zen and the art of the hackathon
DESCRIPTION
Zen and the Art of the Hackathon: Organizing Hackathons in the Philippines. My presentation at Geeks on a Beach, Sept 27, 2013, Boracay Island, Philippines.TRANSCRIPT
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
Standard DisclaimerMany images for this presentation were copied from the web. Copyright belongs to the creators. No copyright infringement was intended.
Download this!Download or view this presentation online at:
http://slideshare.net/jimayson
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
The EndDownload this presentation from
http://slideshare.net/jimayson