This repository is a collection of everything you will need to run a cloud app hackathon which upholds the values of an open community. In this repository you will find the follow guides for running a hackathon:
- Brochure (overview) of running a 'Cloud Application Hackathon' (below)
- Event volonteer roles (below)
- Timelines / countdown calendars (below)
- Event contract examples (on request)
- Branding / website / logos / swag kit (on request)
- Sponsorship prospectus (on request)
- Support from the OpenStack Foundation (as approved the User Committee Working Group)
Do you want to your community to learn how build cloud applications? Learn how by hosting your own OpenStack 'Cloud Application Hackathon' for your community.
Click on the brochure below to learn more:
If (after reading the above brochure), you are still keen on progressing, please contact OpenStack's Cloud Application Hackathon Working Group, which is filled with lovely people who have themselves run hackathons and can help provide advice, guidance, examples and mentoship to help you get going! PS these checklists make for a great way to have a conversation with the AppHack-WG members and their individual expertises.
You'll need a minimum of ten volonteers to run a quality hackathon event. Below is a list of those roles and checklists of the things those volonteers will need to achieve so it is an open event which all your community can partake of and enjoy.
Below are checklists which you can hand out to your fellow community member whom will help you organise the event ('many hands make light work') [1]:
- Overall event organiser aka “lead hacker” = responsible for bringing the below people together on a weekly basis (months prior to the event) to do the work which wll result in a shared community event for all to enjoy.
- Pre-training “sensei” = organises the pre-traing activities for the competing teams so they are ready to win! You wouldn't run a mar-athon without training, same goes for hack-athons ;-)
- Mentors “wrangler” = no one hackathon team will have all the skills they will require to complete their cloud app. You'll need at least a dozen mentors who can act as 'shared team members' to help solve problems for teams throughout the hackathon.
- Sponsorship “czar” = A hackathon is a fun competition and a competition needs prizes for the winners.
- Team registration “monarch” = Teams need to register for this event which means someone needs to help put teams together during all the pre-training events so the teams are ready to go at the start of the hackathon.
- Marketting (social) “guru” = Advertising and connecting the community prior to and after the event is all thanks to that one special person with the magic spells to connect the community through shared branding and identity!
- Infrastructure (cloud + wifi + power) “angel” = There are no cloud apps without a cloud+network, you'll need the cloud ready at least two month in advance to test (a couple of backup clouds is a good ideas as well).
- Logistics (venue) “magician” = An event is only as good as its location, ambiance, food, fun and other logistical activities.
- Lead judge (and advocacy) “chair” = A compeittion must be judged fairly, transparently and as much in the open as possible so that everyone feels it was a good competition.
- Community volonteer “champion” = hackathons have an amazing way of creating communities of developers who want to meet up and do things after the event. Have someone who is already in the local community ready to take on your participants and get them collaborating after the event.
Below is a suggested timeline for the milestones you will want to tick off on the road to running a successful hackathon.
- 6 months out: dates agreed and venue booked.
- 3 months out: 10x event organisers recruited
- 2 months out: branding, marketting and sponsorship agreed.
- 1 month out: see below example calendar
[1]= We love checklists, check out the "Checklist Manifesto"!