Hacking Hackathons

When RocHackhealth, the first Hackathon about data science and health informatics, started in Rochester last year, there where rumors about the Hackathon using the same domain from another Rochester organization, RocHack, from the University of Rochester Computer Science student organization. Another Hackathon related problem: a month after, while having a meeting with Dan Schneiderman, an organizer Rochester Institute of Technology Hackathons, I learned about how a few students in Rochester were complaining about there being too many Hackathons near in dates. Dan said “students after going to Hackathons, need time to recuperate and balance school in between.” Along with these concerns, the continuous reminder of how few people knew about Hackathons, the need for more diversity within Hackathons, and the impact it could bring to any creative endevour, inspired me to start the social network Upstate NY Hackers.

The basic premise of this network is to improve communication between the network of Hackers. Originally the group was called Rochester Hackathon and the name changed to try and encompass more people; I agree because we all have the same goals to promote innovation and work together. It was beautiful to see CodeRIT talking about doing a joint talk with a community member and another event with RocHack. Hopefully these ideas will turn into plans and then events. How this group will function and define itself very much depends upon the people and my understanding of needs. Basic knowledge about the theory of psychology is minor to the importance of my knowing what the people in the group like, dislike, and what is generally happening.

I also recently read a research paper from a crowdsourcing project with Standford I am doing entitled “Social networks under stress”, in which I learned that contrary to what the researchers from the study believed, under stress people tend to not open up much to outside networks but rather become more closed. Is this why some of the people in the groups have not been communicating, perhaps their own Hackathon is under stress. It is the beginning of the year, they are trying to get organized… maybe they will become more friendly after the Hackathons have run. It is critical to understand timing, how organized the groups currently are, exam dates, and other events.

Is it just a matter of getting people to talk to each other, or is there also competition between the different Hackathons and related groups? Everyone wants to be better than something, maybe better than they were last year. It seems to me that different Hackathons are not competing with each other. Everyone wants to be friends with everyone else because we know that we each have something to offer. This is a great cultural philosophy and part of why I love helping Hackathons. I can personally attest that Hackathons can be more socially friendly than events primarily focused on humanities and social sciences. Of course the people are not homogeneous, there are problems in the world, and sometimes problems with others. But we know that we need each other to build a better future: we must build this auspicious future with Hackathons that create opportunities to connect socially and solve many different issues. Also, at the very least, we are meaningfully playing!