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Sociologists Examine Hackathons and See Exploitation

15 points by imartin2k 9y ago

mlazos 9y ago
This article almost seems satirical. Given I can only speak for the hackathons I’ve been to; a couple in college and others at two of the big 5, I still feel like nothing about them is forced and people just work on whatever they feel like working on. If my company paid me to just work on passion projects of course I’d work into the night - that’s what I do already for side projects that I enjoy. And hell, if companies want to provide food and beer for a few days while I do what I’d be doing anyway, that’s awesome! I can see how maybe a culture of being forced to work on weekends due to corporate culture can be bad, but I don’t think that’s what happens. And yeah if FB actually does have hackathons over weekends and the culture doesn’t give someone a choice to not go that seems wrong, I just highly doubt that’s the case based on my experiences.
croshan 9y ago
I'd been going to and organizing hackathons since late high school, and I definitely agree with this sentiment. I was lucky enough to go to the Pennapps that was hosted in the huge Wells Fargo stadium in Philly, and even though there were tons of sponsors, it felt genuine. I think that was around the time that things seemed to go downhill. Nowadays, I don't recommend friends to go to hackathons. Even though there was a time where I went to (and often placed/won a sponsor prize in) most hackathons I applied to. You can see the attitude shift in everything from the focus (sponsor prizes are insane, "swag" is hyped), to the attitude of the attendees (less about making a project, more about winning). And maybe nothing makes the point hit home more than when Google leaves a bag full of prizes on the table, and lets everyone duke it out over the crumbs. The entry forms and emphasis on prize value make it clear: these are events that focus on recruiting and idea pumping. I literally won a sponsor prize, that had a requirement along the lines of giving up IP to claim a $1k prize. They used to be student-organized hackathons. Now I'm not so sure it's the students doing the organizing, so much as the corporate sponsors that provide the funding.

15 points by imartin2k 9y ago

This article almost seems satirical. Given I can only speak for the hackathons I’ve been to; a couple in college and others at two of the big 5, I still feel like nothing about them is forced and people just work on whatever they feel like working on. If my company paid me to just work on passion projects of course I’d work into the night - that’s what I do already for side projects that I enjoy. And hell, if companies want to provide food and beer for a few days while I do what I’d be doing anyway, that’s awesome! I can see how maybe a culture of being forced to work on weekends due to corporate culture can be bad, but I don’t think that’s what happens. And yeah if FB actually does have hackathons over weekends and the culture doesn’t give someone a choice to not go that seems wrong, I just highly doubt that’s the case based on my experiences.

croshan 9y ago

I'd been going to and organizing hackathons since late high school, and I definitely agree with this sentiment. I was lucky enough to go to the Pennapps that was hosted in the huge Wells Fargo stadium in Philly, and even though there were tons of sponsors, it felt genuine. I think that was around the time that things seemed to go downhill. Nowadays, I don't recommend friends to go to hackathons. Even though there was a time where I went to (and often placed/won a sponsor prize in) most hackathons I applied to. You can see the attitude shift in everything from the focus (sponsor prizes are insane, "swag" is hyped), to the attitude of the attendees (less about making a project, more about winning). And maybe nothing makes the point hit home more than when Google leaves a bag full of prizes on the table, and lets everyone duke it out over the crumbs. The entry forms and emphasis on prize value make it clear: these are events that focus on recruiting and idea pumping. I literally won a sponsor prize, that had a requirement along the lines of giving up IP to claim a $1k prize. They used to be student-organized hackathons. Now I'm not so sure it's the students doing the organizing, so much as the corporate sponsors that provide the funding.