We are sure that you’ve come across the term hackathon before, either on social media or in the media, and if you haven’t, we’ll first introduce you to the general concept of a hackathon and then ours. Our hackathon was a bit different than a standard hackathon. In early April, a group of nearly 40 CANCOMers met at Kulturpark to participate in our first ever hackathon. So, what was it like?
20. April 2023
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Reading time: 3 min.
Let’s start from the beginning. What is a hackathon anyway and when did it all start in the first place? Did you know that the original concept of the hackathon was invented by Mahatma Gandhi? No? Yes, it is so, because in July 1929, Gandhi announced a competition for home textile manufacturers and the grand prize was Rs 100,000. During the competition, the textile manufacturers had to find a quick and right solution within a limited time to improve production and the modern hackathon draws from this idea.
The modern hackathon concept was created by a group of hackers who wanted to improve their programming skills in a fun way. The word hackathon was created by combining the words hack and marathon. The word hack refers to a community of ethical hackers active since the 1960s at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). That’s simply how this group has forever made its mark on modern IT history. Basically, a hackathon is a gathering of people from different IT fields where they must work together to solve different tasks within a certain time limit. Hackathons usually last from 1 day to one week. The main added value of a hackathon is the fact that each participant gains new experience as they often solve tasks and challenges that they do not normally encounter.
Very similar, except that only CANCOMers could attend and the whole event was mainly for colleagues working with GitLab, Terraform and OpenStack. But of course, if there was a participant who just wanted to broaden his or her horizons, we didn’t turn him away. The following people were responsible for the professional side of the hackathon: Christian Teichert, Sina Anvari, Benedict Becker, and Marucs Opdenberg.
As there was a great interest in the event, we had to abandon the original plan of organizing the event in our premises, and so our hackathon took place in Kulturpark in the Alpha building. The first day started with introductions from all the participants and speakers, as many of them were meeting in person for the first time. After the initial formalities, it was off to Git and GitLab to discuss a variety of features including cloning, logging, and branching. After a supercharged day, everyone enjoyed dinner together at BlueBell. The second day was more focused on Terraform and its various features such as: plan, apply and destroy were discussed. Another topic of the day was also the interconnection between Terraform and OpenStack.
The hackathon passed quickly, and every single participant enjoyed it, and we already know that we will do it again later this year. However, there will no longer be a need to go to Kulturpark, as our new state-of-the-art floor will be available.
The first hackathon in CANCOM Slovakia was a great success, which we are very happy about. Even before our Košice hackathon, the same hackathon was held in Cologne, Germany. You may ask why and the answer is very simple. Our goal is to create an IT community across CANCOM to discuss and solve different IT challenges together. We are already looking forward to the next hackathon, which will take place at the end of the year.
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