Let’s build something together!

Periodically, we host a hackathon at Unallocated. Our main goal is to improve infrastructure, work on projects that haven’t gotten the attention they deserve, but overall to have an enjoyable caffeine and pizza fueled weekend building things together.

Membership is not required to participate, but your support is greatly appreciated. Please read the below Hackathon FAQ for more details about how you can support Unallocated Space and our Hackathon.

Hackathon Theme

We don’t have a theme for our hackathon. Build anything your little heart desires. Got an idea that you haven’t had time for? Perfect! If you don’t have an idea, but have a maker, creator, doer skill set, then join us and help someone else. You can also check our Projects board on Trello to see some things we’re interested in being built.

Be Prepared

Laptop/Computer

Bring your own laptop or workstation prepared with the appropriate environment to perform the task that you will be undertaking. Both wireless and wired connections are available. You may bring a second monitor. While we do have some equipment available, Unallocated Space does not provide any software and cannot guarantee the availability or operability of any equipment on site.

Github Account

We will be using Git based workflows and open sourcing these code bases, distributing through Github. A Github account will be required to submit pull requests. If you don’t have one signing up is easy!

If you need a new github repository set up under the Unallocated account, ask the Keyholder(s) running the hackathon. (This is most likely to be either Flay or Usako.) You can also use our contact form.

Food and Beverages

Unallocated Space will provide:

• Energy drinks
• Soda
• Bottled water
• Coffee (We have a keurig. You can bring your own K-Cups, if you prefer.)
• Pizza (Consider this for snacking – you should plan to provide your own meals.)

Everything mentioned here is subject to limited availability, “first come, first serve”.

You should bring any food or drinks that you’d like for yourself and any food or drink you would like to donate to the other participants.

Alcohol

While we allow alcohol during the hackathon, please exercise good judgement. We reserve the right to revoke this privilege for specific persons, for whatever reason. This is only allowed because there have been no incidents at past hackathons. Remember that this event should focus on the development tasks, and not on the drinking. Let’s keep it fun.

Underage drinking and drunk driving will not be tolerated and will be reported to the appropriate authorities. Please do not test this.

Comfortable Clothes

Wear clothes that you can sit around in for long term and that you’re comfortable working in. PJs are okay, but nothing revealing please and thank you.

If you’re staying overnight, we ask that you bring a change of clothes so that you’re not quite so schmelly.

Deodorant

Nerd funk is not a myth. Seriously.

There are no shower facilities at Unallocated Space.

Headphones

I’m betting that our music will be terrible. Come prepared.

Project Guidelines

Project Lead

Each project will require a poking for perfection, but you should be able to pass your application off to somebody of some basic technical skill. This can either be done manually, but automated documenting applications such as doxygen or sphinx (obviously use the appropriate document for the appropriate language).

We’d also like to see some planning documentation going into this, but there’s no need to go nuts on this. Just enough so that others can understand the vision of the project.

At this time, there is no specific software or method for the collection and collation of this. For the time being, we will be allowing project leads to determine the best method for documenting their projects. This may change based on our available resources.

• External APIs

  All externally accessible functions should be documented. A short description, expected variables and their types, and expected return. This is so that people can build other applications that interact with your application.

• README.txt

  Each project should have a README file that gives a general overview of the project, project requirements, and systems that the codebase is supported on.

• INSTALL.txt

  Each project should have a an INSTALL.txt file or similar that outlines how to install the application.

• LICENSE.txt

  Each project should include a LICENSE.txt. Each of these projects should be licenced under GPL v2or GPL v3. If for some reason these licenses are not appropriate or are incompatible with the technology that is being used for the project, please contact r00ster. If you need help picking an open source license, check out choosealicense.com

• Encapsulation

  No production credentials will be distributed to the teams. All credentials must be placed into configuration files and included dynamically into the applications. Default configuration examples should be set up in the README file, and these configuration files should be excluded from the repository. This will allow us to publish our work publicly and solicit work help from external sources without compromising our accounts or servers.

• Github Repository

  We’re working to open source all of our core services code. We will be distributing these over Github and open sourcing these projects to share them with the world.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What if I’m not a member of Unallocated?

Membership is not required to participate. Come on down and jam out with us. If you like what you see and you’d like to be a part of our community, we have memberships available starting at $25/month. We also accept one time donations.

However, no donation is required for this event. All “staff” of Unallocated Space are volunteering members – all donations go towards keeping the lights on and keeping this resource available to the community. Learn more about Unallocated Space.

Is there an age limit?

Between the hours of 9pm Saturday through 9am Sunday will be 18+ only. Children under 12 should be accompanied by an adult. While there is otherwise no age restriction, this event is not targeted to youth.

I’m not professional developer. What do I need to know to better help?

We will be adhering to recommended Git workflows.

I’m really not very good, can you use my help?

So? There’s some truth to the fact that you should have some foundational knowledge in whatever technology you’re working with, but we’re not expecting experts here. Work together and learn from each other. Skill levels can range from beginner to advanced.

I can’t carve out a whole weekend for this, can I still stop by to help?

You do not have to be here for the whole 24-hour period. There are some of us that love this sort of thing, but stop in when you can, and help with what you can. There will also be a lot of preparation work before hand that we will need help with as well. We’ll take what we can get.