Hacketse, Our Sixth Hackathon, Begins!
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Hacketse, Our Sixth Hackathon, Begins!
Hackathons have always been important to us here at K15t. In the old days they were held informally – more like greatly-accelerated sprints in order to get some very important things done in a very short amount of time. These evolved over the years into formal 24-hour hackathons in which we used Atlassian's Shipit Rules as our model. And much awesomeness was created – in a very short time. And it was good.
Yet as much as we love the spirit of Shipit and the structure Atlassian's model, it's just not completely our own. That's why we're launching our sixth hackathon under a proud new name: Häcketse (umlaut optional).
So, what does it mean?
Häcketse is K15t Software's spin on the tradition of 'Hocketse' – a type of event that takes place in the region of Germany where we're based, Baden-Württemberg. The 'word-hacked' name was decided by popular vote in a lively internal Confluence blog post here at K15t which garnered 47 comments.
Photo: http://www.paraglidingmap.com/
The concept of Hocketse is probably most easily understood in the English language as a block party. It's a day where friends and neighbors gather to share traditional cooking of the region, and make merry with games and frequent toasting with local beer and wine.
Photo: http://mf-schoenbuch.de/
What makes the Hocketse idea a fit for our hackathon is that it's all about people working together to make something great in a very short time. For Häcketse we work in teams of 1–4 and take a project – software or otherwise – from idea to reality in 24 hours. We then gather for a five minute presentation by each team, followed by a popular vote for the winner. Bragging rights and an engraved plaque on the Häcketse trophy are up for grabs, and the competition is fierce.
Photo: http://www.tvhaslach.de/
And with the starting all-teams huddle, Häcketse, our sixth 24 hour hackathon, is on!
