What the hack?

Christian HeilmannWhat is a hack and how to survive a hack day.

There are a few myths and misunderstandings about hacking and hack days...

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In the Yahoo! sense, hack days are about innovating and playing with our own systems.

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Hack days to day to day development is like The Ramones to The Beatles.

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We are all hackers.

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Hacking means making something work regardless of the circumstances.

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Hacking is nothing new.

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Folding Bridge (Netherlands, 1926)

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Early GPS (1932)

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Back then, those people were considered crazy. Now, we have these products!

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Here and now, we are looking for software solutions to problems.

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In a 24 hour period we want you to find a problem and solve it with an IT solution.

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Preferably we’d like you to play with our products and see how they work for you.

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Hack days are a great way for you to do the things you always wanted to do but your job doesn’t allow you to.

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This is for you to play with things you haven’t before and show that - if you get the chance - you can be great.

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Hacking is not very complex.

Find a problem that needs solving and then have a go at solving it!

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Tell each other your skills...

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And collaborate as teams.

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Don’t concentrate on using your favourite toys

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Concentrate on building one thing.

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You only have 24 hours!

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Find things that already work.

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And then put them together.

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Some great resources...

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http://developer.yahoo.com

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Libraries and frameworks.

http://code.google.com/apis/charttools/

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http://code.google.com/appengine/

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http://github.com

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http://heroku.com/

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YAP is the pla0ormh4p://developer.yahoo.com/yap/guide/yap‐overview.html

http://isithackday.com/hacks/geo/yql-geo-library/

Do you really want to fix CSS layouts?

http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/grids/builder/

http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/

YQL    h4p://developer.yahoo.com/yql/console/

Some examples...

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http://icant.co.uk/goohoobi/index.php?research

http://vimeo.com/8075850

http://keywordfinder.org/

http://uk-house-prices.com/

http://isithackday.com/hacks/geo/around-you/

http://github.com/codepo8/warwickshire

http://isithackday.com/demos/warwickshire/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uAOyzw50PY

http://github.com/codepo8/flickrcollectorhttp://isithackday.com/hacks/flickrcollector/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_1sVnNkN2M

http://isithackday.com/fifa2010/

And when you are done, think about presenting your hack.

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Presenting your hack

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It is not about you.

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Do not show us slides about your hack

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Instead show us what the hack does!

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Then tell us how you got there.

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Technical glitches happen.

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Don’t big things up.

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Don’t fake things.

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Let’s have a demo of that.

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And when it all is over?

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Reach out to others.

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• Publish your code on GitHub

• Tell us when your hacks go further

• Stay in touch with other hackers

• Come and visit us on our forums and show us what you have done.

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  ChrisDan Heilmann  h4p://wait‐Dll‐i.com   h4p://developer‐evangelism.com  h4p://twi4er.com/codepo8   

Thanks!