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The Coca-Cola Company offers $10K Prize to Re-Imagine the Soda Fountain
- xutopia 14y agoI wonder why there aren't more cheap R&D contests like those. It seems like a fun way to get outside ideas and can result in some really nice inventions.
- bluehat 14y agoI think it's a matter of knowing how to connect to a community of folks who make things. That's probably why they partnered with Hacker Dojo.
- BrianEatWorld 14y agoI find this incredibly interesting, but I am a bit intimidated by my lack of hardware hacking experience. What would you recommend as a good way to get into these sorts of hackathons?
- bluehat 14y agoIf you're local, sign up and attend the info sessions on carbonation etc. Generally though, this is about understanding the technology then repackaging it for a new place and purpose, so with some business sense you should be able to hobble along fine.
- elmuchoprez 14y agoI would guess that the legal teams at major companies are traditionally gun shy about this kind of thing. Let's say Coke buys some IP resulting from this thing for $10k and then it goes on to revolutionize their business model and they make millions and millions from it . I'm going to guess that whoever got stuck with the $10k is going to come back with lawyers and say they were taken advantage of, that their interests in the IP negotiation weren't properly represented, that a team of tinkers was no match to negotiate with a professional team of IP lawyers, etc... That's not to say that those are valid arguments, but they are arguments plenty of people make after the fact. It's been my experience that huge companies have a vested interest in the appearance of dealing fairly and matter-of-factly with small third party vendors, especially in terms of IP law. Even if taking advantage of someone in such a manner doesn't become a legal issue, it's a huge PR liability.
- joezydeco 14y agoMaybe because product development engineers know what their time and skills are worth, and it's a lot more than $10K? Don't get me wrong, little contests like this can be great experience for smaller businesses that need development skill and for designers that need the portfolio pages. But this is Coca-Cola. Then again, considering how much money got sunk into the Freestyle (and they're not out of the woods yet, that machine has problems), maybe a $10K contest is a way to keep the PD pipeline going and keep the accountants happy.
- rikacomet 14y agoI'm outside of US, if any team going to the event, wants a extra hand, I would love to collaborate. I already have a good idea about the external design. skype: carl.theteuton
- solistice 14y agoI'm outside as well, but I'll share some aswell. There's been some beer keg development using elastic bags and paper cartons to create throaway kegs which eliminate the overhead of sending the kegs back for refilling. Esentially the liquid isn't squirted forth using a pump, but the elasticity of the container. This could be useful because it would get rid of that pesky pump. It'd also save space. When it comes to cooling the beverage, I'd go with either thermoelectric elements (convert electrical potention into thermal potential - Peltier element), or Thermoacoustic elements, which use precisely generated sonic waves to cool liquids. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoacoustic_heat_engine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoacoustic_heat_engine) Plus? You'll get the cool where you want the cool, and you'll save the whole compressor, evaporator, pump system that regular fridges are. Another thing that's cool, but entirely off topic is acoustic levitation, but it'd neither add to smallness nor convenience of the tap. You have a 3d printer at the hackerspace, so use it, but remember that if coca cola uses the design, they'll want to injection mold it. If a part can't be injection molded or stamped from sheet metal, think of some other way to do it. After all, consider that one of the engineers judging it might as well be the engineer who has to make it mass producable. You might also, before the competition, go to a local fast food joint and snoop around their machine, ask what problems crop up most with it, etc. The machines coke will provide you will most likely be factory condition, and you won't be able to tell where there's wear, where liquid dries and where dust settles. Right now I'm imagining a unibody, 25x15x20 quader which takes collapsible pouches of drink concentrate along with CO² pressure cartridges and a water line/water tank (could you use the CO² pressure to further compress the water whilst simultaneously cooling it using a thermoacoustic element, thus leading to carbonation? I'm thinking of a CO² jet compressor kind of setup) that is easy to fill, easy to clean and hard to break. Use capacive touch on the panel by the way, you gotta have a microcontroller in there anyways, so those couple of pins won't hurt too much. You can use a ir diode couple in the base to detect a glass.
- Tichy 14y agoI'd design it like a Cobra to stress the fact that Soda is toxic... To each their own, but I like my hackathons to be about bettering the world.
- gbaygon 14y ago"Everything is poison, there is poison in everything. Only the dose makes a thing not a poison." Overconsumption may be the problem, i treat soda like a candy and drink one glass once/twice a week.
- Taylorious 14y agoSweet delicious wonderful poison mmmm... I love Coke and other pops. I try to limit my intake though. I drink a lot of Yerba Mate tea too, and that supposedly has links to cancer (what doesn't these days). So I'm not going to worry too much about the health risks of pop. 10k is a pathetic prize though. Come on, I bet Coke spends more than that on dining out for their corporate leaders.
- bluehat 14y ago
- untog 14y agoIt's interesting to see Coca-Cola embracing this- I attended a hackathon they organised with Spotify last year and had a great time. It's particularly pleasing to see that the terms of the prize are very upfront here- they will pay you $10k for your prototype and IP. You are free to walk away.
- bluehat 14y agoYeah. We (Hacker Dojo) worked with them extensively on these terms, and we're really pleased how flexible and understanding they have been. It has been very impressive to see such a large company listen.
- knodi 14y ago10k is kind of a small prize for something like this.
- bluehat 14y agoShow me a weekend hackathon with half as big a prize pot.
- swang 14y agoAre those hackathons sponsored by one of the largest corporations in the world, one that is asking you to revolutionize a product for pennies on the dollar? It is essentially a corporate takeover of the hackathon without understanding of it at all. Most sponsored hackathons are, "Hey write for our API, here is food and $2K and some t-shirts." Coca-cola is just hitching on the whole notion of the hackathon, hoping someone is willing to work for cheap on something that can probably bring them a billion if it all works out. Edit: I should probably note that its their event and they have the right to set the prizes, but man, $10K is low for something that can earn Coca-cola a lot of money.
- bluehat 14y agoI'm obviously kinda biased as I'm running this on the Hacker Dojo's side, but how else would you run a hardware hackathon? Or are hackathons only for software? Are you in a position to make a company out of your alternative soda fountain, or is the offer to buy an idea really a kindness? They have offered classes, support from their engineering teams, equipment to break, and a lot of other things I've never seen anybody else do before.
- Apocryphon 14y ago>$10k for a weekend's worth of work seems rather excessive.
- netrus 14y agoYou have to multiply that by your chance of winning (and account for the risk). I even have to bring my own material for CNC!
- rollo_tommasi 14y agoThe Coca Cola Company pulled in nearly fifty billion dollars of revenue last year. They can afford to hire some industrial designers. These kind of corporate hackathons are just scams designed to allow the company to take advantage of hundreds or thousands of hours of skilled labor in exchange for pocket lint. It's ultimately detrimental for everyone trying to make an actual living in the field. Don't work on spec. EDIT: You will also have to pay for using the 3D printer! Marvelous.
- bluehat 14y agoAnd yet nobody objects when Facebook runs a hackathon like this? Or is the food industry magically held to different standards than the tech industry?
- sukuriant 14y agoExcept it * Gives participants resume boosters * Gives people direction on what to build in their spare time * Gives a common goal for those that feel like it * Offers college students some money (because it's probably not a well-employed industrial designer that's going to win, because they aren't the ones participating) * Gets new ideas on the table, because cross-discipline innovation is where some of the most novel innovation can be found * Gets community feedback in the form of tangible products * Can be used to scout new talent
- 14y ago
- rrhyne 14y agoSaw a digital one in San Diego recently. It had a touch screen and allowed you to make your own flavors of lots of brands of soda. Vanilla coke, orange coke, vanilla sprite, peach Fanta, etc. The sodas it produced were predictably terrible.
- bluehat 14y agoCome make a better one then :p
- joezydeco 14y agoWord I hear in the foodservice industry is that Pepsi is dying for a Freestyle-like device. Coke cornered the important pieces of the technology and shut everyone else out. Think of a way to get Pepsi, Dr Pepper, and 7-11 back in the game and you'll do a lot better than $10K.
- michaelbuckbee 14y agoI think you're referring to a CocaCola Freestyle, which was made with technology from Dean Kamen [1]. I'm actually like the Freestyle as you can get a Diet Coke with just a little bit of cherry in it (which is delicious). 1 - http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/oct2009/id2009107_810817.htm http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/oct2009/id20091...
- AdamTReineke 14y agoThat would probably be a Coke Freestyle machine. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca-Cola_Freestyle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca-Cola_Freestyle
- learc83 14y agoMy cofounder made most of the button badges for the UI at his last job (as well as doing some of the product testing). He kept telling me he was working on awesome at coke, but he couldn't tell me what it was until they publicly announced it..
- seivan 14y agoWould not support a company that peddles carbonated sugary junk. It's to blame for the obesity. Period.
- mrtron 14y agoDo you want to sell sugared water for the rest of your life? Or do you want to come with me and change the world?
- seivan 14y agoI mean selling stuff that isn't changing the world is fine. As long as it's not for the worse. Coca cola is worse than say pot. It rots your teeth and your insides. There is no value in it. Yet they sell it and people buy it. It's dangerous.
- jlgreco 14y agoHow absurd, would you blame Ford for deaths that result from street racing? Overindulgence, like unsafe vehicle operation, is on the user.
- DanBC 14y agoIf Ford had a $2.5billion[1] advertising program encouraging people to take part in street racing then yes, I might well hold them partly responsible for street racing deaths. Especially if the budget for public health education is tiny. [1] 2007, according to this source (http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2007/10/what-top-brands-spend-on-advertising.html http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2007/10/what-top-brands-spen...)
- pdeuchler 14y agoWhen was the last time you heard Goldman Sachs rent out a room, provide pizza, and give 10k to whoever can improve on their strategies the best? Oh, but they're providing test data for free! Kraft is actually renting out a ballroom in SF for anyone who wants to improve their cheese recipe. You get 10k if you can make a better mac and cheese than Kraft! You'll get a gold star on your resume while we make an extra 13 cents per packet sold (on a scale of billions a year). It probably cost Coca-Cola 10k to bring the consultant who thought of this idea. If they truly wished to repay people for bringing immense value to their business they would offer them upwards of a $1M USD, not less than your average car. Coke nearly invented the modern day soft drink industry, and milk that cow to the tune of billions a year. Yet apparently if you beat them at their own game you only get 10k. And your IP taken. And probably a gag agreement. Seems a little unfair, doesn't it?
- bluehat 14y ago...you want $1M for a weekend of work?
- pdeuchler 14y agoThat's kind of the crux of the problem, isn't it? If I am able to improve the vending machine (one of the most ubiquitous appliances in the US, at least) in a weekend don't I deserve something of that magnitude? On the other hand, if I can improve on the vending machine, what makes you think I'm going to spend my weekend doing it for 10k?
- bluehat 14y agoWell, I guess if you have some million dollar idea and the market/human resources to produce it, you probably should do that this weekend instead. Keep up your brilliance every weekend and you could retire to some tropical island of your choice by the end of this month. If your brilliance also correlates to previous time, I don't know how you have time to write back and forth with me over HN, you should probably be busy with your billion dollars or so right now. The reality is, great ideas take time to produce. If you want to dedicate years of your life to producing a great idea, go ahead. I wish you good luck. If you'd like to have a few beers that weekend, meet some cool people, play with some cool technology, and possibly walk away with five new Macbook Airs or whatever HN folks would like to spend it on, come party.
- gotofritz 14y agoThat's cheap - 10K won't even pay a 10th of the pitching costs for the kind of agencies they usually deal with
- Metapony 14y agoThis contest is still spec work. Coca-cola can hire people with vision, it's got far deeper pockets than one would think. Billions deep. For them to exploit creatives like this is disgusting. NO SPEC WORK!
- hedgie 14y agowho wants to drink from the FIRE HOSE?