Hackathons & open-source culture

We have delivered at least one public hackathon every year since 2015. The first was at Linköping Science Park, two years before Chenborg existed as a company, and we have not missed a year since.

Running an event once is a logistics exercise. Running one every year for a decade means we have already made most of the mistakes and know which ones matter.

What we do

There are two related parts. The first is the event itself: a format designed around what your organisation needs rather than a generic weekend, the physical kit (network that survives eighty laptops, power, screens, boards, signage, badges, and ThinkPads to lend to people who arrive without one), facilitation across the whole run, and mentors who can unblock a stuck team at two in the morning.

The second is the part most hackathons skip. On the Monday, somebody has to decide which projects continue, who owns them, what gets open-sourced under which licence, and how the people who volunteered their weekend see anything come of it. We build that into the design rather than leaving it to enthusiasm.

Why a company would want one

Rarely for the projects. The reason is usually cultural. A hackathon is the cheapest way we know to find out who in your organisation can ship, to get engineers and non-engineers building something together, and to give people a legitimate reason to publish work in the open for the first time.

For organisations moving toward open source, which is most of the ones who call us, that first public repository, with a licence and a README and a stranger’s pull request, changes the conversation more than any policy document.

Public or internal

We run both. Public events bring in a community, surface hiring candidates and put your name on something generous. Internal ones go deeper into your own problems and are easier to follow through on. Most clients start internal and go public in year two.

Where it falls short

A hackathon will not fix a culture that punishes failure the rest of the year. If people cannot ship something imperfect on an ordinary Tuesday, a weekend will not change that, and we would rather tell you so than take the booking.

We also will not run one as recruitment theatre with no intention of continuing any of the work. People notice, and it does more damage than not holding the event at all.