"You can see a list of all the hacks (including which hacks won the judges awards), you can launch URL demos for many of the hacks, and, best of all, you can jump to any hack instantly to watch it (no waiting for it to load or fast forwarding through the video to try and find things). We’ve also displayed the list of hacks directly on the video time line, which makes scanning around for hacks incredibly simple."Check it out at: http://timetags.research.yahoo.com/hackdayuk]]>
Make Magazine: Bli.mp SecondLife: Supernova, SLorpedo: The mixed reality game of naval warfare Flickr: Steffan Jones, Flickr Tunes (also "Best use of Yahoo! API’s". see above.) BBC Radio: Erin & Kelvin, John PeeledChristian Heilmann posted the complete list of submitted hacks, and Frankie Roberto liveblogged the demos. ]]>
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First, BBC's Matt Cashmore explains how it will go down via the BBC Backstage blog: "The event is going to be truly amazing, Tom and I (not to mention a whole army of really passionate people at both organisations) have been working our bums off to make sure it's going to be THE event for hackers in Europe. Essentially 400+ developers will descend on Alexandra Palace on the 16th and 17th of June - there'll be truck loads of pizza, beer, wi-fi and shed loads of help." BBC's Ian Forrester adds that sleep may be unnecessary: "As the hackday.org site says, stimulation will be provided in Food, Drinks, Feeds and APIs. Like BarCamp, you are welcome to]]>play werewolfsorry hack or (sleep) through-out the night." Mr. Cashmore then puts the event in historical context on his own blog: "I was dead chuffed when we decided to hold it [at Alexandra Palace]. There’s so much history for the BBC there, and it seems perfect to me that the place of birth for TV, is the place of birth for a whole load of amazing stuff that can be distributed in so many cool ways. Ally Pally was the first place that broadcast regular HD TV transmissions way back when TV sets were 4'’ wide... it just seems fitting that we’re now trying to work out how we wire the worlds most advanced studios (at the time) for wi-fi!" The Guardian shares the news of the event more broadly: "Fancy building something tremendous, useful or - well - a bit weird? Then Yahoo Hackday might be for you." Andy Budd explains why Hack Day is a good idea: "It allows people to be creative and come up with ideas that would never get built otherwise. So it could be anything from a serious business changing app, through to something more fun like mashing up news and astrology data." Webreakstuff's Fred Oliviera is excited to see Hack Day jump the Atlantic: "Europe doesn’t get this kind of 'love' often, so if this is your cup of tea, make sure you drop by hackday.org and sign-up (this is an invitation-only event, limited to 500 people)." Sarah Blow of London Girl Geek Dinners sees the potential of Hack Day: "It sounds to me like a really interesting concept and I reckon some innovative softwares will come out at the end of it and possibly even a few business ventures!" Hack Day business services are emerging already such as Tom Loosemore's house: "Ally Pally is my back garden. My shower will be available for rental on Sunday morning." Damien Mulley likes the hackday.org site design: "The HackDay site is haxorifically cute with all the oldstyle terminal green and text changing as you mouse over it." Thom Shannon of Liverpool is looking for a partner to build stuff with: "I've got a few ideas for hacks, so is there anyone else out there who's planning on going and would like to join forces? I'm a .NET developer (C#, ASP.NET, Compact Framework etc) and also do a lot of JavaScript (GM, YUI, bit of XUL) and know my way around Flash. So come on, don't be shy, doesn't matter if you're not "sh*t hot", who is? I work much better with someone to bounce ideas off." Yahoo!'s Ryan Kennedy of Yahoo! Mail Web Service fame plans to share more knowledge with us at Hack Day: "I’ve been asked, once again, to come and give a talk about the Yahoo! Mail Web Service. Last time I gave an overview of the API, which was nice since the web service was entirely new at the time. But now that it’s officially released, I think I’m going to come loaded up with some sample applications that show the power of the platform." He also offered to help you with your hack. Now, that's service. BBC's Chris Bowley also plans to give us all something to chew on: "To get everyone in the right mood for rapid prototyping, there will be a number of speaker sessions from Yahoo! and the BBC. Tristan and I will be presenting one of the sessions so you don't need any more reason to sign up for a place!"
Kent Brewster, Yahoo! Developer Network
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Having now run seven major internal Hack Days across three continents, we've exhaustively tested and settled the 90-second rule and it works really well. In practical terms, it means you can run through about 100 demos in 3 hours (which is why we've scheduled 3-6pm on Saturday 9/30 for the demos).
At our first Hack Day in December of last year, I'll admit that there was a fair bit of grumbling about the 90-second rule before the first demos started, but since then, Yahoos have become incredibly accomplished presenters. At the last two Hack Days, I'm guessing that a solid 85% of presenters (if not more) finished in under 90 seconds. In most cases, 90 seconds is just enough time to get your key points across.
Hack Day veteran Matt McAlister wrote a must-read post on this very topic: How to give a 90-second demo. If we've invited you to our Hack Day next weekend, be sure to read and learn before you hit the stage.
Incidentally, the photo in this post is of a fellow Yahoo presenting in front of the countdown clock we use. It's only down to 54 seconds -- he's relaxed and in good shape!
Chad Dickerson ]]>