[@OKau] After the hackathon: 4 classic recipes

Fri May 8 23:50:55 UTC 2015

On Thu, 7 May 2015 07:14:11 +1030, Rosie Williams wrote:

> ... I still think there is an issue moving projects begun at
> hackfests or even in the community by individuals or small teams from
> idea to financially sustainable projects ...

As I see it, hackfests are mostly about introducing people to each other
and sparking ideas, not producing working systems. If one in one hundred
projects proceeded further, that would be a good result.

Going beyond a hackfest, there are the various start-up events. Canberra
has Innovation ACT, where higher education students learn to develop 
their product (which can be not-for-profit): http://www.innovationact.org/

> I don't think coders are typically the best people to
> help communities, organisations or their client groups figure out
> how open data can benefit them. ...

Yes, coders have difficulty dealing with people. For that reason the 
Australian National University this year is encouraging students from 
other disciplines to join the teams of computing students building 
software projects. Some teams are building software for a specific 
client, others aim to then enter the startup competition and set up a 
business: http://cs.anu.edu.au/TechLauncher/

I have a team building better free open source webinar software: 
http://cs.anu.edu.au/TechLauncher/project540954.html

It has been interesting watching the computer students trying to resist 
the temptation to start coding and instead work out what the customer 
actually needs.

But even so I expect that most such projects will not produce a viable 
product. If one in ten works, that would be a good result. The success 
rate for commercial IT projects is about one in four.

There will be another 20 students looking for about four new projects to 
do in July, if anyone has something they want built: 
http://cs.anu.edu.au/TechLauncher/gettingInvolved.html

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Tom Worthington FACS CP, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
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