Category: Hackathons

Hackathon Fatigue

I’m currently participating in GovHack 2017 at the Sydney location (add a 2017 year in review link like this 2016 one when available). It’s the first hackathon I’ve attended this year. When I first moved to Sydney 4 years ago I participated in 4-5 hackathons the first year and it’s slowly died down since then. Even though I love the atmosphere, the community and the collaboration during hackathons; I am suffering from hackathon fatigue.

Last year at GovHack 2016 I tried to participate. I turned up to the opening evening but was struggling mentally. I was going through a relapse of depression and I could not hold it together enough to participate. Reflecting on this, I’d always walk away from a hackathon mentally exhausted and last year I was overwhelmed with the thought of “I can’t handle this stimulation right now”. Going back to work on the Monday after a hackathon always felt hard and would trigger an existential crisis week that involved continuous thoughts of, “fuck I’m tired”. It’s the combination of socialising with all of these new people, trying to frantically work on an idea and eating food that I wouldn’t normally eat that really throws out my routine/mood. I often turn up to work on Monday after a hackathon not rested and with a complaining digestive system. This is my first hackathon since my weight loss surgery which has put a control on the amount of crap that I can eat but I’ve still turned up to last day of the hackathon feeling exhausted. I’m all hackathoned out and I do not have the motivation to submit a story.

Do you suffer from Hackathon fatigue? How do you overcome it?

GovHack 2013

GovHack sounds like people hacking the government. Which is somewhat right but it’s with governments’ approval. GovHack is about governments opening up their data and seeing what a big bunch of developers and likeminded people can do with that data over the space of a weekend. There were over 1000 participants and observers nationwide and there were 135 teams formed. There were some amazing projects that came out of the weekend and $170,000 worth of prizes up for grabs.

Our Team, “The Tasmanian Tiger Team” produced a web based app where you can see a storm water map feeding into the Derwent River. We’ve tried to provide functionality where people in the community can monitor their own water ways by uploading pictures and tagging the map. Our presentation can be viewed here. It’s mostly a proof of concept and there is a fair bit more we could implement. However, we managed to walk away with 3 local prizes.

There were two Tasmanian teams that both received national prizes. One of my favourite apps is called, “Marvellous Ultimate Appliance” and it is a card based game where you get to pitch you house hold appliances against your neighbours to see who wins. Attack and defence are based on energy efficiency. Have a play here. Some other projects that I think are shiny are Australia in Review allows you to scroll through recent Australian History, Impress Me allows you to assess your carbon footprint and Deathmatch me is a fun way of comparing and displaying cause of death facts.

All of these great ideas are just some of the possible applications of providing open data to people and no we’re not likely to find any government’s deep dark secrets just by data mining sensis data.