With AngelHack Singapore Fall edition drawing nearer, I decided to find out more about the history of the hackathon and the various perspectives of hackathons.
Brief History of Hackathons
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZbtzTIuvqw[/youtube]
Oxford dictionary defines a hackathon as “an event, typically lasting several days, in which a large number of people meet to engage in collaborative computer programming”. Personally, I prefer the definition given by UC Berkeley’s The Daily Californian:
“Hackathon = programmers’ gathering (but more efficient)”
“Hackathon = any other CS project (with potential awards)”
“Hackathon = there’s food (usually)”
“Hackathon = venture capitalists (they look for cool ideas)”
“Hackathon = you can leave whenever (no one stops you)”
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/68314739[/vimeo]
Jon Gottfried, Developer Evangelist at Twilio, gave a brief presentation at Open Tech NYC 2013 on the history of hackathon. The first hackathon was OpenBSD which occurred at Calgary from June 4 to 6, 1999. Interestingly, the term, “Hackathon”, was first used to refer to an event at the JavaOne Conference from June 15 to 19, 1999. According to Jon, the mother of the modern hackathon was created in 2005 with Super Happy Dev House that involved developers and technical expertise gathering to “build things, simply for the love of building”. It was a public community event that people could meet their friends, socialize, work on projects, and find collaborators. Since then, the hackathon has evolved into various formats that can be largely categorized into startup hackathons, open source hackathons, competitive community hackathons, brand hackathons, and non-technical hackathons.
Are Hackathons Worth Your Attention?
Critics feel that hackathons might not be focusing on the social good. Jake Porway, founder and executive director of DataKind, wrote a Harvard Business Review article titled “You Can’t Just Hack Your Way to Social Change” which acknowledged that hackathons “give the technology community great social opportunities and reward them with money and fame for their solutions, and companies get free access to a community of diligent experts they otherwise wouldn’t know how to reach.” However, they “are not ideal for solving big problems like reducing poverty, reforming politics, or improving education and, when they’re used to interpret data for social impact, they can be downright dangerous.”
NewTechCity did an unofficial poll from 40 hackers and found that individuals primarily attend hackathons to make connections that can eventually lead to job opportunities and startup investments. More importantly, hackathons provide an opportunity for individuals to “solve a problem and to change the world”. It is a great platform to get media exposure on issues, such as Hack//Meat for sustainable agriculture and FWD.us hackathon spearheaded by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg for undocumented immigrants.
Despite criticisms that “nothing ever happens to their ideas” generated at hackathons, these events are a great way for individuals to learn more about themselves and to socialize with other like-minded people to “keep their creative juices flowing”. It provides a great opportunity for potential entrepreneurs to learn to handle unexpected situations during a startup, such as technical failures and team conflicts, and to test their ideas and collect feedback from potential users, collaborators, and investors.
Personally, I am excited about attending AngelHack Singapore to catch-up with old buddies and to make new friends while picking up great ideas on the latest trends in the industry.
Interested in joining AngelHack Singapore? Sign up at https://apphack13singapore.eventbrite.com/
Keep track of the latest event news at AngelHack Singapore Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AngelHackSingapore
Stay tune for our coverage of AngelHack Singapore Fall 2013 at the end of the month!
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