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The 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 h

The 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 ago
And yet nobody objects when Facebook runs a hackathon like this? Or is the food industry magically held to different standards than the tech industry?
- Evbn 14y ago
  What hackathon? You can run your own business in FB APIs, not just hand them over to FB.
  - bluehat 14y ago
    And if you have a better soda fountain and don't want to sell it you can sell your product directly to bars and restaurants to compete with Coca-Cola, or sell it to Pepsi?
sukuriant 14y ago
Except 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
- roc 14y ago
  * Buys more than $10,000 worth of press.
- rollo_tommasi 14y ago
  The first half of those points is the same fuzzy horseshit rolled out to defend unpaid internships. That new ideas, informed feedback, and talent are valuable assets is obvious, so why should you hand them over for (virtually) free? That only devalues the value of the skills, training, and experience required to arrive at those insights.
  - joezydeco 14y ago
    You know, if I was at Pepsi-Cola right now I'd be assembling a team of interns (or multiple teams) to join the competition and participate. Not for the purpose of winning, but watching all the other entries and taking notes. Is there some cross-team protection or NDA taking place for all the contestants?
    - bluehat 14y ago
      No NDAs.
- drewtemp 14y ago
  1. How so? I participated and won this hackathon is a resume booster? How does that compare with actual paid work from a client? 2. Getting a client and working on a paid project gives me plenty of direction as to what to build in my spare time. 3. What? 4. You're only getting money if they think your idea is best. One person/group wins, not everyone. You could have been doing something with guaranteed pay, not spec work. 5. Sure, you get new ideas on the table, but that doesn't mean they're good ideas. Not to mention you're giving away free ideas. 6. You're not really getting feedback from the community. You're getting it from the corporate sponsor. 7. No. They'll simply award the winner(s) $10k for IP and off they go. A win for the company.
  - 14y ago

bluehat 14y ago

And yet nobody objects when Facebook runs a hackathon like this? Or is the food industry magically held to different standards than the tech industry?

Evbn 14y ago
What hackathon? You can run your own business in FB APIs, not just hand them over to FB.
- bluehat 14y ago
  And if you have a better soda fountain and don't want to sell it you can sell your product directly to bars and restaurants to compete with Coca-Cola, or sell it to Pepsi?

sukuriant 14y ago

Except 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

roc 14y ago
* Buys more than $10,000 worth of press.
rollo_tommasi 14y ago
The first half of those points is the same fuzzy horseshit rolled out to defend unpaid internships. That new ideas, informed feedback, and talent are valuable assets is obvious, so why should you hand them over for (virtually) free? That only devalues the value of the skills, training, and experience required to arrive at those insights.
- joezydeco 14y ago
  You know, if I was at Pepsi-Cola right now I'd be assembling a team of interns (or multiple teams) to join the competition and participate. Not for the purpose of winning, but watching all the other entries and taking notes. Is there some cross-team protection or NDA taking place for all the contestants?
  - bluehat 14y ago
    No NDAs.
drewtemp 14y ago
1. How so? I participated and won this hackathon is a resume booster? How does that compare with actual paid work from a client? 2. Getting a client and working on a paid project gives me plenty of direction as to what to build in my spare time. 3. What? 4. You're only getting money if they think your idea is best. One person/group wins, not everyone. You could have been doing something with guaranteed pay, not spec work. 5. Sure, you get new ideas on the table, but that doesn't mean they're good ideas. Not to mention you're giving away free ideas. 6. You're not really getting feedback from the community. You're getting it from the corporate sponsor. 7. No. They'll simply award the winner(s) $10k for IP and off they go. A win for the company.
- 14y ago