What the Heck are Hackathons?
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Hackathons are short events where people from various backgrounds like software developers, students, and designers collaborate intensively to create tech prototypes. They provide a space for creativity and problem-solving through coding. While originally focused on just software and hardware, hackathons now address various domains like civic issues, energy, education and space. Notable hackathon-generated successes include Twitter and mobile apps. The history of hackathons dates back to homebrew computer clubs in the 1970s with various types of hackathons emerging over the decades focused on different topics.
What the Heck are Hackathons?
- 2. Hackathons (aka hackfests, hack days) are short term innovation events where hackers* collaboratively code over a short space of time to create a working prototype from scratch Software Developers hardware hackers researchers entrepreneurs * * * * coders* students* designers* Creatives*
- 3. … a place for self-expression and creativity through technology. A playground where technical, scientific and artistic come together and collaboratively code to solve challenges, and have fun! Hackathons are…
- 4. Hackathons are not about breaking into the
- 5. “Good” Crackers Who use their computer security related skills and knowledge to learn more about how systems and networks work to help to discover and fix security holes. "Evil" Crackers Who use the same skills to write harmful software (like viruses, trojans) and illegally infiltrate secure systems with the intention of doing harm to the system. “White Hat” Hackers “Black Hat” Hackers Computer Security Experts Computer Criminals
- 6. The History of Hackathons
- 7. 1975 HOMEBREW COMPUTER CLUB 1999 2005 Super Happy Dev House Communal Competitive Facebook 2006 Yahoo! Hack Day 2007 Startup Weekend 20092010 College Hackathons 2011 Music Hack Days Startup Hackathons 2014NOW Green Hackathons IBC Hackfest ’80 - ‘90 TV HACKFEST
- 9. Civic Hackathons Civic hacking events are focused on finding solutions to the solve local civic challenges. Smart Cities, Open Data, Social Cohesion
- 10. College Hackathons A student-run “mega hackathons", where more than a thousand student programmers from all over the world come together to learn how to work with new technologies.
- 11. Energy Hackathons Energy hacking events to find Smart Energy Solutions, climate-friendly initiatives
- 12. Corporate Hackathons Hackathon hosted alongside a large single sponsor event
- 13. Space Hackathons An international hackathon focused on finding solutions to problems faced on Earth and in Space… 100 countries, 6 continents
- 14. Success Stories
- 15. Like and Chat came out of an internal hackathon
- 17. Twitter as conceived at a hackathon