So Patrick and I have been conspiring a bit to have a sort of hackathon at THATCamp, and you’ll see that there’s time and space reserved for it on the schedule — basically all weekend in CHNM itself on the fourth floor of Research Hall, in the same space the CHNM developers use every day — long tables and lots and lots of whiteboards — plus the lounge area — sofas, soft chairs, and coffee tables. Everyone’s also welcome to use this as a co-working space to code whatever they like, whether for the hackathon or no (and there’s a WII with MarioKart, which you’re also welcome to use).
On Friday at 9:30am, Patrick will introduce one or more datasets for the hackathon, but you can also just work on whatever you like. We’ll be having a lightning round demo (3 minutes apiece) on Sunday from 12:00-12:30, and everyone who participates in the demo will get a small prize for participating. There won’t be any official judging; any competition among the participants will be strictly subtextual. Even beginner folks who want to use this as a practice session to mess around with Omeka or ViewShare or Weka are welcome to participate.
You are all encouraged to build things either individually or in groups, for example by having a coder and a designer team up to put together an awesome new visualization on some data.
To recap the chief features of the Hackathon:
Who?
Anyone.
Where?
CHNM, 4th floor of Research Hall.
When?
Intro at 9:30am by Patrick, coding all weekend, demos from 12:00-12:30 on Sunday.
What?
We’ll suggest a couple of datasets for you to work with, but you can also build something all on your own.
Actually, the intro to hackathon won’t take long, and hackathoners might also want to go to the first workshops.
Does anyone want to hear about that hackathon, datasets, and see the space AND want to attend the first workshop sessions? If so, I’ll try to figure something out to accommodate!
I would definitely like to participate. I’m currently set to attend the first workshop sessions but could head out a little early if necessary.
I’m potentially interested, depending on what we hack. 🙂
Oh, and I signed up for the workshops, but I’m going to be more open about this TC.
The Hackathon intro is going to be very brief indeed, so we went ahead and moved it to 9:15, before the workshops, so that people will have time to hear how it works before going to the workshops. See the revised schedule. To be frank, really Patrick is just going to explain some things about the space (“Here it is! CHNM!”) and recap this blog post, plus answer any other questions.
I am so very interested in this, and I’m not planning on attending any Friday workshops.
There’s a chance I might need to miss parts of the weekend, though; does the lab have a setup that would be good to share the hackathon via Google Hangout (something Dave suggested on Twitter)?
I don’t see why not — it’s not really a lab, just a big open space, so the only issues might be with sound, but in my experience Hangout is pretty good about eliminating echo. Really it’ll be just a bunch of people hanging out coding — people can work individually or in pairs or groups.
really looking forward to as most of the thatcamps I’ve gone to in the past haven’t had this particular element.