Hackathon is an event at which a team of developers, within a limited time and in a small space, breaking into groups, solve a particular problem by creating a software (engineering) solution, product or service.

In my understanding, a hackathon is entertainment for programmers, which allows them to realize some of their goals in a short time.

developer goals:

• Have fun
• Try some technologies, practices
• Test a hypothesis/idea in a short time
• Do something you've been wanting to do for a long time
• Check people, team, try to work together
• Pitch an existing project, gain experience, reviews, investments
• Do something useful
• Receive material benefits from participating in a hackathon

I have put these goals in the order in which I perceive them as a developer and participant in hackathons. People are different, and their priorities are very different.

There are also different types of Hackathons.

hackathon criteria

• Thematic / general
• Competition/fan
• Focus on technological solutions vs business focus

Based on these (and many other) criteria, both the hackathon and the audience that will come to it will differ.
It is very important that the presentation of the organizers and the audience in this place coincide.

Thematic hackathon clearly outlines a specific area in which the problem will be solved and (or) a set of technologies by which these problems will be solved.

Examples of topics:

• Electronic control,
• charity,
• energy independence,
• restaurant industry,
• mind map tools,
• mobile games.

Technology set usually defined if the event is held at the initiative or under the auspices of a representative of these technologies (company or community)
For example: Hardware hackathon on intel Galileo, photo hackathon by Nikon, Nvidia-CUDA, Unity 3d, ruby ​​on rails in real world, etc.

General Hackathons do not define a clear topic of projects, and are differentiated according to individual parameters.

The more clearly you outline the topic, the closer the audience will come to it, but the smaller it will be. If the hackathon does not have significant differentiation, no one may come to it.

Polarity competition/fan comes primarily from the position of the organizers and the topic.
For example, a hackathon on the topic “Most useless thing in a world” will have a small competition component.

The most important factor for this criterion is also availability and size of the prize fund. The larger and more actively it is announced, the more the atmosphere of race and tension will be present at the event.

Manufacturability vs Business orientation These are primarily criteria for evaluating solutions produced at hackathons.

It also comes from the essence of the organizers and the topic, and is perhaps the most important thing that needs to be constantly conveyed to the participants, since otherwise they may be very disappointed from the inadequacy of the assessment.

* Programmers are always technologically oriented.

Criteria for evaluating a solution based on manufacturability:

• Technical excellence and functionality
• Complexity of implementation, technologies and approaches used
• Design, visual perfection of the product

Criteria for the business component:

• Having a business model, understanding where the money will come from and how to return it.
• The structure and quality of the presentation, communication to the audience, pitching, an idea of ​​the project’s marketing strategy.
• A team is a group of people who can systematically implement solutions.

Accordingly, the team that developed a super-technological and complex solution will be disappointed by the victory of the team with a beautiful presentation and a pitcher with a suspended tongue. To avoid disappointment, you need to clearly articulate the goals and criteria of the event.

Also, a mandatory evaluation criterion should be general excellence and efficiency proposed solution. It should work.
If this is not taken into account, then the hackathon turns into a competition of beautiful ideas.

Despite the fact that the above criteria are polar, they can and should be combined. This is the difficulty and the main challenge when creating the concept of hackathons.

Therefore, the first question that the organizer should ask himself is:

The reason, theme and purpose of his hackathons?

You need to understand that you are gathering a bunch of usually professional and expensive people in terms of salary, so that they devote their personal time to solving the problem that you pose with your topic.

Programmers love to do cool, important, useful things and so that everyone knows about it.

Your topic should be simple and clear.

Expectations from products developed at the hackathon

• 99.7% of startups die.
• 99.9% of solutions developed at a hackathon are thrown away. And it is right.

A solution at a hackathon is a quick and dirty attempt to test the possibility of solving a given problem.

Hackathon structure in terms of projects and teams:

• Developers at the Hackathon register either as teams or individually.
• In the second case, the task of the organizers is to form a team from individual participants.
• Depending on the hackathon criteria, you can set requirements for teams - minimal amount, the presence of technical specializations in certain areas, etc.
• Participants who are not included in any team will be very upset.

Idea presentations- regardless of whether they register with you in teams or individually, at the beginning of hackathons it is imperative to present projects.
This accomplishes several of the following goals:

• Formation of teams (if not formed)
• Introducing teams to competitors
• Introducing the jury and organizers to the projects
• Introducing participants to their own projects.

Presentations of ideas from people who will not take part in the hackathon do not make any sense. The project leader must be with the team all the time, hammering and brainwashing them. Otherwise the project will not take off.

Ideal Team Size for general/business hackathons 4-7 people with different specializations.

For hackathons with a technical focus - at least 2.

It is not advisable for someone to do projects alone; such projects sometimes even win, but they do not have the spirit of hackathons.

Date and duration

Hackathons last from 1 to 3 days.

For a large hackathon, the optimal duration is 48 hours, starting on Friday evening, ending on Sunday evening.

Internet

A good internet connection is critical for hosting hackathons. The recommended calculation for an external Internet channel is 1Mbit * 1 participant.
It is highly desirable to have backup channel, which can be connected in case of malfunction of the main one.

wifi network- with a large amount of equipment (laptops, accessories), a wifi channel that works satisfactorily under normal conditions may not cope with the activity of hackathons.

Organizers

Obviously, the team is the most important component of anything.

Leading

This is the person who sets the tone and mood of the event, ensures that everything happens as scheduled, announces the stages, participants and other important information.

It is necessary that the presenter be as neutral as possible and not openly sympathize with any of the participants, much less “oppress” those who are not doing well.

The presenter’s task is to maintain the mood of the event and therefore it is he who must fill in all the technical moments, hitches between presentations and other faux pas. At the same time, the leader is the least important person on stage and his function is to raise the importance of everyone else.

Requirements for the presenter: ability to speak publicly, knowledge of the subject area, authority among participants.

The presenter can also be a judge or a mentor, although, in my opinion, this is not desirable.

Event secretary

The person who deals with the schedule, mentors, sponsors, presenter, knows when who has a pitch, what the presenter should say and when. Often he can broadcast online and post photos on social networks.

Technical Specialist

A person who knows how the network for events works and where to connect it is good when he set it up. Also often among participants (even though they are programmers) Problems arise that they cannot solve on their own - the computer does not connect to the network, the operating system has crashed, there is no flash drive. It is very good when there is someone to take care of them.

It’s also good when an administrator can take care of the proper operation of microphones, sound, video streams, interactive feeds and other things that make a hackathon fun. If you are hosting a Hackathon and need good sound, you should consider renting speakers in advance. We advise you to contact only professionals.

Don't forget that Murphy's Law always works well when it comes to technical event infrastructure: If something can happen, it will definitely happen.

Help volume

The people who provide all the logistics of the event make sure there is coffee and the toilet doesn’t get clogged. Satisfying the needs of participants, finding and obtaining found things (for example, laptop chargers that participants forgot to take with them), doing the impossible.

Someone from the team must be present at the events all the time, day and night. These people should be known (the task of the presenter is to introduce everyone to them) and be easily identified by T-shirts, badges, etc.

Paid entry

It all depends on your capabilities and concept.

In general, I recommend that you make entry paid (with an emphasis on pre-registration) as this will work as a filter for “leftist” people, and will also give additional motivation to participants not to forget to come.

Also, with successful PR, registrations can significantly cover your expenses and provide exactly that cash that is difficult to get from sponsors.

Work after hackathons

This point is very often forgotten, although it is no less important than the work before the event.

We need to sum up the results, post photos, announce online the winners and what awaits them, and thank our partners again. Working after hackathons is a direct investment in your image and the next event. Don't forget about it!

Keywords: Speaker rental, Hackathon, goals, programmers, program creation, projects, Design, business

Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to participate in a hackathon for the first time! The purpose of the event was to develop viable business ideas that could improve the state of environment Baltic Sea. This three-day brainstorming session took place in the center of Helsinki, in which 12 teams took part, including mine. An unforgettable and priceless experience!

What is a hackathon?

The word "hackathon", which came from the IT world in 1999, means intensive collaboration between programmers, designers and managers to solve a specific problem (for example, creating new software).

Currently, hackathons are also gaining popularity among businessmen, researchers and even politicians. Moreover, hackathons are precisely designed to ensure that all of the above specialists get together and everyone contributes to the development of an idea/project.

As a rule, there is not one, but many teams present at a hackathon. First, the hackathon organizers announce the main task, then candidate teams apply for participation, the best get to the hackathon and fight for the main prize. The event usually lasts several days, during which teams work intensively on the project, consult with invited specialists (experts) and prepare a presentation of the project for the final day, where the jury determines the winner.

The organizers also take care of the food and leisure of the participants. All this is done in order to create a creative atmosphere for the event, in which teams also find time to relax and communicate with each other. Thus, each hackathon participant receives useful professional experience, the opportunity to meet personally with experts in their own and other fields, and just have a fun time, and the winning team will also receive a cash prize for this!

Hackathon DEEP Challenge - from theory to practice

The main task of the hackathon DEEP challenge was the creation of conditions for the development and implementation of commercial ideas that would improve the environmental situation in the Baltic region. To do this, a month before the event itself, the organizers announced the acceptance of applications from teams with business ideas and invited more than ten experts in various fields of activity (from researchers and engineers to businessmen and politicians). Among 70 applications, based on the opinion of the expert council, the 12 best were selected, including my team.

Hackathon DEEP challenge was organized in the center of Helsinki in the conference hall of the water complex Allas Sea Pool, the highlight of which is three open-air swimming pools directly opposite the shopping area Kauppatori. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to swim in the pool or steam in the sauna, although the organizers provided this opportunity to all hackathon participants for free.

The task for the hackathon participants was clear: develop their idea into a realistic business project and present it to the public on the final day. The hackathon began on Friday evening and ended Sunday afternoon. The event was hosted by such a charismatic Finn, a famous presenter of one of the Finnish radio stations.

Friday - warm-up

The first day was for warming up: the mission of the hackathon and the task for the teams were announced, a couple of competitions for ingenuity were held, and then everyone went out to dinner together. This allowed participants from different teams to get to know each other, experts and organizers. I must say that they fed us well, which also contributed to the creation of a friendly atmosphere at the event.

Saturday - brainstorming

The second day can easily be called a brainstorming session. On this day, each team had the opportunity to discuss the idea with several experts (30 minutes each). For example, our idea was dedicated to the creation of an underwater weather station and was criticized by various experts from engineering, economic and environmental points of view. In addition to criticism, they of course gave us advice on how to improve the idea, make it more realistic and commercially viable. In addition, we received contacts of potential clients and partners who are likely to be interested in the project.

Immediately after the sessions with the experts, the organizers dumbfounded us with the fact that each team must make and send them a presentation of the idea and business plan before 9 pm. We only had four hours to patch up all the flaws in the idea, implement expert recommendations, and fit it all into a three-minute presentation! This is why my team chose to work more on the project instead of going to the sauna and swimming pool.

Resurrection - presentation

Early in the morning I wrote the text of a three-minute speech and repeated it on the train, because... The final of the hackathon began in the morning: presentations by team leaders. Not all speakers were able to keep it to 3 minutes and the presenter abruptly interrupted them, saying: “Your time is up.” I encountered a problem that the animation in my presentation did not work, because... the organizers converted it into PDF (a good lesson for the future!).

After the presentation, the jury asked 2-3 questions about the project. It is interesting that in this hackathon the jury was not composed of experts who could evaluate the projects and progress during the competition from different angles, but the sponsors of the hackathon (representatives of banks and grants)

After the speeches there was a final lunch, or rather brunch(in Russian: breakfast + lunch), which is a buffet of dozens of dishes and desserts. By the way, in my opinion, desserts are the most strong point Finnish cuisine!

And finally, the jury is ready to announce the winners of the hackathon: alas, this time it was not us. The winning teams were awarded small cash prizes (1500, 1000 and 500 euros for first, second and third place, respectively). This is the hackathon DEEP challenge was finished.

Conclusion

So what can we say about the hackathon? In my opinion, this is an extremely productive form of working together to develop ideas. Firstly, A hackathon is an ideal platform for the rapid development of projects: in just three days we got a good business plan from a raw idea, as well as feedback both from narrow specialists and from the general public. Secondly, hackathon is a very convenient way to advertise your idea: I personally met potential partners and clients with whom we can implement a project in the future. Third, experience of short speeches and communication in an entrepreneurial environment- this is something completely new for me. After all, where else can you taste delicious food, go to the pool and steam in the sauna for free? :-)

This week, from November 18 to 20, an unusual event will take place in St. Petersburg - the first All-Russian hackathon hackRussia. Over the course of three days, schoolchildren and students will be able to try their hand at mastering professional cases from five areas - social services, finance and blockchain, agriculture and energy, education and culture, biotechnology and medicine. The City+ correspondent decided to figure out why such an unusual format is needed, how a hackathon differs from a regular forum, and how effective is it?

The word "hackathon" is formed from two English words to hack (explore during programming) and marathon (marathon). This term first appeared in America in 1999. This is a special format in which participants, over a limited period of time, non-stop, do not create abstract solutions to the problem under discussion, but prepare specific products in the form of, for example, websites or mobile applications. According to the rules of the hackathon, the guys are divided into teams of two to four people. To win this race, you need to have a whole range of skills and qualities: natural curiosity, good communication skills, a sharp mind and mastery of programming languages.

This approach is extremely relevant today, because students get the opportunity to directly interact with employers and enterprises. This allows them to correctly assess the needs of the modern labor market. The hackathon is also useful in terms of quick and targeted exchange of knowledge and competencies between specialists from different fields, which also enriches the “professional baggage”.

What makes a hackathon different from a regular forum is the mobility of the work process: on average, in 40 hours, participants must go from developing an idea to creating a working prototype. It is especially important that the final result should be practically tangible and could be used in one of the spheres of human life. After all, the event is attended by investors who can highlight the best projects and implement them. In addition, this is an affordable way to show young professionals that the industry is interested in their work and knowledge. Students' confidence in the future will help avoid brain drain.

For the first time, a hackathon on an all-Russian scale will be held in St. Petersburg this weekend. Before this, of course, such events existed, but they were highly specialized and local in nature - mainly such “competitions” took place on the basis of individual companies, at universities or among programmers. It has only now been possible to create an organized movement covering a variety of areas: it is planned that about three hundred participants from 45 cities will come to the opening ceremony on Friday, November 18.

Over the course of several days, schoolchildren and students will try to implement their work in five directions. As project manager Denis Samuylov said, various solutions will be proposed, for example, on the problem of drug distribution. “This case will be presented in the field of medicine. In our pharmacies, medicines often change in price. And they are not always available. We can aggregate this and search not only by the name of the drug, but also by generics (cheaper analogues - editor’s note),” explains the specialist.

In addition, the hackathon will feature a number of other useful projects: based on the principles of the dating application Tinder, mobile applications will be developed for optimal search for housing. And in the field of agriculture, they will think about ways to deliver products to the consumer as fresh as possible. It’s impossible not to note the trend last year– programs based on human interaction with virtual reality. Experts attribute the popularity of the topic to the sensational game Pokemon Go. They plan to adopt this useful experience of working with alternative reality and use it to create virtual tours of museums, for example, the Hermitage.

On the final day of the hackathon, the results will be summed up. The winners will be awarded cash prizes in the amount of one hundred thousand rubles. They can be spent on the further development of your project. Other participants will gain unique experiences and possibly life-changing connections.

Photos - group "Hackathon on VKontakte"/https://vk.com, group "JourHack. 1st data journalism hackathon in St. Petersburg"/https://vk.com.

(programmers, designers, managers) work together to solve a problem. Today, hackathons are no longer related to hacking, they are just programming marathons. Typically hackathons last from one day to a week.

Some hackathons are intended for educational or social purposes, but more often the goal of a hackathon is to create a complete software. Each hackathon focuses on a specific area, such as a programming language, operating system, application, programming interface (API).

Story

The term appeared in 1999. The developers of OpenBSD and Sun Microsystems began to use it independently of each other.

The OpenBSD developers first used the term to refer to a meeting on cryptography in Calgary, Canada on June 4, 1999. 10 developers came to it to write programs that would not be subject to the strict export restrictions imposed by the United States on cryptographic software.

Sun used the name "the Hackathon" during the JavaOne conference, held from June 15 to 19, 1999; John Gage suggested writing a program in the Java programming language for the new Palm V that would use the infrared port to communicate with other Palm users.

Starting in the mid-2000s, hackathons became more common and were seen by companies and investors as a way to quickly develop new software technologies or areas of investment. Some well-known companies were created at hackathons, such as GroupMe, which emerged from the TechCrunch Disrupt 2010 hackathon; in 2011 it was purchased by Skype for $85 million.

Types of hackathons

For platform development

Some hackathons focus on working on a specific platform, such as an operating system.

The development of applications for mobile platforms occurs, for example, at the Over the Air hackathon, held in Bletchy Park (England), which attracts significant sponsorships. Hackathons are also held to develop video and computer games.

Music Hack Day is a hackathon dedicated to music software and hardware. Since 2009, it has been held more than 20 times in various locations.

A developer hackathon has been held annually since 1999. operating system OpenBSD.

Programming languages, APIs, frameworks

Perl hackathons have been held since 2007, with the goal of improving the language itself. Haskell and Scala developers host similar events: Haskell Hackathon and Scalathon.

Hackathons were held to develop applications in HTML5 and Ruby on Rails.

Some hackathons are held by companies to write applications that use a common API. So, Yahoo! has been holding "Open Hack Day" since 2006 (originally "Hack Day"), which uses Yahoo! APIs and APIs owned by Yahoo! sites such as Flickr. Google is holding a similar hackathon for its own APIs.

Foursquare hosted a global hackathon in 2011, where more than 500 developers in 30 locations developed applications using the Foursquare API.

The word “hackathon” was formed from the merger of the words “hacking” and “marathon”. Hacking is understood, of course, not by computer scammers, but by IT technology enthusiasts who find pleasure in researching and finding extraordinary solutions.

The first one in the world took place in 1999. It was carried out by the developers OpenBSD OS in Calgary (Canada).

There, a group of researchers gathered who had to solve a difficult task: to find a legitimate bypass for restrictions imposed by the United States on the export of cryptographic products from the country. They called the event a “hackathon,” and their colleagues immediately liked the term.

After 10 days at the conference JavaOne company Sun Microsystems held a similar meeting where she suggested that the developer create a Java program for Palm V for exchanging data between the gadget and the Internet via an infrared port.

A focus on success, a pleasant friendly format, simultaneous communication and competition - all this made a new type of event attractive to participants and investors. This is how hackathons got a start in life.

Why do businesses need hackathons?

In 2016, hackaton.com estimates that 3,450 hackathons were held around the world. The first on the list is now the USA - 1568 events per year, followed by the UK (470 hackathons), Canada (230), Germany (223), France (196). A variety of specialists took part in them: web developers (36%), mobile systems(36%), hardware platforms (15%), robotic systems and AI (8%).

Russia is not on this list. Because, according to this source, in Russia in 2016 only... one event was held.

Of course, this data is invalid. They only reflect the fact that hackathons as a format for developing an innovative economy are still growing in Russia. And even though the world still knows very little about hackathons in our country, the real state of affairs is much better than Western statistics.

Thus, according to the IT-dominanta portal, every month in 2016, 8-10 different events of this type were held in Russia. And in April 2017 alone, 19 major hackathons were held.

Perhaps hackathons would have remained a local phenomenon if large companies, investors, and “angels” had not paid attention to them. They recognized the potential for growth.

Instead of the tedious approvals and rework that one encounters in traditional projects, hackathons offered a new format for creating prototypes at minimal cost. Within a few days, the organizers receive several solutions to the technological problem they are facing.

On the other hand, companies attract: here you can not only meet strong developers, but also immediately test them in action. Finally, an important advantage of hackathons is networking with potential partners and promoting your own business.

What is the interest of the participants?

According to hackaton.com, today’s public hackathons are attended by specialists (42.8%), students (21.1%), “hobbyists” (18.9%), entrepreneurs (9.6%), as well as those who are looking for work (7.6%).

The theme of the hackathon is announced immediately, but the goals are not always announced, which adds mystery to the future event and attracts particularly adventurous participants. This is done in order not to interfere with the birth of the result right before our eyes. “Miracles” can happen with the prize fund.

Thus, at the final stage of the Design Hackathon, which was held in Moscow at the end of July 2016 and Sberbank Technologies, the initial prize fund was announced in the amount of 200 thousand rubles. However, the results of the hackathon impressed the organizers so much that the prize fund was increased to 500 thousand rubles.

The winner then was the Dream Team. She proposed a “smart solution for voluntary health insurance”, which was based on DNA test data. Experience, knowledge and initiative allowed us to achieve excellent results.

Experience shows that participants, in addition to the announced prizes, are interested in several things about hackathons:

• Employment Opportunity in leading Internet companies and the prospect of meeting people “necessary” for professional development.
• Testing the strength of the development team in an unusual situation: time is limited, adrenaline is at its limit, the competitive spirit does not give rest.
• Academic interest. As a rule, in this case we are talking about teams that work independently, that is, they do not seek employment from the organizers. They are interested in testing the hypotheses that they have for solving this or that software problem.

Rules of conduct at the hackathon

At first glance, becoming a winner is quite simple, but many people fall into mistakes that should not be made.

Mistake 1. Failure to comply with the ratio of speed and quality of project development

Many participants try to complete the project as quickly as possible, not taking into account that the most important thing for the jury is the result. Mistakes during hackathons are inevitable, and you shouldn’t be afraid of them. But the idea that will be demonstrated to the jury must be worked out in detail.

Mistake 2. Inability to work in a team

This is especially true in situations where you need to quickly get results. At a hackathon there is no time for long arguments; you need to be able to correctly distribute roles and make compromise decisions.

Mistake 3. Forgetting about real goals

And perhaps the most important thing to remember is that the solution the team proposes must have real practical application. As we remember, businesses are interested in working ideas that the company can implement tomorrow and get the desired result.

What will happen next?

If hackathons had no plans, there would be no point in talking about them.

1. Topic shift. Just five years ago, almost all hackathons were held with the goal of developing mobile applications. However, last year the topic of hackathons shifted towards the creation of systems related to artificial intelligence and virtual reality. Without any doubt, these topics will become top topics for future hackathons.
2. Internal corporate events. Today the main trend for large companies there is an emphasis on innovation and the development of creative connections within companies. Conducting intra-corporate hackathons allows you to form temporary teams within companies and bring together people with different expertise into such projects.