Should we host a Hackathon at LAUNCH this week?<p>We have the San Francisco Design Concourse from Monday until Thursday night.<p>Q: What makes for a good hackathon?
Q: What would we need to host it?
Just semi-hosted a hackathon recently. Key elements:<p><pre><code> - good desks / places to sit and code
- reliable internet
- free dinner, midnight and/or 3am food
- healthy food in addition to junky food
- some like energy drinks
- don't have people pitch their ideas
- have an official wiki for people to post their team+idea
- tell contestants your judging criteria before the hackathon starts
(and make sure judges know it)
- keep presentations speedy, with a gong to keep people honest
(<5mins for final demos)
- have a nice big central room for everyone to code in
(don't spread people out across the building)
- don't require judges to give feedback after each demo
</code></pre>
Some of these are lessons learned from the New England College Hackathon (<a href="http://nech2011.com/" rel="nofollow">http://nech2011.com/</a>).
First, the answer is an absolute yes. Hackathon would be great. I would rather do that all night the first night than go to a party (realizing, of course I just posted this on the internet, and now look amazingly lame). I think the two most important things are internet access (which you have covered) and good working space - for example, folding tables, chairs, and powerstrips are more than fine (in fact, we can bring our own of the later), but places we can sit next to each other will be key.<p>And energy drinks.
@Jason - might be good to take a look at the comments/frustrations on hackathons in this thread to get some ideas as well of what people liked/didn't like.<p><a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2240226" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2240226</a>
Sounds awesome. I don't think anything is necessary beyond internets. I'd probably participate.<p>Letting the best three on stage would be awesome as long as you ensure the code was written <i>during</i> the hackathon (people tend to cheat a bit on this I think).
I recently co-organized <a href="http://hackitaly.org" rel="nofollow">http://hackitaly.org</a> and it was a great success mainly due to:<p>- focus on a set of predefined APIs, which key developers from the relating companies present in the room<p>- a shitload of prizes from those companies for the best projects (each company decided who to give the prizes to)<p>- free breakfast/lunch/dinner<p>- redbull<p>- huge room with tables of 6 people<p>- no ideas pitching, just coding
I think that Launch wouldn't be complete without a hackathon. What you'll need is enough Internet connections to let everyone who wants to get in have their own, and LOTS of pizza and energy drinks. Perhaps you could persuade a local pizzeria to throw in pies for a sponshorhip. Also, the winning team should be able to present their idea on stage. Do this and you'll have a great hackathon in addition to a great event.
-- Reliable Internet is important: I was at SuperHappyDevHouse 42 in San Jose last weekend and the wireless was slow... really.. slow
-- Energy Drinks: Rockstar and Red Bull!
-- Ice Breakers: It's great to have a bunch of people there, but it would be so much better if there was a timeout in the main room and we did a simple "get to know you"
I'm in!<p>Be sure to provide a way for people to team up in advance since a lot of people might come alone to the conference. (team up designers w/ developers)