Hackathons are how marketing guys wish software were made. However, to make good software, requires lots of thought, trial and error, evaluation, iteration, trying the ideas out on other users, learning, thinking, more trial and error, and on and on. At some point you say it ain’t perfect, but it’s useful, so let’s ship. That process, if the software is to be any good, doesn’t happen in 24 hours. Sometimes it takes years, if the idea is new enough.
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Instead of doing a hackathon, do a regularly scheduled Code Jam. Get a bunch of developers together to show each other what new idea they have and for that day do something on that new idea in 24 hour. For a hackathon, this stop when the event stop. With a Code Jam, get together again in 1 or 2 week and show the same people again what progress you have made and what problem you solved during that period. Do this regularly, and keep progressing on the idea, or work with a new idea. This kind of event would be great for a platform because people can deliver a real finished product and build the knowledge together.
