#WirVsVirus Hackathon: 48 hours of working together against the Corona crisis
🇩🇪 German text version is available on franzidesign:
👉 Link: https://bit.ly/2yCm4fd
The numbers:
43.000 Participants
1.900 Challenges
2.900 Mentors
27.000 Active users on the platform
13.000 Profiles on Devpost
1.500 Registered projects
100 Projects from government ministries
464.866 Slack messages
The hackathon principle
A hackathon is an event where people work together on hardware and software solutions. There are typically many software developers, designers and project managers involved. The idea is simple: Work on a project in teams, on a tight deadline, meet new people, have fun, and deliver results.
At the end of March, the Berlin government announced a hackathon via Twitter. They were looking for innovative ideas to address the Coronavirus crisis. Designers, developers, problem solvers, creatives and dedicated citizens were solicited.
You could register via the Devpost platform and receive further information by email. It started on March 20th and the slogan was #WirVsVirus. There were over 42,000 participants in numerous projects. They designed, coded, built , crafted, edited videos, created illustrations, infographics and logos, wrote texts, designed websites and much more. Participants devoted their entire weekend to be there, looking for digital and analog solutions to the Corona crisis. They were a diverse group including lawyers, doctors, cashiers, programmers, project managers, housewives, husbands, educators, the list goes on…
A similar hackathon that took place one week prior served as a role model and proposed, among other things, a Corona tracker smartwatch prototype and a chatbot addressing pressing questions about the corona crisis.
In Germany, seven social initiatives launched the hackathon: Tech4Germany, Prototype Fund, Code for Germany, Initiative21, ImpactHub Berlin, Project Together and SEND. It was sponsored by the German government.
Anyone could submit topics in advance. The organizers selected the most promising proposals and categorized them. Topics included 3D printing, neighborhood support groups, unconditional basic income, AI-solutions, a shopping helper, a gamification approach to social distancing, voucher solutions for restaurants, aid programs for artists and companies, digital sport programs, fake news solutions, an e-learning, blockchain-based crisis currency , tracking of people infected with the coronavirus and those with psychological problems, who have been deeply affected by the crisis. Proposed solutions were developed for all categories. The goal: To upload a project video with the project idea by 5 pm Sunday.
This is the closing speech of Helge Braun (Sponsor of #WirVsVirus and head of the Federal Chancellery) at the biggest hackathon in the world.
“I would like to thank all the participants and say: I’m very impressed. This was the biggest hackathon that was ever implemented. More than 40,000 agreed to contribute ideas and take measures to fight the virus from home and abroad. Our country and the whole world are in a critical situation. To have so many people volunteering to help do things that the federal government could never have done alone is really great. The results will be will be published on the the last weekend in March. The projects will be evaluated in three categories: New developments, further developments of existing solutions and commercial solutions. The criteria: Social added value, degree of innovation, scalability, progress and comprehensibility of the project documentation.
My personal experience:
Last weekend was incredible. I had learned about the nationwide hackathon by shear accident via Twitter!
Thursday, March 19, 2020
Evening: I registered on the event site 👉 Wirvsvirushackathon.org as a participant and waited for instructions.
Friday, March 20
An email arrived in the afternoon:
“There are 42,968 participants! That’s incredible. Thank you for participating in the #WirVsVirus hackathon!”
A short time later, a link to all the projects on Airtable was received via e-mail. There was an online table in which one could view all the projects. I opened the site and was totally overwhelmed by the categories and ideas. After an hour, I was thoroughly engrossed and did not feel bad about spending my whole weekend sitting in front of the computer.
I did not give up and two hours later, I had read through all the ideas and decided on a project which I found interesting. At 6:30 pm, the organizer’s kickoff video was shown on YouTube. Meanwhile, I awaited a Slack invitation link, but there was a problem. The link was delayed and the official start postponed — technology wasn’t cooperating.
Then I went to bed because I had no access to the projects and teams and decided to try again the next morning.
Saturday, March 21st
I discovered the reason for the technology hiccup. Slack only allows 2,000 emails but there were much more due to more than 42,000 participants and no one had expected such a number. Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield personally took care of the problem.
9 am: After a good night’s sleep, I was off to the computer. The invitation link was in my inbox and I could register on Slack. It was crazy how many groups and participants were online. The more the coronavirus tears apart social life, the more it generated a feeling of solidarity in me and I just had to get involved. Germany was acting together and anyone could join in. Instead of complaining, just do it. Everyone was logged onto Slack.
Unfortunately, I could not find the project I had chosen in Slack. Change of plans! I spontaneously offered my help as a UX designer in a general group or as a team mentor. A short time later, Murat, an app developer from Munich, wrote to me that they were still looking for someone to support the team in concept and interface design. Two Slack messages later and I was in the team “Staatus”. It was 11 am when I joined the group and the hackathon started for me. There was only a short introduction round and we were off! We all had the same goal: Hack the virus!
Our team consisted of six people — a developer, a copywriter, an illustrator, a podcaster, a crisis communication specialist, a digital transformation manager and me — a UX/UI designer. Our tools for the collaboration: Slack, Skype, Google Docs, Sketch and PowerPoint — all used remotely, of course.
The topic: Crisis communication.
The goal: An app that included a produced podcast and a pitch deck.
The idea: To develop an official Corona app, which bundles all relevant information from the German government, the Robert Koch Institute, the WHO and regional sources in one place. No external research — just an easy-to-use, customized, location-based app. Fake news was to be combatted. The user can filter according to federal state and get the information he needs without extensive research. There was to be an FAQ section. In addition, we wanted to include a daily 2-minute podcast with key information summarized in an easily understandable way and feature a weekly talk with an expert.
The first group call: It was a bit exhausting, because there were a lot of ideas floating around. We discussed the main/draft points in the team and then everyone researched independently until we met again.
The second call: We split into three teams. One team took care of the pitch deck, another the podcast and the third took care of the app concept. Every few hours there was a Skype call so we could vote new ideas.
I performed an analysis: What is currently available in the app store? What information is truly important? What sources are reputable? What are the concrete problems? Who is the target group? And what can we accomplish in one day?
There was no shortage of ideas, but we had to presented in video form by Sunday evening, so I had to limit myself to the most important functions so that we could finish the app concept.
Murat took care of the technical configuration of the app, Bene supported me with the story and Pia did the illustrations. We started with the first concept approaches — determining which functionalities the app needs. After that, I opened Sketch and did the first layouts in record time. In just a few hours, the first idea was finished, which we went through as a team on Skype. Hourly, I edited the screens and Pia adapted the onboarding illustrations. Everything ran smoothly and the app was taking shape. We wrapped up with a final call.
Sunday, March 22nd
9 am: Breakfast and off to the computer. The fine tuning of the app, additional programming and of course the podcast and the pitch deck were on the agenda. Everything had to be ready by 5 pm. The goal was to produce a 2-minute concept video. By the early afternoon, the app concept was ready and we could concentrate on the video. At 5 pm sharp, we managed to submit the project video. Bene and Pia finalized the video, and the podcast and pitch deck were finished. Everybody contributed 100 % from the start and we had really done it! It was great what you can do in such a short time with an interdisciplinary team if you coordinate well.
At the end of the hackathon, on Sunday evening, there was a YouTube closing party where one of the sponsors, Braun, thanked the participants for their effort and said:
“Many people have said they would never work for the government. I hope this was not a traumatic experience.” 🙂
We were infinitely proud of what seven people who didn’t know each other could achieve in such a short time. After the closing speech, our team chatted. We agreed to have a beer together on Skype to toast our results. It was a crazy experience that I can heartily recommend to everyone!
Tools used:
For communication/collaboration: Skype, Slack und Google Docs
Creative tools: Adobe Premiere, Illustrator, Photoshop und Sketch
App development: Flutter
Additional tools: Airtable, Devpost
Alternatives:
For calls: Zoom, Microsoft Teams
Collaborative work: Miro, Mural
Prototyping: InVision, Zeplin, Framer, Adobe XD
And here is the best part! Our results:
👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2QnVw-El94&feature=emb_logo
Project submission: 👉 https://bit.ly/3aui6n2
Our podcast: 👉 https://bit.ly/2vSaMSU
Pitch deck: 👉 https://bit.ly/2yh2yot
My key takeaways:
What went well?
- Team calls with Skype
- Project communication within Slack
- Teamwork in an interdisciplinary team
- Communication in one language: German
- A designated moderator
- Prioritization of app tasks and functions
- Small teams and delegated tasks
- Topic-oriented chats in subgroups
- Clear roles and responsibilities assigned at an early stage
- No long discussions due to looming deadline (timeboxing)
- Finalized the goal: An app, podcast and a pitch deck (MVP)
- New experience and contacts
- General: No long commuting time (time-saving)
What didn’t go well?
- Technical problems, start delays (organization)
- Innovation is difficult in such a short time
- Information flood on Slack
- Too many Slack channels
- Too little time to familiarize ourselves with the topic
- Social media posts before and after the hackathon (promote the project was missing)
- User focus missing, the user added value could not be verified
- App not in the app store 😉
- Old projects simply submitted as new
And, finally a very important point:
Do good and talk about it everywhere. What good is a successful hackathon if nobody knows about it? 😜
I was originally disappointed because I did not find the project I had chosen in the beginning. But what I did find was a great group to work with. I was extremely excited to see what a team could accomplish in only two days. I learned a lot about the psychology of people, team building, efficient time optimization and agile procedures. Working remotely was nothing new, but it was a wonderful experience to work on a solution in such a short time frame with other people.
At a time when we are all keeping physical distance from each other, 42,000 hackathon participants came together digitally to find solutions to an urgent crisis. It was a mind-blowing experience and I am still impressed how quickly and easily so many teams came together virtually to develop solutions! One of the most remarkable things about the weekend was the solidarity of the participants with those affected by the Coronavirus. The feeling was “We want and we can create something together.” It proved that, as a community, there is a lot we can do — which gave me courage and strength to spend my whole weekend in front of my laptop and do what I am passionate about.
Thanks to all the participants!
And especially our team for contributing its expertise in stopping the crisis.
All projects on YouTube:
👉 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYGe9q9_Jo3AhwDdN4qvhvqTSgfCdYRGD
What happens next…
Now it is matter of bringing the developed solutions “to the street” according to the initiators of the hackathon. We are curious.
If you want to become active yourself…
After the German hackathon, #WirVsVirus, started a worldwide hackathon of the WHO. Under the motto #BuidforCOVID19, digital solutions are to be developed that can help the corona crisis in a variety of ways. The worldwide tech community is called upon to develop ideas. Apart from Slack, there are other big supporters like Facebook, Microsoft, Giphy, Pinterest, TikTok, Twitter and WeChat.
