Hasta La Ideas

Hacking away at San Francisco’s Freespace, a pop-up space for artists, designers, developers and other creatives.

I’ve been spending a lot of time at hackathons lately. It’s not a surprise; here in the Bay Area, hackathons and coding sessions are a way of life, a social scene as common as a cocktail party in New York. The idea is what it sounds like: a bunch of people come together and “hack” on a project. It can be a group project or an individual project, something you’ve been working on for a while or something you’re starting. And it’s an idea I’ve seen come to life in creative communities across the globe, in places like Shanghai, Kampala and Manila.

The “-athon” suffix is appropriate: As in a marathon, simply doing an activity with others is a lot more fun than coding alone, even when you’re aiming for your personal best. And having people with different skill sets and energy levels around you provides an additional motivating force. Don’t know much about the Natural Language Toolkit? Someone probably knows. And in return, you can share your experience with WordPress libraries.

One of the many rooms for hacking at the California Academy of Sciences.

I recently spoke with Ariel Waldman, who organized the most recent Science Hack Day at the California Academy of Sciences. Waldman, a designer herself, felt it was important to encourage more people to engage with science. This year’s event included skills workshops, a planetarium show, star gazing, access to lots and lots of tools like 3D printers and LEAP detectors, and a chance to sleep over at the museum next to the shark tanks.

“With hackathons in general, the thrill of knowing you can make in such a short amount of time is exciting,” noted Waldman when I spoke with her the phone. “I think with Science Hack Day, it’s a place where people can play w things they don’t normally play with. It adds to the excitement of what you can prototype.”

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