What Companies Can Learn From Hackathons And The Hacker Community, from www.hack4colorado.com (register for Hack4Colorado with the National Day of Civic Hacking May 31st, June 1st & 2nd)

1. Perfect doesn’t get the job done. Hackers have a real sense of urgency as they develop prototypes, demos and presentations. They have to be able to present a partially developed product and communicate a clear vision of what the team is looking to accomplish to the judging panel within 24-48 hours. Something is better than nothing and gives you a way to gain critical feedback.
2. Build from what exists, but don’t limit yourself. Available data sets, technology and possible projects begin the ideation during a hackathon. Creativity, brainstorming and quick thinking is key. You don’t have time to get into analysis paralysis. Hackers are creating something within a nearly impossible timeline and they can’t be limited by technology or bound by a culture married to existing processes.
3. Help build and support the community. Collaboration vs. Protection. The support fellow hackers and developers provide each other builds community, relationships and ecosystems. The concept of communities is nothing new, although much admired. Open Source is a great example of community. It’s a community of developers sharing their work product to benefit the community. Developers accept the fact they are only one person and technology changes in an instant, so they can’t know it all either. By being part of a community sharing ideas with everyone, offering a transparency unsurpassed by most companies, innovation bubbles up to the surface.
4. Don’t be afraid of something new. Innovate or die. Kodak was an innovator early in it’s life. They dominated the market. Then they stopped innovating. Were they too big to fail? No! Hackers are open to learning a new technology just enough to build that demo, over a weekend or even a few hours. They love the challenge! By having the experts/mentors on-site as a part of the community mentioned above, they get to know new data sets, APIs, SDKs and much more of the alphabet soup. Talk about empowering!
5. Creativity sparks productivity. Google has their 20% time (they didn’t invent this but have done a great job at making it a part of their culture) and other innovative companies often encourage employees to find their passion outside of work. Hackers are donating their weekend/off hours to be a part of something greater than themselves. Brad Feld has recently talked about his “Digital Sabbath” as a way to unplug and let ideas bang around in your head a bit. This kind of creativity and passion ignites productivity and retention in employees.