What are hackathons and how did they come about? (This is a keynote talk leading into the WRIC Health Congress and Health Hackfest, Brussels 2014)

1. What is a ?

2. Jurjen Söhne
• Catalyst for Creativity, Innovation and Co-Creation
• Entrepreneur in Emerging Technologies & Experiences
• Fellow & Connector of the Royal Society of Arts
@juris_tweets jurjensohne infiniteplayground @infinitePG
“committed to finding innovative, practical and
game-changing solutions to today’s challenges”

3. Hackathons (a.k.a. hackfests, hack days, codefests) are events where computer
programmers - and others involved in software development - meet to collaborate on
computer programming. Occasionally there is a hardware component as well.
Software Developers
coders
hardware hackers
researchers
entrepreneurs
students

4. Hackathons are not
about breaking into the

5. “Good” Crackers
!
Who use their computer security related
skills and knowledge to learn more about
how systems and networks work to
help to discover and fix security holes.
"Evil" Crackers
!
Who use the same skills to write harmful
software (like viruses, trojans) and illegally
infiltrate secure systems with the intention
of doing harm to the system.
“White Hat” Hackers “Black Hat” Hackers
Computer Security Experts Computer Criminals

6. … a place for self-expression and creativity through technology.
Where people with technical, scientific and artistic backgrounds come together
and collaboratively code on industry-changing solutions.
Hackathons are…

7. The History of Hackathons

8. 1975
Homebrew
Computer Club
1999 2005
Super Happy
Dev House
Communal Competitive Facebook
2006
Yahoo!
Hack Day
2007
Startup
Weekend
20092010
College
Hackathons
2011
Music
Hack Days
Startup
Hackathons
2012today
TV Media
Hackathons
Health
Hackathons
’80 - ‘90

9. CivicHackathons
CollegeHackathons
CorporateHackathons
SpaceHackathons
BrainHackathons

10. Civic Hackathons
Civic hacking events are focused on finding solutions to the solve local civic challenges.
Smart cities, open data, social cohesion

11. College Hackathons
A student-run “mega hackathons", where more than a thousand student programmers
from all over the world come together to learn how to work with new technologies.

12. Corporate Hackathons
Hackathon hosted alongside a large single sponsor event (Salesforce in this case)

13. Space Hackathons
An international hackathon focused on finding solutions to problems faced on Earth
and in Space… 100 countries, 6 continents

14. Hack the Brain
In the days of Rembrandt we explored the body, now we explore the mind.

15. Success Stories

17. Like and Chat came out of an internal hackathon

18. “The GitHub for legal documents wins a $650k round”

19. Stats Messi
Place Bet
Replay
Help reinvent the TV with Gracenote’s APIs

20. of
innovation
powering
the next
generation
invention
and creativity

22. Companies and Organisations that supported

24. PARTNERS & SPONSORS

25. THE PURPOSE & AIMS
The purpose of this hackfest is to support the healthcare industry
and startup scene with ICT tools to stimulate for the creation of
innovative, relevant and scalable solutions.
Our aim is to empower the participants with their ideas,
to provide the right environment to develop their ideas into prototypes,
to stimulate for collaboration, and to make them feel recognised and
appreciated for their creativity and efforts they put into the projects.

26. The Challenges in the Market

27. Research
How do we bridge the skills between research and technology? How can
technology play a supportive role, addressing the grand challenges in healthcare?
Funding
What funding programs are available for projects and researchers? How can
they tap into this source of support?
Fragmentation
How do we consolidate a market which is multinational, multilingual, multicultural
and multi-marketed?
Challenges

28. “fail early, fail often and fail fast”
Silicon Valley
Europe
“if you fail in Europe, you’re done”
Attitude European investors: Previous failure is a sign not to invest
Attitude American investors: Multiple failures shows tenacity and experience
Startup Culture

29. Body-adapted
Wearables
Quantified Self
(Predictive Analytics)
Brain-Computer
Interface
Cognitive
Computing
Emerging Technologies

31. Future Approach?
Form an EU hackathon force to utilise this new phenomenon to tackle problems and
find solutions – from civic issues to entertainment, down to health and environment.
Blend international cooperation and competition to help facilitate innovation.

32. Thank You& hope to see you around at the hackfest next door!