the history and evolution of the hackathon
Post on 18-Oct-2014
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HISTORY | GREP ‘HACKATHON’
BY JON GOTTFRIED
FOR OPEN TECH NYC 2013
HI. I’M JON GOTTFRIEDDeveloper Evangelist at twilioConductor of the StartupBus
Co-Founder of the Hacker Union
@JonMarkGo
HACKATHONS ARE A BIG DEAL
HACKATHONS PER MONTH ON HACKERLEAGUE
PARTY LIKE IT’S 1999
OPENBSD
• June 4-6, 1999
• Focus on IPSEC
• Calgary, Alberta
• 10 developers
• communal
SUN MICROSYSTEMS
• June 15-19, 1999
• Palm V
• John Gage challenge
• competitive
HACKATHONS != STARTUPS
2005 - SUPER HAPPY DEV HOUSE
2005 - BARCAMP
2006 - YAHOO!
2007 - STARTUP WEEKEND
2009 - MUSIC HACK DAY
2010 - HACKNY
2010 - TECHCRUNCH DISRUPT
2011 - ANGELHACK
HACKATHONS PER MONTH ON HACKERLEAGUE
HACKATHON MOTHER SAUCES
• Startup Hackathon
• Open Source Hackathon
• Competitive Community Hackathon
• Brand Hackathon
• Non-technical Hackathon
STARTUP HACKATHON
• Not purely technical
• More practical concepts
• Mix between slides and demo
• Pre-pre-incubator
OPEN SOURCE HACKATHON
• Pure community event
• No financial incentive
• No pitches, just demos
• Focus on a particular technology
COMPETITIVE COMMUNITY HACKATHON
• Prizes galore
• Pitch is important
• Practicality is secondary
BRAND HACKATHON
• Prize is the incentive
• Brands want developer mindshare
• Brands want demo apps
• Not community focused
NON-TECHNICAL HACKATHONS
• “Ideathon”
• Business plan iteration
• Concept pitching
• Slide decks galore!
DOLLA DOLLA BILL Y’ALL
• Developer Mindshare
• Proof of Concepts
• Press
• Lead Generation
• Community Support
• Recruiting
• Free Labor
WHY DO WE HACK?
• Love
• Press
• Money
• Education
• Community
WHAT IS NEXT?
HACKING IS ART