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Heart of code

Why hackathons provide a promising model for solving the environmental and developmental challenges of the future.

Lezette Engelbrecht
By Lezette Engelbrecht, ITWeb online features editor
Johannesburg, 17 Jul 2012

When New York City needed a new Web site last year, city officials didn't turn to an award-winning Web design firm or some big-name developer - it sent an open invitation to programmers and designers from around the country to take part in a 36-hour hackathon, to come up with concept designs for a revamped NYC.gov site.

No briefs or specifications were given, just an opportunity for developers to create their vision for a more “human-centred, search-driven” city Web site. Sure, there were big players among the participating teams, but there were also plenty of unknowns, and ultimately it was a novel way to encourage civic participation in a platform millions of inhabitants use to access public services. In a few days, teams had come up with creative, user-friendly designs that could have taken months via traditional channels, and which featured a 'voice of the people' quality that's hard to fabricate.

Instead of highly-exclusive geek fests, they're serving as crucibles for solutions to the world's major challenges.

Lezette Engelbrecht, Online features editor, ITWeb

To many, hackathons resemble a drawn-out exam: long hours in a confined space, stretches of intense concentration, copious cups of coffee... But those with a head for coding and a heart for change see hackathons as a unique opportunity to collaborate with like-minded individuals and create tangible solutions for everyday problems.

Companies like Google, Yahoo, Facebook and LinkedIn are known for using hackathons to generate new products and services, and even for enlisting new recruits. But as online and digital platforms become the heartbeat of social activism and environmental action, hackathons are being devoted to issues like water access, energy provision, climate change and urban living. Instead of highly exclusive geek fests, they're serving as crucibles for finding solutions to the world's major challenges.

Global tech community Random hacks of kindness hosts hackathons in cities across the globe, during which participants use open technology as their philanthropic tool of choice. The organisation's four global events have seen more than 4 000 people “hack for humanity”, with numerous community events carrying on the tradition at local level. Solutions arising from the sessions are used by everyone from the World Bank to governments to relief agencies.

The thing that makes these and other hackathons so successful is their combination of purpose and execution. Concentrating participants' energies on a single problem within a limited time frame enables them to provide real-world solutions to real-world problems. In many ways, these mental marathons simulate the final push before a big project or deadline, when adrenalin boosts productivity and delivers results in record time. The “race” format also leaves little room for politics or ego - a given team has one goal in common with no competing agendas to create discord or in-group competition. There is time for collaboration and sharing ideas of course, but it is part of the process rather than its whole purpose, as is often the case with similar get-togethers.

Recipe for results

In recent months, several “green” hackathons have demonstrated the value of this approach when it comes to environmental and social challenges. “Green” hackathons in Stockholm and London have produced everything from apps that find the greenest work location to using the Kindle as an energy dashboard, while last year's Cleanweb hackathon resulted in several innovations combining sustainable farming and local customers. Similar events are now taking place in SA as well, like the water hackathon held in Johannesburg at the recent Africa Utility Week.

For that event, a group of local hackers worked on specific problems submitted by challenge “owners”, who were on site to give input when needed. Ten hours later, and the teams had come up with novel solutions addressing challenges which, while not hugely complicated, had a significant impact on the wellbeing of communities and the environment. “Power surge prompt”, for example, is a system developed to alert plant operators, via their mobile phone, whenever there is low, high or fluctuating voltage that could damage equipment. The simple but vital ability to report real-time information to technical supervisors can make a huge difference in efficiency.

It may seem obvious, but this tangible problem-solving is what makes the hackathon such an effective tool for change. At the end of the specified coding stretch, you usually have a dozen or so solutions offering new ways of tackling problems; not a list of aims, not a pretty mind map or a plan leading to a roadmap leading to a strategy, but actual, working solutions. They may not be perfectly polished, there may be some tinkering required, but there is something to show at the end of the day. Which other “brainstorming” process is going to give similar returns on the time investment?

Hackathons are also successful because they are fairly easy to organise and low on logistics. You don't need a massive conference venue and teams of admin personnel. There isn't extensive catering to worry about or fancy equipment to arrange for. You need a room, some chairs, and a few laptops - not even that if programmers bring their own. Here, it's more about a meeting of minds than a meeting of bodies.

This kind of approach will become all the more important as the response to climate change and environmental concerns shift from mitigation to adaptation. There is obviously a need for comprehensive, long-term strategies, but as we've witnessed time and time again during international conferences like the UN climate change summits, these processes are painstakingly slow and complicated. While multinational targets and programmes aim at mitigating the effects of global warming, these very effects are already being felt in many places across the world.

In a future of more extreme weather and countless other climatic changes, adaptation will increasingly become part of people's daily reality. Hackathons' single-focus, high-speed, collaborative approach offers the kind of flexible, on-the-fly problem-solving needed when there isn't time for extensive consultation and multi-stage implementation. Once seen as the domain of developers and Silicon Valley whizz-kids, hackathons are now emerging as one of the most powerful tools we have for coping with one of the most significant set of challenges we have ever faced.

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