On 9 Jan 2019, at 16:09, Charles Eckel (eckelcu) via opensource-wg
wrote:
Happy New Year Everyone!
RIPE has hosted several very successful RIPE NCC Hackathons. I have
helped IETF and MEF start and run a series of Hackathons. I spoke
about these at RIPE 76. There was a suggestion from Vesna at that time
to create a common page on which we post information about such
events. The current RIPE hackathon page
(https://labs.ripe.net/hackathons) is a good start. I would be happy
to add to this.
I would like to propose having some time at RIPE 78 to discuss open
source efforts like these various hackathons, what is working well,
what is not, and how we can improve them. For example, the IETF
hackathons need to be better about turning hackathon code into
contributions to projects that are easy to find, use, and contribute
to any time rather than just in the context of the hackathon. Another
example is competition. Some people think hackathons are perceived as
being too competitive and non-inclusive. I do not agree, and I try to
make it very clear that the IETF hackathons are collaborative and open
to newcomers, but the fact I need to keep stating this means there is
a problem and an opportunity to do something better.
[Answering this on a personal level - not as chair] I’m always a bit
torn between the usefulness of Hackathons. I also have to admit, that I
never attended a RIPE hackathon (Sorry, Vesna! I really should…)
On one side, I think they are interesting to bring newcomers up to speed
on some interesting topic (as some hackathons are more towards getting
participation) while at other times I feel more like hackathons are a
exploitation for companies to give them ideas to monetize. Sometimes it
also just feels like a group of people using the chance to finish some
work (ie prototype implementation for a IETF draft) which they could do
anywhere else as well. Just some last minute finishing up the work.
But it might be an interesting discussion why someone attends (or does
not attend or stopped attending) hackathons.
What do others think about having some time in the opensource-wg to
share information, ideas, issues, and potential solutions? Would it be
better to have a workshop? What about doing both?
Martin and Ondrej, I understand this is your call to make, so I hope
you do not mind me posting here to help get a sense of interest and
help refining the idea.
[back to WG-chair mode]
We are “only” the chairs, trying to figuring out what’s best or
most interesting to community.
So pushing this a bit back to the community:
Opinions? Should we host a round-table discussion on this? Or some other
form of discussion?
Anyone wants to talk about good or bad experiences on a hackathon?
Regards,
Martin Winter
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