On May 16th & 17th of 2015 the Commons Lab hosted Washington, D.C.’s first-ever Science Hack Day in collaboration with ArtsEdge of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Arts. The event was attended by over 100 people and a handful of the hacks produced have continued on to form either a non-profit, limited liability company or submitted proposals to seek more funding.
The use of hackathon’s by the government, as a tool to engage top talent, apply new ways of thinking to seemingly intractable problems and increase public engagement and awareness has been growing over the past decade, especially in the past couple years. This exciting movement has incredible promise; however there are strategic research investments and best practices that could be made by the government to utilize this tool to its fullest potential. This case study analyzes the science hack day event itself, highlights some of the award winning hacks and explores some of the governments investments in concepts behind hackathon’s and offers suggestions for avoiding potential pitfalls of mass collaboration.
You can download the report here: https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/science-hack-day-bridging-the-hacking-community-and-government.
