3 ms·

I attended the hackathon and was a little disappointed that all the prizes went basically to teams who rubbed up the sponsors in the right way. Obviously the sp

by mrflett 13y ago

I attended the hackathon and was a little disappointed that all the prizes went basically to teams who rubbed up the sponsors in the right way. Obviously the sponsors were there to promote themselves but rewards should have been given to innovation and not just how many api's from the sponsors you can mash into an app.

austinhutch 13y ago
This is exactly how the Disrupt SF Hackathon went IMO. Sponsors doled out hefty prizes for including the use of their respective APIs in a hack. With the addition of teams receiving passes to attend the event by participating, it led to a 5 hour showcase that was mostly comprised of variations on a familiar theme. Lots of, "Shopping app with instagram like filters" and other mishmashes of APIs with no critical thought applied. Really a bummer.
- lnanek2 13y ago
  It was nice having an easy target to win a sponsor prize, though. I know I got a whole extra app written with the eLance winnings from that event. :) Wasn't even trying or expecting for anything to happen on the winning overall front since I was the only coder on my team.
  - minimaxir 13y ago
    There's a game theory element though. If everyone is going for the same sponsorship prize, the odds of winning become more difficult.
melvinmt 13y ago
I'm afraid that this is how the $1 million Salesforce hackathon will end up going to be. Given how 25% of the judging criteria is the "Use of Salesforce Platform".
- k-mcgrady 13y ago
  I'm not aware of the event but if it is a Salesforce hackathon (i.e. they are running it) doesn't it make sense you get points for innovative use of their platform? If they are just a sponsor I can understand frustration.
minimaxir 13y ago
At the Disrupt SF 2012 hackathon, one submission managed to create a Hello World-esque app...using literally every sponsor's API. The emcee commented that he was "hedging his API bets."

by mrflett 13y ago

austinhutch 13y ago

This is exactly how the Disrupt SF Hackathon went IMO. Sponsors doled out hefty prizes for including the use of their respective APIs in a hack. With the addition of teams receiving passes to attend the event by participating, it led to a 5 hour showcase that was mostly comprised of variations on a familiar theme. Lots of, "Shopping app with instagram like filters" and other mishmashes of APIs with no critical thought applied. Really a bummer.

lnanek2 13y ago
It was nice having an easy target to win a sponsor prize, though. I know I got a whole extra app written with the eLance winnings from that event. :) Wasn't even trying or expecting for anything to happen on the winning overall front since I was the only coder on my team.
- minimaxir 13y ago
  There's a game theory element though. If everyone is going for the same sponsorship prize, the odds of winning become more difficult.

melvinmt 13y ago

I'm afraid that this is how the $1 million Salesforce hackathon will end up going to be. Given how 25% of the judging criteria is the "Use of Salesforce Platform".

k-mcgrady 13y ago
I'm not aware of the event but if it is a Salesforce hackathon (i.e. they are running it) doesn't it make sense you get points for innovative use of their platform? If they are just a sponsor I can understand frustration.

minimaxir 13y ago

At the Disrupt SF 2012 hackathon, one submission managed to create a Hello World-esque app...using literally every sponsor's API. The emcee commented that he was "hedging his API bets."