HackDay: time for 48 hours

The prototype of the GroupMe service (2010) was written in 48 hours and funded, and the project was later sold to Skype for $ 85 million. The Cellslider research project (2012) saved the British Center for Cancer Research almost two years of research time. Its development took the same 48 hours. The game Happy Wings (2013) pleases cats around the world - not so much, but very cute. And she, too, collected 48 hours.

As you can see, you can have a lot. And many, for sure, even have ideas on what to develop.
Smart books say that in such cases you just need to “take and do”. But everyone who tried, knows how hard it is to find time and energy even to start. However, there is a way out. Go you ... to the hackathon.



A quick reference for those who are not yet aware of what a “hackathon” is. The word itself appeared in the early 2000s from the words “hack” and “maraphon”. That is, this is a marathon hacking. But not the hacking that the Pentagon servers are hacking into, but the hacking from which Mozilla, Linux and Facebook emerged.
Wikipedia: Hackathon (hackathon from hack - hacking and marathon - marathon) - an event during which specialists from different areas of software development (programmers, designers, managers) work together to solve a problem.
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By the way, Facebook hackathons are initially one of the centers of corporate culture. Facebook developers regularly gather in small teams, buy pizza and in a couple of days present a new feature of Social Network No. 1 to everyone. On the internal Facebook Hacker Cup counterparts, a built-in social network video player, the mention system via “@”, mini-chat and many other features, without which we no longer think of Facebook, were developed.

Now hakatons around the world are turning from sandboxes in which programmers play, into launching pads, from which both commercial and social projects begin their takeoff.

You can immediately see the idea, product and performance of the team under stress. This is just a nirvana for the investor. - Ron Conway , business angel, Google, PayPal and Twitter.

In addition to investors and technology communities, like the FreeBSD or the Mozilla Foundation, the hackathon format is very much in favor of municipal governments. In the largest cities of America (New York, Los Angeles, Vancouver) hackathons are regularly held to develop applications for the urban environment. Recently, even the White House Hackathon, which was organized by the administration of the US president in support of its “We Are People” program, has passed.

In addition to technological or geographic referencing, hackathons are held in specific industries: music (Music Hack Day), medicine (Health Hack, Healthcare Hackathon), ecology (Green Hackathon), and even pets are not left overboard (Tail & Rails Hackathon, Games for Cats).
By the way, today a real hackathon is an event not only for programmers. Events like “NY Hack” or “Open Data HackDay” gather a very mixed audience: engineers, journalists, medics, sociologists, even taxi drivers!

In Russia, most people for some reason associate hackathons with start-up events: investment sessions, startup lynches and other events where people gather to talk about their projects.

So, this is a fundamentally wrong opinion. Hackathon is a place where they work , not talk.

There are only brief stories about yourself and ideas at the very beginning, in order to acquaint participants and gather teams. And demonstrations of prototypes at the end to show what you have done in these two days. All the rest of the time - work, work, work.

We at HackDay add a small educational component to the classic format. At our events there are short educational lectures and mentoring sessions. But even here, we are trying to select mentors so that they can not just talk to the participants, but help in the development of the project.

In the end, all hackathons, including our HackDay, are space for comfortable work. In one place, all that is needed is collected: people, food, coffee, the Internet and interesting tasks that need to be solved.

In 2013 alone, more than 20 large hackathons took place in Russia (most of them were in Moscow), and a team from Russia won the BattleHack international final in San Jose.

Remember how this article started? So why not get into your notebook and not resurrect a couple of old ideas? Do it. The main thing is not to fall into excessive planning. As old Linus said:

It happens that theory and practice sometimes compete. And in such cases, the theory loses. Is always.

So stop planning. Start doing!

And finally, about 2014. We are confident that this year in Russia will be the year of hackathons and are very happy to open the 2014 HackDay season in Moscow. HackDay # 30 will be held in the very center of Moscow in the DI Telegraph space. There will be a lot of interesting people, cool experts and, of course, interesting projects. All participants will get pride in themselves and personal GodMode for 48 hours, and the best will be awarded prizes from sponsors and partners.

PS To set the mood for a clip from our HackDay # 28 in Ulyanovsk