Hack Day
Encyclopedia
A hack day is an event where developers, designers and people with ideas gather to build 'cool stuff' - the events now run all over the world and are organised by a wide variety of people, companies, and even government departments.
They appear with several different names - the words 'hack day' are not required for the event to be a 'hack day'. Yahoo!
have started to differentiate their Hack Days by calling them Open Hack Day, whilst others use terms more appropriate to their specific area of interest such as 'Over The Air' or more esoteric such as 'Mashed08'
The 'days' are generally run over 48 hours. The first day starts with talks about practical matters (how to access datasets and APIs) as well more inspirational matters to encourage developers and designers to think beyond their normal areas of interest - in 2008 the BBC
, Hack Day at Alexandra Palace (called Mashed08 )had talks from NASA
as well as the Yahoo! Developer Network
and backstage.bbc.co.uk
The first internal Hack Day at Yahoo took place on December 8, 2005. The first public Hack Day took place between September 29-30th of 2006 at the Yahoo! campus in Sunnyvale, California
and was followed by a performance by Beck
.
The format of the Hack Day shares characteristics with several other types of event, including unconference
s, MashPit, Foocamp and BarCamp
, but generally follows this format:
Day 1
Day 2
Entertainment is sometimes provided (see Beck
at Yahoo!
Hack Day in Sunnyvale, California and The Rumble Strips
at the joint Yahoo!
, BBC
Hack Day in 2007) on the final evening or as a 'break' in the event on the Saturday night.
The format is incredibly flexible and is changed to suit the needs of the particular event. For example you can run 'Hack Days' as simple 'Hack Evenings' - a term that acknowledges the essence of the event, without having to be structured over a 48 hour period.
Yahoo!
has been the subject of complaint after it invited 'Hack Girls' to perform at its Open Hack Day 2009 in Taipei. Yahoo!
posted a blog entry saying sorry about the decision and for any offence it may have caused.
The first public Hack Day took place between September 29-30th of 2006 at the Yahoo! campus in Sunnyvale, California
and was followed by a performance by Beck
.
Hack Day London was held in June 2007 at North London's Alexandra Palace. A joint event between backstage.bbc.co.uk
and the Yahoo! Developer Network
for several hundred developers and designers, it was hit by lightning on the Saturday morning and followed by a performance by The Rumble Strips
.
A second event was held at Congress House
in Summer 2009.
Hackday India was held on October 5 and 6th,2007 in Bangalore . The first Hackday in India featured about 100 hackers who took to Yahoo! APIs to create something using them in 24 hours. In the end, there were 31 submitted hacks and each team or single hacker had his/her 90 seconds of fame presenting the hack on three massive screens to the whole assembled audience and the 7 judges to declare the results of the hackday India 2007.
Over The Air is a yearly event run in London. It is a hack day combined with a concurrent developer conference featuring informational and educational sessions on different topics, with a focus on mobile platforms and technologies. It ran at Imperial College London
in 2008 , 2009 and 2010 and will be running at Bletchley Park
in 2011.
Mashed08 was the first large scale Hack Day run without Yahoo!
. It was organised by backstage.bbc.co.uk
and concentrated on creating a 'festival of hacking'. Speakers were invited from Yahoo!
, BBC
as well as NASA
and other interesting organisations. It ran at Alexandra Palace in North London on 21 and 22 June 2008.
Hackday Brazil was held on November 8 and 9th 2008, and then on March 20 and 21 2010, in São Paulo.
Yahoo has spread their hack day idea to universities around the country. Hack U has been going on since 2006. That year Greg Schechter from UIUC won the national contest with his Slide Rule Widget. Check out the video of his winning presentation.
First Hackday Russia was held on September 5 and 6 2009 in Saint-Petersburg.
A government sponsored hack day run by webdirections in Australia. The first event happened in Canberra at the Australian National University in partnership with CSIRO on the 30 and 31 October 2009
A Hack Day run by Lonely Planet
in partnership with GovHack. Run out of the Lonely Planet
HQ in Footscray, Melbourne the event ran on the 7 and 8 November 2009.
Design and engineering firm Arup
held their first Hack Day, ArupHack09 on 20 and 21 November 2009. It was run as a global event with participants in Australia, UK and North America linked via video conference.
The first Slovak Hackday was held on October 8 and 9th 2010 in Bratislava. It was organised by Fair-play Aliance (NGO) and concentrated on public control and visualization of 'flows of public finances'.
Science Hack Days have been organized in London and San Francisco:
Over a dozen Music Hack Days have been organized around the world:
One of the first Edu Hack Day's is taking place on November 12 + 13, 2011 in Baltimore, Maryland, see http://EducationHackDay.org. Other Edu Hack Days are also being planned, like the one in NYC in Jan 2012.
They appear with several different names - the words 'hack day' are not required for the event to be a 'hack day'. Yahoo!
Yahoo!
Yahoo! Inc. is an American multinational internet corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, United States. The company is perhaps best known for its web portal, search engine , Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers, advertising, online mapping ,...
have started to differentiate their Hack Days by calling them Open Hack Day, whilst others use terms more appropriate to their specific area of interest such as 'Over The Air' or more esoteric such as 'Mashed08'
The 'days' are generally run over 48 hours. The first day starts with talks about practical matters (how to access datasets and APIs) as well more inspirational matters to encourage developers and designers to think beyond their normal areas of interest - in 2008 the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, Hack Day at Alexandra Palace (called Mashed08 )had talks from NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
as well as the Yahoo! Developer Network
Yahoo! Developer Network
Yahoo! Developer Network is Yahoo!'s site for developers, where it offers a free access to its collection of web services , in addition to multiple software development resources.-Yahoo! APIs:...
and backstage.bbc.co.uk
Backstage.bbc.co.uk
backstage.bbc.co.uk is the brand name of the BBC's developer network which operated between May 2005 and December 2010.-Purpose:...
The first internal Hack Day at Yahoo took place on December 8, 2005. The first public Hack Day took place between September 29-30th of 2006 at the Yahoo! campus in Sunnyvale, California
Sunnyvale, California
Sunnyvale is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States. It is one of the major cities that make up the Silicon Valley located in the San Francisco Bay Area...
and was followed by a performance by Beck
Beck
Beck Hansen is an American musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, known by the stage name Beck...
.
The format of the Hack Day shares characteristics with several other types of event, including unconference
Unconference
An unconference is a participant-driven meeting. The term "unconference" has been applied, or self-applied, to a wide range of gatherings that try to avoid one or more aspects of a conventional conference, such as high fees, sponsored presentations, and top-down organization...
s, MashPit, Foocamp and BarCamp
BarCamp
BarCamp is an international network of user-generated conferences . They are open, participatory workshop-events, the content of which is provided by participants. The first BarCamps focused on early-stage web applications, and were related to open source technologies, social protocols, and open...
, but generally follows this format:
Day 1
- Registration
- Talks
- 24 hour hack starts
Day 2
- 24 hour hack finishes
- Presentation of hacks to audience of peers
- Awarding of prizes
Entertainment is sometimes provided (see Beck
Beck
Beck Hansen is an American musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, known by the stage name Beck...
at Yahoo!
Yahoo!
Yahoo! Inc. is an American multinational internet corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, United States. The company is perhaps best known for its web portal, search engine , Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers, advertising, online mapping ,...
Hack Day in Sunnyvale, California and The Rumble Strips
The Rumble Strips
The Rumble Strips are an English band from Tavistock, Devon. The band take their name from Rumble Strips, which are small, continuous lines of bumps along the edge of a road. Having known each other since childhood, a precise conception date for the band doesn't really exist. The current line-up...
at the joint Yahoo!
Yahoo!
Yahoo! Inc. is an American multinational internet corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, United States. The company is perhaps best known for its web portal, search engine , Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers, advertising, online mapping ,...
, BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
Hack Day in 2007) on the final evening or as a 'break' in the event on the Saturday night.
The format is incredibly flexible and is changed to suit the needs of the particular event. For example you can run 'Hack Days' as simple 'Hack Evenings' - a term that acknowledges the essence of the event, without having to be structured over a 48 hour period.
Yahoo!
Yahoo!
Yahoo! Inc. is an American multinational internet corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, United States. The company is perhaps best known for its web portal, search engine , Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers, advertising, online mapping ,...
has been the subject of complaint after it invited 'Hack Girls' to perform at its Open Hack Day 2009 in Taipei. Yahoo!
Yahoo!
Yahoo! Inc. is an American multinational internet corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, United States. The company is perhaps best known for its web portal, search engine , Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers, advertising, online mapping ,...
posted a blog entry saying sorry about the decision and for any offence it may have caused.
List of Hack Days
- First Hack Day
The first public Hack Day took place between September 29-30th of 2006 at the Yahoo! campus in Sunnyvale, California
Sunnyvale, California
Sunnyvale is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States. It is one of the major cities that make up the Silicon Valley located in the San Francisco Bay Area...
and was followed by a performance by Beck
Beck
Beck Hansen is an American musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, known by the stage name Beck...
.
- Hack Day London
Hack Day London was held in June 2007 at North London's Alexandra Palace. A joint event between backstage.bbc.co.uk
Backstage.bbc.co.uk
backstage.bbc.co.uk is the brand name of the BBC's developer network which operated between May 2005 and December 2010.-Purpose:...
and the Yahoo! Developer Network
Yahoo! Developer Network
Yahoo! Developer Network is Yahoo!'s site for developers, where it offers a free access to its collection of web services , in addition to multiple software development resources.-Yahoo! APIs:...
for several hundred developers and designers, it was hit by lightning on the Saturday morning and followed by a performance by The Rumble Strips
The Rumble Strips
The Rumble Strips are an English band from Tavistock, Devon. The band take their name from Rumble Strips, which are small, continuous lines of bumps along the edge of a road. Having known each other since childhood, a precise conception date for the band doesn't really exist. The current line-up...
.
A second event was held at Congress House
Congress House
Congress House is the headquarters of the Trades Union Congress , a British organisation that represents most of the UK's trade unions....
in Summer 2009.
- HackDay India
Hackday India was held on October 5 and 6th,2007 in Bangalore . The first Hackday in India featured about 100 hackers who took to Yahoo! APIs to create something using them in 24 hours. In the end, there were 31 submitted hacks and each team or single hacker had his/her 90 seconds of fame presenting the hack on three massive screens to the whole assembled audience and the 7 judges to declare the results of the hackday India 2007.
- Over The Air 2008 - 2011
Over The Air is a yearly event run in London. It is a hack day combined with a concurrent developer conference featuring informational and educational sessions on different topics, with a focus on mobile platforms and technologies. It ran at Imperial College London
Imperial College London
Imperial College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom, specialising in science, engineering, business and medicine...
in 2008 , 2009 and 2010 and will be running at Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park is an estate located in the town of Bletchley, in Buckinghamshire, England, which currently houses the National Museum of Computing...
in 2011.
- Mashed08
Mashed08 was the first large scale Hack Day run without Yahoo!
Yahoo!
Yahoo! Inc. is an American multinational internet corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, United States. The company is perhaps best known for its web portal, search engine , Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers, advertising, online mapping ,...
. It was organised by backstage.bbc.co.uk
Backstage.bbc.co.uk
backstage.bbc.co.uk is the brand name of the BBC's developer network which operated between May 2005 and December 2010.-Purpose:...
and concentrated on creating a 'festival of hacking'. Speakers were invited from Yahoo!
Yahoo!
Yahoo! Inc. is an American multinational internet corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, United States. The company is perhaps best known for its web portal, search engine , Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers, advertising, online mapping ,...
, BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
as well as NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
and other interesting organisations. It ran at Alexandra Palace in North London on 21 and 22 June 2008.
- HackDay Brazil
Hackday Brazil was held on November 8 and 9th 2008, and then on March 20 and 21 2010, in São Paulo.
- University Hack Day
Yahoo has spread their hack day idea to universities around the country. Hack U has been going on since 2006. That year Greg Schechter from UIUC won the national contest with his Slide Rule Widget. Check out the video of his winning presentation.
- HackDay Russia
First Hackday Russia was held on September 5 and 6 2009 in Saint-Petersburg.
- GovHack
A government sponsored hack day run by webdirections in Australia. The first event happened in Canberra at the Australian National University in partnership with CSIRO on the 30 and 31 October 2009
- Melbourne Hack Day
A Hack Day run by Lonely Planet
Lonely Planet
Lonely Planet is the largest travel guide book and digital media publisher in the world. The company is owned by BBC Worldwide, which bought a 75% share from the founders Maureen and Tony Wheeler in 2007 and the final 25% in February 2011...
in partnership with GovHack. Run out of the Lonely Planet
Lonely Planet
Lonely Planet is the largest travel guide book and digital media publisher in the world. The company is owned by BBC Worldwide, which bought a 75% share from the founders Maureen and Tony Wheeler in 2007 and the final 25% in February 2011...
HQ in Footscray, Melbourne the event ran on the 7 and 8 November 2009.
- Arup Hack Day 09
Design and engineering firm Arup
Arup
Arup is a global professional services firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom which provides engineering, design, planning, project management and consulting services for all aspects of the built environment. The firm is present in Africa, the Americas, Australasia, East Asia, Europe and the...
held their first Hack Day, ArupHack09 on 20 and 21 November 2009. It was run as a global event with participants in Australia, UK and North America linked via video conference.
- Fair-play Hack Day
The first Slovak Hackday was held on October 8 and 9th 2010 in Bratislava. It was organised by Fair-play Aliance (NGO) and concentrated on public control and visualization of 'flows of public finances'.
- Science Hack Day
Science Hack Days have been organized in London and San Francisco:
- Music Hack Day
Over a dozen Music Hack Days have been organized around the world:
- Education Hack Day
One of the first Edu Hack Day's is taking place on November 12 + 13, 2011 in Baltimore, Maryland, see http://EducationHackDay.org. Other Edu Hack Days are also being planned, like the one in NYC in Jan 2012.
External links
See also
- HackathonHackathonA hackathon, a hacker neologism, is an event when programmers meet to do collaborative computer programming. The spirit of a hackathon is to collaboratively build programs and applications. Hackathons are typically between several days and a week in length...
- BarCampBarCampBarCamp is an international network of user-generated conferences . They are open, participatory workshop-events, the content of which is provided by participants. The first BarCamps focused on early-stage web applications, and were related to open source technologies, social protocols, and open...
- UnconferenceUnconferenceAn unconference is a participant-driven meeting. The term "unconference" has been applied, or self-applied, to a wide range of gatherings that try to avoid one or more aspects of a conventional conference, such as high fees, sponsored presentations, and top-down organization...
- SuperHappyDevHouseSuperHappyDevHouseSuperHappyDevHouse is an international series of social events which organizers originally conceived as parties for hackers and thinkers. Founded May 29, 2005 by Jeff Lindsay and David Weekly , SHDH in Silicon Valley began by hosting 150 to 200 people every six weeks at rotating venues throughout...
- Music Hack DayMusic Hack DayMusic Hack Day is a Hack Day specifically for the music industry. The first ever Music Hack Day was organised by Dave Haynes and James Darling and held at the London offices of The Guardian over the weekend of the 11/12 July 2009....
- SAPO CodebitsSAPO CodebitsSAPO Codebits is a hackathon held in Portugal annually, organized and sponsored by SAPO.The event lasts three days, runs 24 hours a day and includes talks, a programming contest and several satellite activities.- Format :...
Further reading
- Original Open Hack Day event sign up page
- Geeks Bust Out Brollies as Rain Falls Indoors at Hack Day London (Wired.com)
- Official Yahoo Hack Day site (2006 winners)
- Yahoo Hackday India Results
- October 1, 2006 CNN-IBN: "Yahoo! Hackers have a free for all"
- Yodel Anecdotal, Yahoo!'s corporate blog, post about Hack Day in Europe
- October 2, 2006 stern.de: "Wenn Yahoo hacken lässt"
- October 3, 2006 Wall Street Journal: "How a Young Turk Spared Hackerdom From Respectability" by Lee Gomes
- Video explaining the concept of Hack Day (from Mashed08)
- BBC News report on Over The Air 2009
- BBC News: Hackers meet for coding festival
- Wired News: Geeks Bust Out Brollies as Rain Falls Indoors at Hack Day London
- One of the organisers at plasticbag.org: A Hack For Europe
- Reuters: "Hackers" meet for Yahoo, BBC open day in London
- Web developers gather for Hack Day
- Announcement on Digg
- SEO/SEM JOURNAL: Yahoo! Hack Day Here in London
- Blogosphere reactions from Yahoo Hack Blog
- ZD Net Asia: BBC, Yahoo get developers to hack Web apps
- BitTech: Hack Day London displeases God
- Blog post from one of the organisers of the London event