DigiTech Magazine - UK CIO2020 - Spring 2015 | Page 8

BUSINESS ....................................................................................................................................................................
TECHNOLOGY
Attack a Hackathon!
Think back to the scene in the film The Social Network
where students from Harvard were doing shots whilst
programming as part of a competition to become
Facebook’s first intern. Hackathons have made it in to
popular culture, but are they as useful and productive as
they are made out? North Highland thinks so…
It is true that Facebook still
holds night-long hackathons
throughout the year to keep
the buzz and excitement of its
heritage alive and to continually
develop new ideas for the
organisation. It is the case that
many of Facebook’s definitive
features such as the ‘Like’
button, the timeline feature,
and the extensive gender
identification options are also
innovations that came to life
through hackathons. Facebook is
obviously not the only online giant
to hold hackathons, as Google,
Yahoo! and Foursquare have
done so too featuring hundreds
of developers at sites around
the world to develop features
and new ideas. Hackathons
are trendy yes, but unlike
some trends that fade it seems
that Hackathons are key for
Wikimedia Hackathon 2013, Amsterdam - Flickr - © Sebastiaan ter Burg
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CIO Magazine Spring 2015 Issue
companies to keep innovation
and engagement alive within
their organisations. It is also key
to remember that hackathons
don’t have to be confined to the
techies of the world. Hackathons
can be used to bring your
business people together to help
find innovative solutions to your
tough business problems.