What the heck is a hackaton?

Yes, I know the word sounds kind of scary. You might be thinking that this is a reunion of hackers with evil criminal intentions. Don’t worry, it is nothing of this kind. The word is simply a blend of the words “hack” and “marathon”.

Wikipedia says that a hackathon is a marathon brainstorming session where participants meet to team up to do some collaborative computer programming. The idea is to create some kind of software (a web, mobile or desktop application) usually in less than 48 hours. The objective is to start from scratch and deliver a working prototype. Since you are working around the clock a hackathon usually involves little sleep and high doses of caffeine. When the time for development is over, the teams present their prototypes for a prize.

There are different types of hackathons:

• Hackathons organized for development of applications in a specific framework or programming language
• Corporate hackathons for internal employees. In fact, some of the Facebook features (e.g. the like button) resulted in a hackathon
• Hackathons for a specific group of people like for example students or programming beginners
• Hackathons which focus on developing a single application, an operating system or programming language, usually for open source software projects
• Hackathons which promote a specific benevolent topic, like education, health, etc 

Participants do not only include computer programmers. Everyone interested in software development is welcome (such as graphic designers or project managers). If you don’t know how to program you cal also join if you are willing to learn or have some ideas, you will meet for sure people who will teach you what you need to know.

How good can be an idea developed in 48 hours?

You would be surprised, but many of the ideas conceived in these intense programming events do find their way into business implementation. Outstanding examples include:

• The messaging application GroupMe, which was later on bought by Skype for 50 million dollars
• An application to create good looking websites for restaurants called Appetas, which has been acquired by google recently
• A platform called Zaarly, which helps you buy and sell things with people around you.

By now you might be wondering what does a hackathon have to do with currency exchange, the Euro, the Swiss Frank or ExchangeMarket.ch? The answer is nothing apart that we share the same passion to be creative and promote innovation through technology.

We wish the participants of HackZurich all the best and are looking forward to seeing the finalist tomorrow.

Sources:

https://hackzurich.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackathon

https://www.cleverism.com/guide-to-hackathon/