How to Run a Successful Hackathon for Your Open APIs

How to Run a Successful Hackathon for Your Open APIs

Mike Amundsen Principal API Architect Layer 7 Technologies

Kin Lane API Evangelist

July 12, 2012

2

Housekeeping

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How to Run a Successful Hackathon for

Your Open APIs

07/12/2012

What a hackathon is not!

• Illegal • Cracking System • Penetrating Networks • Virus • Trojans • Password Cracking

What is a hack?

A quick and dirty, technical solution to a problem.

It's not fancy!

It's quick!

It's creative!

What is a hackathon?

• Hack Day / HackFest / CodeFest

• Developers, Designers and Business

• 8-56 Hours Long • Projects, Startups, Data

Visualization • Sponsors / Promoters • Food & Drink • Winners and Prizes

What are the origins of a hackathon?

• "hack" + "marathon" • developers of OpenBSD • the marketing team of Sun • Cryptographic Dev Event • Calgary June 4, 1999

What is the purpose of a hackathon?

• Marketing Vehicle • Talent Acquisition • Platform Exposure • Idea generation • Team building • Networking • Innovation • Abstraction • R&D

What types of hackathons are there?

• Platform Focused • Industries / Verticals • Startup / Business • Data Visualization • Consumerization of IT • International • Internal

Role hackathons play in developer engagement?

• Problem Solving • Challenges • Education • Networking • Social • Collaborative • Loyalty

What is your objective for holding a hackathon?

• What is your goal? • What are you promising sponsors? • What types of sponsors can you attract? • Why do you want have done by end of weekend? • What do you want people to leave with? • How will you measure success?

Establish a framework for your hackathon

• Length of event, usually 8, 24, 48 or 56 hours • Starts with overview of event by organizer • Time for sponsor presentations • Workshops from sponsors • Individuals can pitch ideas • Individuals can vote on ideas • Individuals sell Ideas & solicit team member • Hacking commences • Staying overnight / operating hours • Teams present projects • Judges ask questions • Judges deliberate • Announcement of winners • After party

Who do you want to attend your hackathon?

• Sponsors • Mentors • Business • marketing • UX / UI / Graphics • Developers • Press • Judges • VC / Angels • Students • Gender • Race • Age

What prizes will you offer?

• 1st, 2nd, 3rd • Secondary bonus prizes and incentives • Not too large, not too small • Swag (t-shirts, hoodies, stickers, etc.)

Finding the right facility for your hackathon

• Schools and Universities • Conference Center • Technology Company office • Should have a large central gathering space • Provide smaller breakout areas and rooms • Libraries are evolving as potential space • Sleeping facilities ? Overnight? Place to roll out

sleeping bag? • Security / Access / After Hours • Internet • Projectors • Tables • Refrigerators

Finding Sponsors for Your Hackathon

• Company Partners • Sponsor Other Events • Publish a PDF / Kit

• Presentations • Workshop • Judge

• Swag • Tools • Cloud Services • Food • Drinks

Marketing Considerations for Hackathon

• Imaging / Graphics • Website • Mainstream press & blogs • Printed posters, materials, • T-Shirts and swag • Photos • Video • Information packet

How do you attract participants?

• Piggyback on existing conferences and events • Bring in existing network or organizer • Take advantage of online social networks • Take advantage of local groups and meetups and the

strength of established groups • Get tech blogs to cover your event

Setup a communication platform

• Website • Twitter Account • Twitter Hashtag • Facebook • LinkedIn • Youtube • Eventbrite • Github • Flickr

#EventHashtag

Opening Day

• Keep Informal • Have Food & Drinks • Socialize • Give Sponsors Spotlight • Give Developers Spotlight • Kick Things Off Right • Set The Right Tone

On-Site

• Show Up Early • Be Available • Mentor • Socialize • Communicate • Post Pictures • Lots of Food • Lots of Drink • Lots of Snacks • Leave Late

Hackathon Wrap-up

• • Make as memorable as possible • Make sure winners know what’s next • Let participants know what’s next • Write down thoughts while still fresh • Identify what went right • Identify what went wrong • Tell stories about the event • Feed homeless with leftover food • Go have a beer!

Where Hackathons are Going

• Internal • International

• More Hackathons • Verticals • Physical

How to Run a Successful Hackathon for

Your Open APIs

07/12/2012

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API Design and Management

Mike Amundsen Principal API Architect Layer 7 Technologies @mamund

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Overview

When it comes to Web APIs:

good design gets them in the door,

good management keeps them

coming back for more.

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Overview

When it comes to Web APIs:

Good design gets them in the door

good management keeps them

coming back for more.

4

Overview

When it comes to Web APIs:

Good design gets them in the door,

Good management keeps them

coming back for more.

5

Overview

When it comes to Web APIs:

Good design gets them in the door,

Good management keeps them

coming back for more.

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Good API Design

Why Good Design Matters

What is ‘good’ API Design?

Strategies for Great APIs

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Why good design matters

Bad design stifles adoption

Bad design reflects poorly on your brand

Bad design just plain “hurts”

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What is ‘good’ API Design?

Easy to learn

Easy to use, even w/o documentation

Hard to misuse

Easy to read and maintain code that uses it

Sufficiently powerful to satisfy requirements

Easy to extend

Appropriate to audience

Joshua Bloch, Principal Software Engineer, Google.

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Strategies for Great APIs

Be “agile” with your API

Don’t “over-geek” or “under-design” your API

Great APIs grow over time and never die out

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Remember…

Your API *is*

your product.

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But that’s only half the story…

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Good API Management

Why API Management Matters

What is ‘good’ API Management?

Nuts and Bolts of Managing APIs

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Why API Management Matters

If it’s too hard to get started…

If it’s too hard to keep up…

If the system is flaky, buggy, or down a lot…

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Why API Management Matters

They will probably go somewhere else.

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What is ‘good’ API Management?

Easy for Devs to register and engage

Easy for API owners to publish/secure

Easy for Portal admins to track and update

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Nuts and Bolts of Managing APIs Developer Registration

Access Control

API Sandbox

API Documentation

Social Engagement

Tracking and Reporting

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In conclusion…

Good API Design - Easy to use

- Targeted

- Flexible

Good API Management - Easy for developers

- Easy for API owners

- Easy for Portal admins

Good APIs are Good Products

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API Design and Management Mike Amundsen

Principal API Architect Layer 7 Technologies @mamund

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Questions?

Mike Amundsen Principal API Architect Layer 7 Technologies

Kin Lane API Evangelist apievangelist.com