organizing Hackathons in the Philippines

Some Stuff About Me

Where to find me: Twitter & Instagram @jimaysonFacebook.com/jimaysonFacebook.com/groups/smartdevnet

Senior Manager, Partner Management, SMARTCovers Technology Partnerships, Content Provider (CP)Management, Developer Relations, and Music Partnerships (Indie Artist Program)

Founder, head honcho, community manager guy

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Contents

• What is a hackathon?• Why do Hackathons?• How to organize a hackathon• Basic recipe for a hackathon• Hackathon promotion

What is a Hackathon?• Traditional:

A developer competition where a challenge is presented, teams build a software or hardware project (plan and develop it), present it to judges, and a winner is adjudged, in 24-48 hours.

What is a Hackathon?Non-Traditional:An exercise in developing ideas or solutions to problems within a very compressed time frame.

What a Hackathon Isn’t• It is not a competition for Breaking and Entering into

systems. Not about “hacking into” websites.

Other terms for Hackathons:

• CodeCamp• Codefest• HackDay• HackFest• Or just plain

“Hack”

HACKING = all about building

• Credo in organizations like Facebook - “Hack” is everywhere• Their campus address is 1 Hacker Way, Menlo Park

Hacker Square

Origins!

• Started in 1999 – Java One Conference

• Challenge: write a Java program for the Palm V to communicate with other Palm users.

They just got bigger and bigger

Why do Hackathons?

Developer Outreach• Hackathons are a key element in developer outreach

– “try before you buy”• Promote technologies, and causes• Skill-building for developers and startup teams

Facebook Hack

TechCrunch Disrupt HackathonTechCrunch Disrupt

AT&T Developer Summit

AngelHack Manila

Hacks = IDEAS

New uses for Hackathons

• Development Program Promotion• Policy Promotion• Urban Planning• Marketing Ideas• Startup Ideas

Basic Elements of Hackathons

… Or what we’ve learned from organizing hack events in the Philippines

Start with the Concept: What is the purpose of the Hackathon?

Sample Themes:

• Use of an API• Startup Ideas• Music App Hackathon• Agricultural

Applications• Apps for Development• Promotion of a cause

(social good)

Get Sponsors to help out

Announce the Date Early

Do a Pre-Event

• Typicaly held one week before the major hack, explains the rules, the challenge, the prizes.

Use tools like EventBrite.com for registration and ticket sales

TIP: Most Events are FREE, but if you want to control access to a hack, charge a nominal registration fee.

Promote thru Social Media (mainly Facebook and Twitter)

Don’t forget the event hashtag!

But don’t forget the power of the press release

Other Tools: Hackathon.IO

Basic Elements of a Hackathon

Preliminary Talks

State the Rules for the Hack

Present The Hack Challenge(s)

Break up into Teams

Register the teams in Hackathon.io

Hackmasters and Mentors

The Hack

6, 9, 12, 24 hours of hacking!!

Food and Entertainment

• Pizza• Redbull • Beer• Full buffet meals• Games• The all-night music

playlist – is very important!!

Pizza = king of hacker food

We had Lechon once! (AngelHack Manila)

Massages!

The Hackathon Judges

The Pitch = 3 to 1 minutes to pitch!

The Awards and Prizes

The Follow Through

• Advance to the global hack/competition• Mentoring of the winning team• Refine product so it becomes a commercial

product or service

SMART DevNet and how we use Hackathons• Promotion for

our developer program

• Promotion for our APIs and Partner APIs

• Generate new product ideas

• Build community

Join us!• Like us:

Facebook.com/SmartDevNet

• Talk to us: Facebook.com/groups/smartdevnet

• Follow us:twitter.com/smartdevnet

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