We went to Taiwan to visit my wife's family for the Chinese New Year. While we were there, we also celebrated the lantern festival. The festival is held on the first full moon following the New Year. The lanterns symbolize the wish for a bright future.
We drove to a mountaintop village and followed the crowds to a shop that was selling the colorful lanterns. We picked two out, thought about some sayings and poems and painted them on the paper sides of the lanterns.
We carried our masterpieces outside to the railroad tracks, where a few local people were helping to light the lanterns and send them aloft. As they rose, there were many oohs and aahs. They then floated over the hill, burned out and died in a trail of waste, leaving others to clean up the next day.
It reminded me of the longer view of sustainability. What happens the next day? Who takes ownership? How do the locals feel about the clean-up? Were they part of the planning?
It struck me as a good metaphor for the hackathons you are considering. There may be many cool apps quickly produced with good intentions, making the authors feel good. But it is short lived. Most die out and never have the impact desired, precisely because the questions of sustainability above were never asked and answered first. Think carefully about who the event serves, the intended user or the coder? |