when?
On the Saturday 11 June 2011, from 9 am on until 5 pm, we are organizing a hackathon as a tech warm-up for our upcoming WoT2011 workshop.where?
We are lucky to announce that the hackathon will take place at the Gray Area Foundation for the Arts (GAFFTA), which is a San Francisco-based nonprofit dedicated to building social consciousness through digital culture. From their mission statement:Gray Area Foundation for the Arts (GAFFTA) brings together the best creative coders, data artists, designers, and makers to create experiments that build social consciousness through digital culture. We fund programs aimed at the production, research, and dissemination of digital culture where art, science, technology, and society intersect. We bring diverse communities together to incubate ideas, and we support and showcase the projects they create. We host classes, workshops, seminars, and symposia taught and attended by the very people that are transforming today’s digital age.
who?
In this hackathon, we propose to create, play, hack, build real "stuff". Social devices. We will start with a bunch of embedded devices and other electronic things (sensors, robots, urban screens, toasters, etc.) provided by our partners and we'll ask participants to put them on social networks, to explore how to share them, make them talk to each other, secure them, and see what happens and what can be done. We intend to put in the same room developers/coders, hardware hackers, and interactive designers that will brainstorm on simple projects that can be done in 1 day (and night...) that combine programmable electronics, Web APIs, and social networks along with funny technologies and standards (activity streams, HTML5, OAuth, Facebook connect) and we'll explore what it means to "publicize objects". The actual topics that each project will emphasize (from "how to share devices with friends", to how to "secure access to private electronic appliances", to "social networks for objects", how "to fast prototype social networks on mobile phones" etc.) is of course free for each team to decide.what?
- embedded devices, sensor networks, consumer electronics - i.e. anything physical that is programmable (or at least hackable)
- their integration with the Web (how to access share them, their APIs, the data they generate, how we can integrate them in social, etc)
- the "so what?" of 1. + 2., why we want to put devices on the web, how to do it, and how to build apps upon them.
how?
To make this happen we are also looking for sponsors that would like to give us access and help with their startup APIs, or devices, or even tech expertise. Interested to bring some devices or sponsorship? Mail us!why?
Because the most interesting projects will be demoed after the WoT 2011 workshop, and the best thing will receive a sweet gift. And because it's free!!!what next?
We are looking for kick-ass participants to take part in out hackathon (which means you’ll get your hands quite dirty, not just hang out and get free pizza and booze, which is generously offered by our friends from the awesome startup Sen.se).If you’re still interested, register below.