Hackathons
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The Hackathon space is the San Francisco room on the 26th Floor.
The Hackathon space is available for anyone and everyone to drop in and work on (hack) Free Open Source projects. We encourage people to join larger projects that have organized to have pick up tasks. We also encourage small projects to attend with either pick up tasks or specific problems they are looking for help solving.
Snacks and drinks will be provided!
Reminder: The Conference SoC applies here too
Mandatory
- A laptop with working wifi
- A set up that can quickly start Docker and Vagrant based development environments
- A cheerful, friendly, and willing attitude!
Note: Using devices owned by your employer is discouraged as any work you do using them may be encumbered by your employment agreement. Please ensure that this is not the case if you choose not to use something you personally own.
Recommended
- A working github account
The conference will have several people coordinating the Hackathon space that leaders of small and larger projects should coordinate with. Let them help you with all the things you need outside your actual project.
Large projects will generally focus on pick up tasks for first time and one off contributors. As project leader your goal then is to ensure volunteers have a positive experience trying to contribute. Expect to spend all your time quickly triaging problems to other people who can spend more time unblocking them.
Small projects may have specific problems they are looking for help with. If so, let the Hackathon space coordinators know so they can help find people to assist. If you're offering a small number of pick up tasks, whilst you may then have time to code you should focus on volunteers having a positive experience.
Remember that everyone is a volunteer and they are offering their time to you as a gift. Help them make that time enjoyable, feel welcome, and overcome any imposter syndrome.
- Ensure your project is hosted on GitHub and can quickly be forked
- Other hosting providers exist and are great but may introduce needless friction for contributors
- Create issues with clear problem statements and attainable outcomes
- Label those issues to help volunteers pick them up
- Githubs default is
Good First Issue - You might also try the first-timers-only label paired with
tprchackathon - Other labels include
up-for-grabs,jump-in,help wanted. - Ensure that a project development environment can be quickly started using Vagrant or Docker
- Write a guide to getting the project development environment started
- It's okay to limit what OS etc you can support people developing on. Be clear up front and peoples expectations will be managed
- Consider print copies using the Hotels printer and hand them out
Please keep track of successes throughout the event and report them to the Hackathon space coordinators. These will be used to provide a public report to the foundation board. You're also encouraged to post in your public blog or on blogs.perl.org recognizing everyone who helped you and their successes.
Not everyone will want their photo taken. Please ask permission and be aware of who is in the background.
- Dean Hamstead
- Olaf Alders (MetaCPAN)
- Bruce Gray