Perl Toolchain Summit On Apr 9, 2016 10:28 AM, "David Cantrell" <da...@cantrell.org.uk> wrote:
> I think the word you're looking for is symposium. Although I think > hackathon is just fine. > > -- > David Cantrell > > This electrogram was despatched by wireless field telegraph. I would > therefore ask that the recipient be so kind as to excuse any failures of > courtesy or linguistic inelegance as an unfortunate side-effect of the > technology. > > > On 9 Apr 2016, at 15:11, James E Keenan <jk...@verizon.net> wrote: > > > >> On 04/09/2016 09:06 AM, Neil Bowers wrote: > >> I’ve added a topic to the wiki page for “topics for discussion” at the > QAH: > >> > > [snip] > >> There’s a well-established definition for “hackathon” these days, and > the QAH is not one of those. As a result when talking to potential > sponsors, we have to be careful to define what the event is, how it works, > and the attitude towards the output(s). I’ve had plenty of discussions > explaining “no, not that kind of hackathon”. > >> > >> Ie people who aren’t already familiar with the QAH hear “4-day … > hackathon” and think something along the lines of: > >> > >> So you’re going to get together and lash things up in a frenzy, in > teams competing against each other. > >> > > > > I concede that the predominant use of the term "hackathon" these days is > a highly competitive event where teams compete against one another under > time pressure. That's true both within private companies and in cases > where, say, a government body open-sources its data and seeks new "apps". > > > > Once again, Perl is different -- and that's not a difference that we > should relinquish. I count my participation in the Chicago hackathon Andy > and Pete organized in November 2006 as my entry point into real > collaboration with other members of the Perl community. All the hackathons > that I have participated in since then -- including at least four which I > have organized[1] -- have emphasized collaboration and contributions to the > Perl ecosphere rather than competition. None have awarded prizes. > > > > The Perl QA Hackathon is, admittedly, somewhat unique among Perl > hackathons in that it is an admittedly elite event where funds are raised > to bring together Perl experts from around the world to work in a more > focused way and to develop consensus around proposals for the evolution of > the Perl infrastructure. For that, you need, some serious funds, probably > in at least five figures. > > > > Of the hackathons I myself have organized, only one needed donations in > any form other than the venue, and in that case the donor had a budget for > open-source contributions which had to be spent. We would have been more > than happy with just the venue, but the extra contributions did enable us > to provide transportation costs for five people from outside our area to > serve as hackathon mentors. > > > > I think the larger question of "How do we raise money for Perl events > even when they don't conform to larger corporate or societal expectations?" > is a good one, and I thank Neil for kicking off the discussion. But I > share Kent's skepticism about alternative names as an easy answer to that > question. > > > > Thank you very much. > > Jim Keenan > > > > [1] My earlier thoughts on hackathons: > > > > "How to Get the Most Out of a Hackathon": > > http://thenceforward.net/perl/yapc/YAPC-NA-2007/houslight/index.html > > > > "Let's Have a Distributed Perl Hackathon": > > > http://blogs.perl.org/users/kid51/2012/10/lets-have-a-distributed-perl-hackathon.html > > > > "New York Perl Hackathon A Success": > > > http://blogs.perl.org/users/kid51/2013/03/new-york-perl-hackathon-a-success.html > > > >
