December 7th 2020 at 7pm

@L200: Langstrasse 200, 8005, Zurich + Bitwäscherei + Köniz Makerspace
&Online: 7at7.digital

What about hackathons? The case of MakeZurich

[Deutsch]

Everyone organizes hackathons these days. There are hundreds of them taking place every year across the country.

Who needs another one?

But not all hackathons are created equal. Some events have prizes, others don't; some are competitive, others are collaborative; some are corporate, others are community events; and the list of differences goes on and on, making some radically different experiences.

The Open Network Infrastructure association has a special perspective on hackathons: collaborative, replicable, time-bound co-creation events built around the slight counterculture feel of yesteryear hacker communities, while being welcoming for a new generation of enthusiastic makers of all walks of life, many who don't feel identified by the hacker culture.

MakeZurich is the main event organized to this end carrying the dual label of "hackathon/makerdays", focusing on knowledge sharing at all levels:

  • Encouraging collaboration instead of competition.
  • Providing a platform for organic peer-to-peer knowledge transfer.
  • Establishing clear guidelines about expected transfer of rights (none!) and licensing of works created during the event.
  • Relying on open source infrastructure at all levels of the tech stack.
  • Promoting the usage and publishing of open data.
  • Open sourcing all software components required to recreate the event.
  • Fostering the continuation of open source projects created during or after the event.

MakeZurich 2020 took place in October, after an initial postponement in March, and despite the rescheduling, most of the event had to be carried out in an online fashion. In December 7at7 we will explore three aspects of this event:

  • Up and downsides of the online format for hardware hacking
  • A brief overview of the outcomes of the event.
  • A peek into some of the potential projects that might spin out of MakeZurich.

Participants

Locations

Due to the current Covid19 situation we again experiment with connecting different spaces with each other. This time we have three confirmed places, one even in Bern! Everyone who is interested in participating in a physical space can spread around those three:
  • Zürich: L200, our main base in the heart of the city
  • Zürich: Bitwäscherei, located centrally at hardbrücke
  • Bern: Köniz Makerspace, directly at the station in Köniz/Bern

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