Hackathons are meetings where people come together to improve or create new policies/projects. Hackathons can be focused on achieving a specific goal or more general in their focus. They create opportunities for organizations to explore innovative ideas.
Hackathons can last from a couple of hours to a week. The meeting often begins with one or more presentations about the purpose of the meeting and the challenge to be solved. Participants then propose ideas and organize themselves into teams, based on their individual interests and skills. Then the work begins with developing solutions. Sometimes prizes of various kinds are offered for the best ideas. A Hackathon often ends with a demonstration where each team gets to show their results.
Hackathons arose as a flexible form of meeting where programmers and other customers gather around software development. Since then, Hackathons have been used to bring citizens together and export to create innovative solutions.
It is common to have a mixed group of participants in a Hackathon. For example, experts, politicians, citizens, representatives from business and similar groups.
A Hackathon does not have to be very expensive to organize. A room with good connections and the opportunity for intensive small group work is important.
It can take several months to plan a Hackathon. The mod itself can be between half a day to a weekend or more.
Hackathons are used when the organizers want to open up a question or challenge to a larger group of experts. Support in the form of technical support and facilitation is needed.
Hackathons are used when the organizers want to open up a question or challenge to a larger group of experts. Support in the form of technical support and facilitation is needed.