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Number of respondents who are motivated by each motivator. Individual motivators are colored from dark red to dark blue accordingly.
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Hackathons are problem-focused programming events that allow conceiving, implementing, and presenting digital innovations. The number of participants is one of the key success factors of hackathons. In order to maximize that number, it is essential to understand what motivates people to participate. Previous work on the matter focused on quantitati...
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... Even though a hackathon Creation may not have been identified as creative in our analysis, the Creators may have experienced it as very creative to them personally, indicating a mini-C experience of creativity, which we also observed as the last point in section 5.2. These mini-C experiences, including personal learning, are key motivators for hackathon participation [86]. Future evaluation metrics could consider multiple levels of creativity to account for tangible (project-level) and intangible (experience and learning) outcomes [22]. ...
Hackathons have become popular collaborative events for accelerating the development of creative ideas and prototypes. There are several case studies showcasing creative outcomes across domains such as industry, education, and research. However, there are no large-scale studies on creativity in hackathons which can advance theory on how hackathon formats lead to creative outcomes. We conducted a computational analysis of 193,353 hackathon projects. By operationalizing creativity through usefulness and novelty, we refined our dataset to 10,363 projects, allowing us to analyze how participant characteristics, collaboration patterns, and hackathon setups influence the development of creative projects. The contribution of our paper is twofold: We identified means for organizers to foster creativity in hackathons. We also explore the use of large language models (LLMs) to augment the evaluation of creative outcomes and discuss challenges and opportunities of doing this, which has implications for creativity research at large.
... Most research on hackathons, however, has focused on in-depth studies of a limited number of events with the aim to making them more accessible beyond a tech-savvy audience [64], fostering collaboration during an event [33], and increasing their impact, e.g., related to learning [60] and community building [61]. Recent research has shown how hackathons, often extending beyond technical matter, are increasingly considered as meaningful participatory processes to engage citizens [65]. Collaborative innovation, or co-innovation, is a social process of developing diverse ideas and the successful implementation of the best creative outputs [66]. ...
This article explores the role of hackathons for good in building a community of software and hardware developers focused on addressing global SDG challenges. We theorise this movement as computational diplomacy: a decentralised, participatory process for digital governance that leverages collective intelligence to tackle major global issues. Analysing Devpost and GitHub data reveals that 30% of hackathons since 2010 have addressed SDG topics, employing diverse technologies to create innovative solutions. Hackathons serve as crucial kairos moments, sparking innovation bursts that drive both immediate project outcomes and long-term production. We propose that these events harness the neurobiological basis of human cooperation and empathy, fostering a collective sense of purpose and reducing interpersonal prejudice. This bottom-up approach to digital governance integrates software development, human collective intelligence, and collective action, creating a dynamic model for transformative change. By leveraging kairos moments, computational diplomacy promotes a more inclusive and effective model for digital multilateral governance of the future.
... The authors suggested strategies to increase non-IS developers participation: integration of technical and non-technical skills in the teams, providing specialised technical or non-technical "consultants" and more support for those who do not have technical skills. Simonofski et al. (2020) studied previous work about motivators to participate in hackathons. They collected data about the participants' (both IS specialists or not) motivators and demotivators in a hackathon in a Belgium university, through a questionnaire and in-depth interviews. ...
... However, in the case of the works of Zapico et al. (2013) and Karlsen and Løvlie (2017), the recommendations are based only on the authors' feelings, without a formal survey to capture the participants' motivations. In the case of the Simonofski et al. (2020) work, the focus is not exclusive about the non-IS developers, having the results influenced by the experts in IS development too. Additionally, these related works were set only in hackathons, which made us question whether the motivations raised and proposed recommendations could also be valid in other types of events. ...
... Additionally, they report being more confident when the initiatives provide human (mentoring and teamwork) or technology support (high-level development tools) and feel discouraged when people near them question their purpose and abilities to take part in these initiatives. These findings are very close to those reported by Simonofski et al. (2020) in Belgian universities, which may indicate common aspects around the globe. However, our study presents more details on the subjective perspective involved in the non-IS developers' participation and the specificities of the different cases of open and collaborative IS development initiatives. ...
Non-specialists in information systems (IS) development are generally unwilling to participate in initiatives for IS development, even open and collaborative ones, due to their lack of technological skills. Our research objective is to identify factors that can influence them to participate. We identify these factors through an interview-based qualitative and interpretative study of five Brazilians open and collaborative development contexts, having the Theory of Planned Behaviour as the theoretical model. Our units of analysis were initiatives which occurred in university environments. Our results are useful for engaging non-IS developers to participate in open and collaborative development initiatives and improving multidisciplinarity in innovation.
... Mentoring is considered to be a crucial factor for participants to create their solutions [38]. The mentor's role is to support participants with the solution creation [38] and, in general, to guide them in the right direction. ...
... Mentoring is considered to be a crucial factor for participants to create their solutions [38]. The mentor's role is to support participants with the solution creation [38] and, in general, to guide them in the right direction. There is an indication of bonding between mentor and participants, which might positively affect project progression [36]. ...
The hackathons related systematic literature review findings, from the past 15 years, show that academics mostly focus on giving overview, describing and explaining the events. It also seems to be quite popular to present an overview of event arrangements. The research, which appears to be missing, is the new style of hackathons, which were a requirement for online hackathons and remote events because of the social distancing, e.g., what covid-19 did demand from global society. By core design, hackathons have always been social gatherings and innovation events. Especially in these exceptional times with social distancing requirements, hackathon organizers turned towards online models. As this is not the original way these events have been organized, it was hard to get the best practices to how to proceed as there are few to none general guidelines and models for online/remote hackathons. By studying the current academic literature, our systematic literature review concludes that contemporary academic literature does not give too much guidance either. This review concludes that more practical, on-site, and educational problem-based development research studies about online and remote hackathon events are needed. Especially research on means and tools to utilize to organize.
... We also couldn't just ask each other questions spontaneously, as if we were in the same room. (Participant1) Finally, the organizers faced the challenge of recreating the atmosphere of fun, that is, generally associated with physical hackathons [48], in a virtual format. Organizers and participants highlight the importance of atmosphere, especially the social dimensions in physically located hackathons, to keep participants engaged and motivated: To ensure that all participants, even mentors and coaches, understood the hackathon concept and how the technology works, extra time was scheduled before the event and a dedicated team was put in place to facilitate online community management and for answering technology and process-related questions in real time. ...
The COVID-19 crisis brought about an unprecedented wave of interest into rapid ideation and innovation. Among others, the pandemic triggered a series of collaborative innovation events—so-called hackathons—to leverage the power of the crowd for crisis response. In contrast to earlier hackathons, these events are different in their speed of mobilization, global scale, and their fully virtual nature with organizers and teams being geographically dispersed. Analyzing this new empirical phenomenon, we characterize COVID-19 hackathons against other forms of innovation crowdsourcing and describe challenges and best practices in the areas of people management, session management, technology, and knowledge management. Based on our empirical findings, we develop a conceptual framework that emphasizes the importance of managing virtual crisis hackathons as the integrated sum of its different parts. Empirical evidence is presented to demonstrate how open innovation efforts such as hackathons can be leveraged for crisis management and more generally for ideation activities in increasingly remote working environments. This article contributes to crowdsourcing research by highlighting key differences of virtual hackathons from the traditional crowdsourcing approaches and hackathons investigated by prior research. Moreover, we affirm the value of mobilizing knowledge from different sources, particularly from a broad spectrum of civil society.
... While research on hackathon like events is relatively scarce, multiple studies have been conducted to better understand the willingness of participants to engage in such events [2], [37], [94], [95]. The challenging part of these studies is that motivating factors are presented indefinitely and non-informatively [96]. Motivating factors to participate in hackathon like events could be roughly divided into intrinsic and extrinsic one [95], where some of the motivators can apply to both categories. ...
... Fun and enjoyment [19], [30], [94]- [96], [98], [99] Job performance and career concerns [30], [94], [95], [98], [100], [101] Experimenting with new technologies [19], [22] Social influence [30], [96], [98], [102], [103] Intellectual challenge [94], [96], [98], [99] Financial gain [19], [30], [94] Personal development [9], [19] Status and reputation [94] Interest in subject [95], [99] Fair judgement system [22] Innovating [9], [30] Contributing to a social problem [9], [37] Learning and developing skills [2], [22], [56], [94], [96], [104]- [106] Networking [2], [19], [37], [56], [94] Applying personal skills [95], [103] Professional and personal identity [9], [94], [103] Collaboration [9], [22] ...
... Fun and enjoyment [19], [30], [94]- [96], [98], [99] Job performance and career concerns [30], [94], [95], [98], [100], [101] Experimenting with new technologies [19], [22] Social influence [30], [96], [98], [102], [103] Intellectual challenge [94], [96], [98], [99] Financial gain [19], [30], [94] Personal development [9], [19] Status and reputation [94] Interest in subject [95], [99] Fair judgement system [22] Innovating [9], [30] Contributing to a social problem [9], [37] Learning and developing skills [2], [22], [56], [94], [96], [104]- [106] Networking [2], [19], [37], [56], [94] Applying personal skills [95], [103] Professional and personal identity [9], [94], [103] Collaboration [9], [22] ...
This thesis work is based on Systematic Literature Review on hackathon like events. Thesis research focuses on outcome sustainability and remote participation during these events. A general overview of hackathon related research topics and coverage relevance have been conducted with potential future research suggestions in mind. Selected material has been classified during the in-depth reading process and focus-related observations recorded for further analysis. The most notable observations are the following: 1) Publications on post- event walkthrough are the most common ones, 2) There is a decent amount of research on motivation during the event, although it mainly focuses on participant motivators, 3) Hackathons are commonly viewed as part of the learning process that in many cases have similarities with Project-Based Learning and/or emphasise the importance of teamwork, 4) Event outcome sustainability is little researched and has contradictory findings as well as 5) Remote participation in hackathon like event is almost not studied and is mostly limited to subjective sidenotes in research focusing on other subjects.
This study explores the diverse sources and approaches to financing hackathons, aiming to compare financing models for hackathons, emphasizing the influence of event type on various strategies. Employing an ethnographic approach, the research identifies three primary financing strategies-challenge-oriented, community-oriented, and profit-oriented and six key sources, including sponsorships, community contributions, self-funding, grants, investments, and registration fees. The findings reveal that aligning financing with hackathon objectives is essential for the overall performance of the event. Challenge-oriented hackathons require dedicated budgets, community-oriented ones rely on local support, and profit-oriented events must balance financial goals with inclusivity. Sponsorships and partnerships emerge as the most versatile funding method. The study underscores the importance of combining multiple financing sources to ensure resilience and stability. It contributes to the academic understanding of hackathon financing and offers practical insights for organizers, sponsors, participants, and policymakers, aiming to enhance the effectiveness and impact of hackathons in fostering innovation and collaboration.
Within the chaotic vortex stirred by the COVID-19 pandemic, a beacon of innovation has shone brightly: hackathons. These collaborative, high-energy events have transformed into dynamic hotbeds of creativity, attracting thousands and rapidly fostering innovative projects.
Hackathons are characterized by their dynamic and col-laborative nature, acting as incubators for innovation in diverse contexts. They are celebrated for nurturing creativity and tackling current challenges while offering distinctive educational opportunities. However, participants' lack of confidence and increased anxiety can diminish the utility of a hackathon's outcomes, adversely affecting both the resolution of the challenges at hand and the educational value of the experience. Drawing on 398 responses from verified hackathon participants, we examined associations among experience, intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, confidence and anxiety. The findings confirm that experience at hack-athons has a beneficial effect on individuals' confidence levels and concurrently diminishes anxiety. Additionally, intrinsic motivations show negative associations with anxiety and positive associations with confidence, while extrin-sic motivations have unequivocal effects. These insights deepen our comprehension of the hackathon ecosystem, underscoring the criticality of participant's well-being and motivation. The ramifications of these findings are multifac
