melbourne news updates: Geekend steps its game up with a 24-hour Hackathon, promises boost to nerd cred

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Geekend steps its game up with a 24-hour Hackathon, promises boost to nerd cred

For the past two years, all sorts of gadget, social media and design geeks have descended upon Savannah, GA. The goal is clear: to spend the weekend hearing from the nerds they look up to, including our pal Major Nelson, who spoke back in 2009. This year was no different -- and to make things even more interesting -- event organizers invited attendees to participate in the first ever Geekend Hackathon. Teams of up to four members, fueled by a copious supply of Mountain Dew and pizza, were given 24 hours to come up with the most innovative desktop, mobile or web application they could. There was just one catch: teams had to incorporate at least three out of five key words that were randomly assigned to them. The only other stipulation was that if the code used to create each app wasn't already available online, they had to place the open source that they developed in a web repository before the event.

We were there to catch the results, which showcased a mixed bag of entertaining (and useful) applications. Projects ranging from an app tracking vegetable eating habits to one that uses image recognition to bring your favorite comics to a mobile device showed just what could be done in a day -- given enough caffeine, of course. Another allowed you to feed your urge to hug every cat, while a neighborhood advocacy community enabled concerned citizens to vote on issues in their area. Rounding out the field was a field trip database for teachers to share ideas on sites to take their students for the best experience. Two winners -- judge's choice and people's choice -- received a super geeky trophy (pictured above) and a major boost to their street...er online cred. If you're yearning to find out more about this year's happenings, hit the coverage link below and start booking your trip for next year.

[Gallery credit: Geekend]

Gallery: Geekend 2011