Q&A about the Hackathon teams and event format

[Colin Kelley]

 Austin Hulak sent me these questions:

I was considering attending the Web Hackathon this Friday and I was curious as to the format.  More specifically I was curious as to whether teams would be created or if I should try to rally up a team of my own before the event.  I am going to try to get some of my friends to come regardless, but given the chance they can't make it, this is a big question for me.  

Also, I don't work as a full time developer, but I am fairly comfortable working in php, python, mysql, js, html, and css -  would this be a good fit for an event like this? I noticed many of the developers were working in Ruby, which I have almost no experience with... 

I appreciate your response and I am looking forward to the event.

Great questions.  Here's a run-down on the format.

People arrive starting at 6:00 and use the first hour to get set up, connected to Wifi, and meet and greet.

We'll have team pitches at 7:00 and people will join up after that.  Last time most of the pitches had a "core team" already interested but in most cases those teams were just 2 - 4 people so they were happy to have another 1 or 2 join up.  And we're encouraging our development team at RingRevenue to leave more flexibility to Friday night rather than all grouping up ahead of time.

So you definitely don't need to rally a team, but if you can bring a friend or two, all the better.  If you've got a fun idea you'd like to try then definitely get up at 7:00 and pitch it and see if you get anyone to join you.  If you want to win, see my earlier post with the link to the 7 Habits.

Our theme is "modern web" so everything you mention is a great fit.  If you wind up on a team that's doing Ruby then you may gravitate to the front end rather than the server side.  (Or just squint and type 'end' every time you outdent your code.  Ruby and Python are very similar languages!).  But I'm certain there will be some Python developers and possibly some PHP ones too.

We'll get pizza for dinner around 8:00.  We'll also pick up bagels Saturday morning and we'll figure out a Saturday lunch too.  There will be plenty of energy drinks, coffee, beer, and snacks including popcorn.  And of course State Street is just down the steps.

On Saturday starting at 4:00 we'll see demos of everyone's project, then we'll "dot vote" to choose the winner for the most impressive accomplishment in < 24 hours!

Looking forward to meeting you Friday night.  The keg of Telegraph White Ale is already in the kegerator.  It's going to be fun!

-Colin