Last weekend the 2014 RVA Hackathon took place at Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens. The name “Hackathon” can be a little misleading; it’s less about hacking and more to do with developing new and innovative web applications. Either way, this is the 3rd annual Hackathon in Richmond, and the event seems to be gaining more attention.
Last weekend the 2014 RVA Hackathon took place at Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens. The name “Hackathon” can be a little misleading; it’s less about hacking and more to do with developing new and innovative web applications. Either way, this is the 3rd annual Hackathon in Richmond, and the event seems to be gaining more attention.
Local developers assemble groups to participate in these events. The challenge is to create something amazing in a short amount of time. The premise of the event is very similar to a Game Jam, it’s a learning experience thats all about practice and getting a development project started. Unlike Game Jams, developers at Hackathon aren’t limited to making just games. Developers were given 10 hours to come up with whatever they could; new social media apps, productivity apps, and more experimental programs.
These sorts of short-term creative events seem to be becoming more popular. Johnny Hugel is in charge of organizing the event every year and he was able to explain more of what Hackathon is all about. “The original concept of Hackathon at its core is an excuse or a reason to encourage development for fun,” said Hugel.
With RVA Hackathon, participates really get what they give. It offers an opportunity for anyone with the desire to be a creator.
Hackathon could be used to explore a personal project or trying to develop something to get a business off the ground. From designers to programmers to students, anyone was able to participate. There were younger developers but there were also developers with extensive work experience.
For this year’s Hackathon, Hugel said they tried to “reach out” to as many people as possible, bringing in people from VCU’s Brandcenter and various art departments.
Once the time was up, the various development teams presented the work they accomplished. Among the creations were development tools, social media apps, and prototypes.
One team of developers included Tom and Mike Oristian. The two brothers own an agency together called Decogram. Their project was a new social media app.
The Oristian brother’s app was called SPKN (SPKN.io) and they describe it as “Chatroulette with close friends, without the video.”
They found it frustrating that we rarely actually talk to people, as much as we use our phones. The app worked by randomly calling contacts from a friends list. They talked about how the app was meant to encourage people to call each other and have real conversations rather than communicating through text messages.
“We have an agency, we do this kind of work for our customers… there’s always other app ideas that get de-prioritized,” said Tom Oristian on why they came out for the Hackathon in the first place. The brothers use the event as an opportunity to work on a fun side project.
Still others, like Jeff Green, use Hackathon as a chance to create a developing tool to help himself. His app helped streamline development. Green noted the diversity of participants and the streamlined nature of the event help make Hackathon unique. “It’s more freeform than other start-up events,” said Green. “It doesn’t take the whole weekend.”
Some of the other apps developed over the weekend were less practical, but nonetheless interesting.
One project in particular was Aaron Pride’s musical application. His program uses images and color to create music. By interacting with your own video and pictures, the app would create sounds.
Pride’s app landed him two Hackathon awards; Best Concept and Crowd Fave. “For Richmond to have something like this is amazing,” said Pride. “It’s always been inspiring to see all these people here”
After the 10-hour event wrapped up, every participant left with at least some groundwork for a new development project. With Richmond being such an art-centric city, it’s exciting to see support for the tech community as well.
