Reappropriating Hackathons

Abstract

The popularity of hackathons has increased as technology pervades more facets of our lives. Originally designed for programmers, hackathons are now being appropriated by new stakeholders across diverse sectors. Yet with this evolution in hackathons, we no longer adequately understand what is produced and, thereby, the value of these events. We conducted an interview study with 22 stakeholders-participants, representatives of nonprofit organizations, and organizers-of the CHI4Good Day of Service to understand what is produced through philanthropic hackathons. Whereas traditional hackathons are oriented around the production of code or prototypes, our analysis of interview data suggests that the production work of philanthropic hackathons also includes technical capacity and expertise, expanded social networks, an exposure to design process, affective experiences, and an opportunity for participants to shape their identities against a cross-sectoral, interdisciplinary backdrop. We conclude by reflecting on implications for the CHI community in carrying out philanthropic events styled after hackathons.

Hackathons as Participatory Design

“…Initially construed as "problem-focused programming event[s]" [17] primarily concerned with software development, hackathons have expanded to encompass a range of technology modalities, issue areas, and participatory design activities [14,57], including hacking for "social good" [45] and civic hackathons [4,50], in which "the technological imagination and civic imagination collide" [51].…”

Makers and Quilters

“…Incorporating making into educational contexts supports the growth and long-term attitudes of students towards science and STEM in general [12,37,44,51,53]. Therefore, there is increasing support in the public domain for the appropriation of these formats in places like schools, libraries, cities, and museums as "new" approaches to engaging communities [16,18,31,46]. Prior work (e.g., [19]) shows instances of closed maker groups facilitating an environment to explore safely and build makers' confidence, as in the case of women-only hackerspaces.…”

Everybody's Hacking

“…In noting this shift, we draw a distinction between original form of hackathons, in which there is a clear impetus to develop working code as a primary output of the event, and this new form of mainstreamed hackathon in which, although there may be coding involved, it is largely side-lined in favour of other priorities. However, it is not always clear what these hackathons intend to achieve [23] or how "useful" they might be in meaningfully impacting the issue [24]. They also present significant problems in terms of diversity [5,25]: attending a 48-hour intensive event can be unattractive to many people, but might specifically exclude people with childcare responsibilities, for example.…”