Hacking events: Project development practices and technology use at hackathons

Abstract

Hackathons are techno-creative events during which participants get together in a physical location. They may be hosted by civic communities, corporations or public institutions. Working individually or in teams, usually for several days, participants develop projects such as hardware or software prototypes. Based on a digital ethnography of two events in the Netherlands and Denmark, this article investigates project development practices at hackathons. In particular, it analyses how participants organized their project work and which technologies were used in support of their creative endeavours. Hackathons are increasingly competitive rather than collaborative events, involving time pressure, inducements such as prizes, and requiring efficient skills utilization. I argue that this facilitates the following tendencies: Firstly, strategic effort is put into final presentations. Projects need to be convincingly presented, and persuasively pitching an idea becomes crucial. Secondly, there is only limited time for personal learning, since participants’ existing skills need to be efficiently applied if a team wants to stay competitive. This encourages division of labour within groups: a tendency which seems especially problematic given that IT skills biases are often expressed in terms of gender. Thirdly, participants are more inclined to use technologies that are proprietary but appear ‘open enough’. In light of this observation and by drawing on the concept of technology as resource and opportunity, I discuss the techno-political implications of utilized technologies. With this analysis, I aim at contributing to the critical debate on hackathons as productive but likewise ideologically significant fields of ‘hacking cultures’.

Science Hackathons for Cyberphysical System Security Research

“…Unlike a conventional hackathon/Capture the Flag event, the activity was coordinated across time-bounded collaborative events: brainstorming, requirements jam and prototype hackathon. Driven primarily by the PhD students, the autonomous and non-competitive nature of the event was beneficial, an observation consistent with other studies of time-bounded collaborative events [6,16]. Ameliorating the risk of siloing research was also addressed effectively, as the transverse use case provides a broader context in which to understand and relate individual research challenges.…”

“…There is a good deal of published literature on time-bounded collaborative events, ranging from academic studies of public hackathons [16] to accounts by practitioners of their own experiences [6,9]. An ongoing theme is the tension between the pressures to produce artefacts versus the idealised notion of a hackathon as a freewheeling melting pot of creativity, ideas, and skills.…”

“…An ongoing theme is the tension between the pressures to produce artefacts versus the idealised notion of a hackathon as a freewheeling melting pot of creativity, ideas, and skills. In an ethnographic study of how participants organise themselves and their development practices, Richterich [16] found that the pressures to produce artifacts can skew the activity away from personal learning and technical depth. On the other hand, Frey et.…”

“…Impromptu groups formed around the requirements, solving problems as they arose. Studies have shown that anticipation of having to prepare and give presentations can interfere with the technical focus of participants in a hackathon [16]. Therefore, since the primary objective was to produce technical artifacts for the transverse use-case, a programme of presentations was avoided and the two-days concluded with a short and informal debriefing session.…”

Aprendizagem Na Indústria De Software: A Investigação De Um Hackathon Interno

“…Os hackathons são maratonas de programação com objetivo de solucionar determinado desafio que pode ir além do mundo tecnológico (VIVANCO-GALVÁN; CASTILLO-MALLA; JIMÉNEZ-GAONA, 2018). De acordo com Richterich (2017), os hackathons estimulam a criatividade dos participantes, que têm a oportunidade de lidar com a tecnologia. Os hackathons são realizados em um local, durante 24 horas, nas quais os participantes executam seus projetos.…”