Visualizing Hackathons in 2012

by Kin Lane on 01/23/2013

Hackathons have been going on for quite a few years now, in Silicon Valley circles. But in 2012 hackathons started going mainstream around the globe, getting a lot of attention because of organizers like Twilio, Sendgrid, AT&T, AngelHack, to name just a few.

For those that are new to the hackathon space, these events are not intended to perform illegal activities around computer networks.

Software developers widely see hacking as a quick and dirty programmatic solution to a problem.

Hackathons are NOT about gaining access to other networks, which is a definition widely publicized by the media and hollywood. Among the developer community, it is meant to be a positive term that drives innovation among developers.

While many hackathons are startup focused, we are seeing them emerge in other verticals like healthcare, education, environment and robotics. People are seeing hackathons as temporary venues for innovation and R&D as well as potential environments for talent acquisition.

This time last year, I was going to 10 hackathons a month, doing research on the space, which resulted in me spending the entire year tracking on hackathons--then organizing the data into a central database, which I publish weekly to hackweekends.com, Singly and other venues.

Over the holidayz I partnered with Singly to help visualize the hackathons in 2012. Even though some of the data was a little messy, I think we were able to produce a nice overview of the year, when and where hackathons occur as well as some of the top genres of hackathons from mobile to gaming.

You can also view the 2012 hackathon infographic over at Singly, but for maximum results, you can be part of this hackathon movement by forking or downloading the Hack Weekends Guide and throwing your own hackathon in 2013, and be part of this year’s innovation.