Hackathons: Why Co-Location?

This research was supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council [grant Number AH/J005142/1].This research was supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council [grant Number AH/J005142/1].This research was supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council [grant Number AH/J005142/1].This research was supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council [grant Number AH/J005142/1].In this position paper we outline and discuss co-location as a significant catalyst to knowledge exchange between participants for innovation at hackathon events. We draw on surveys and empirical evidence from participation in such events to conclude that the main incentives for participants are peer-to-peer learning and meaningful networking. We then consider why co-location provides an appropriate framework for these processes to occur, and emphasize the needs for future research in this area

The Hackathon Phenomenon

date-added: 2015-03-24 04:16:59 +0000 date-modified: 2015-03-24 04:16:59 +0000date-added: 2015-03-24 04:16:59 +0000 date-modified: 2015-03-24 04:16:59 +000

Digital Innovation: The Hackathon Phenomenon

date-added: 2015-03-24 04:16:59 +0000 date-modified: 2015-03-24 04:16:59 +0000date-added: 2015-03-24 04:16:59 +0000 date-modified: 2015-03-24 04:16:59 +0000This work was supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, CreativeWorks London Hub, grant AH/J005142/1, and the European Regional Development Fund, London Creative and Digital Fusion

Science Hackathons for Cyberphysical System Security Research: Putting CPS testbed platforms to good use

A challenge is to develop cyber-physical system scenarios that reflect the diversity and complexity of real-life cyber-physical systems in the research questions that they address. Time-bounded collaborative events, such as hackathons, jams and sprints, are increasingly used as a means of bringing groups of individuals together, in order to explore challenges and develop solutions. This paper describes our experiences, using a science hackathon to bring individual researchers together, in order to develop a common use-case implemented on a shared CPS testbed platform that embodies the diversity in their own security research questions. A qualitative study of the event was conducted, in order to evaluate the success of the process, with a view to improving future similar events

An informal learning program as a replicable model for student-led, industry-supported experiential learning

This research paper details the growth of an informal experiential learning program around hackathons and makeathons and presents the evolution of the program as a model of a successful co-curricular approach in engineering education. After six years of growing an informal learning program from a single hackathon event of 100 attendees to a complete experiential learning platform (OHI/O) consisting of over twelve events, sustained industry engagement, scholarships, and building a successful and stable team of student leaders, the authors will share and gather feedback on the development and evolution of the program.Publisher does not allow open access until after publicatio

Creating, Doing, and Sustaining OER: Lessons from Six Open Educational Resource Projects

The development of free-to-use open educational resources (OER) has generated a dynamic field of widespread interest and study regarding methods for creating and sustaining OER. To help foster a thriving OER movement with potential for knowledge-sharing across program, organizational and national boundaries, the Institute for Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME), developed and conducted case study research programs in collaboration with six OER projects from around the world. Embodying a range of challenges and opportunities among a diverse set of OER projects, the case studies intended to track, analyze and share key developments in the creation, use and reuse of OER. The specific cases include: CurriculumNet, Curriki, Free High School Science Texts (FHSST), Training Commons, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP), and Teachers' Domain

Hacking events: project development practices and technology use at hackathons

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’

Bringing Maker Culture into Media and Information Literacy. Case: Global Media and Information Literacy Online Youth Hackathon 2018.

With growing connectivity and descending prices for personal computers and smartphones more and more children and young people are gaining access to online media. This trend comes with a number of risks and has yet inevitable negative influence on how those young media users behave and feel. Therefore, Media and Information Literacy (MIL) has been a recent topic on the agenda of numerous academics, educators and policymakers. The Global Online Media and Information Literacy Youth Hackathon 2018 and the Followup 4-Week Programme (both under the name GlobalMILHack) were the centre case of this study, which emphasised the design methodology in the context of problem-based learning. The aim of this research study was to undertake a qualitative examination of the GlobalMILHack participants’ learning outcomes in order to find out what can hackathon bring from the maker culture to the MIL educational practice. The study adopted action research methodology, since the author was the active part of the whole cycle of the event process from planning to execution to closure and has collected diverse qualitative feedback along the work process and during the interviews, made field notes and observations. This study has shown that the maker culture can be integrated into MIL educational practice through online hackathon method in different ways: by making the constructive learning happen through problem-focused collaborative adhoc and hands-on approach; by opening up to inter-cultural learning through facilitating the online dialogue; leveraging the critical understanding of media and its role in the society by working on the highlighted social challenges around media use and by creating informed, engaged and empowered porto-publics around the creative solutions

Hackathons as Co-optation Ritual: Socializing Workers and Institutionalizing Innovation in the “New” Economy

Hackathons, time-bounded competitive events where participants write computer code and build apps, have become a popular means of socializing tech students and workers to produce “innovation” despite little promise of material reward. Although they offer participants opportunities for learning new skills and face-to-face networking, and set up interaction rituals that create an emotional “high,” potential advantage is even greater for the events’ corporate sponsors, who use them to outsource work, crowdsource innovation, and enhance their reputation. Ethnographic observations and informal interviews carried out at seven public hackathons held in New York City during the course of a single school year show how the format of the event and sponsors’ discursive tropes, within a dominant cultural frame reflecting the appeal of Silicon Valley, reshape unpaid and precarious work. Writing code and building apps for free becomes an extraordinary opportunity, a ritual of ecstatic labor, and a collective imaginary for fictional expectations of innovation that benefits all. Despite participants’ dual emphasis on the pleasures of participating and the benefits they hope to derive, hackathons are a powerful strategy for manufacturing workers’ consent in the “new” economy