Hackathon

What Does Hackathon Mean?

A hackathon is a gathering where programmers collaboratively code in an extreme manner over a short period of time. Hackathons are at least a few days – or over a weekend – and generally no longer than a week. While working on a particular project, the idea is for each developer to have the ability and freedom to work on whatever he/she wants.

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A hackathon is also known as a hackfest or hack day.

Techopedia Explains Hackathon

The roots of hackathons are with open source projects and especially noted in the context of OpenBSD development. Recently, a number of companies adopted the hackathon concept – a subject of much debate. Some view a hackathon as a way to allow development teams to work on chosen projects. Non-proponents view it as a bastardization of the concept, given that a company owns the work results. Such critics view hackathons cynically, as merely a way for a company to get free developer work during a weekend or holiday.

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Margaret Rouse

Margaret Rouse is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical, business audience. Over the past twenty years her explanations have appeared on TechTarget websites and she's been cited as an authority in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine and Discovery Magazine.Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages. If you have a suggestion for a new definition or how to improve a technical explanation, please email Margaret or contact her…