Hackathon meetup reply
Yeah, fall might be better. I’m sure everyone is trying to maximize the summer that always goes by way too fast. Plus, seven might not be enough to make the hackathon as valuable as it could be.
In the meantime, is there a way we could possibly work out how to include remote participants? For simultaneous as well as recorded participation. I’m noticing quite a few comments, I’ve talked to quite a few people and for myself I’d like to be able to participate remotely and also show up in person when possible. Having a remote component should broaden the participation.

Kermit and I were talking about driving up. But how about trying a Google video Hangout?

Oh, and believe it or not, 7 is not really that small. I've been some "major" ones that are only about twice that.

I like your ideas there Wilson. Maybe it would be worth a meetup by hangout to come up with some ideas of how to incorporate remote participation. I know Doug Odegard is heading up a meeting about remote in general at the end of this month. There might be some good take ways from that, but it might be worth brainstorming before hand what would be needed for a hackathon.

I agree with Wilson and Kermit, perhaps you keep this one scheduled, and we do a follow-up in the fall... can't make the august one at the moment.

I am really excited for you to suggest that idea Wilson. In fact I've been thinking the same thing and have been talking to Mike about (of course he's all for it) and others that are interested in participating remotely. Let's definitely in led this aspect.

Another interesting coincidence is that I just took a job at the CHS refinery in Laurel and moved from Bigfork ie Kalispell area. We should get together. I'm still working out getting Friday off, but I'm pretty sure it's going to happen, so we ought to work out the logistics of carpooling to the kickoff, but maybe you and I could be part of the Billings area hackathon contingent.

Hi Wilson, great to have you involved! I am (as Kermit stated) all for making this hack-a-thon available to remote attendees. The goal here isn't to win something, but to grow in knowledge and have fun. Having never hosted a hack-a-thon though, I don't know what tools would make it easy to make it remote. I plan on video recording the main sessions at a minimum, but that would be posted post event, not live. Do you have any suggestions on the technology front that we could implement to make this event more remote-participant friendly?

Great hearing from you, Mike. A big part of the hackathon fun is the face-to-face aspect of the event. But given that, there is also the issue of skillset. A big reason for getting together is to get better at combining skills with others to achieve a result in a short period of time. Like being in a lifeboat, but without the starvation. I think it's great that you and the group want to be more inclusive.

At a mobile hackathon I helped to run at HP the video crew used http://www.ustream.tv­. But since we're a small group, how about trying Google Hangout with video?