What Do Hackathons Do?: Understanding Participation in Hackathons Through Program Theory Analysis

Jeanette Falk Olesen; Gopinaath Kannabiran; Nicolai Brodersen Hansen

doi:10.1145/3411764.3445198

What Do Hackathons Do? Understanding Participation in Hackathons Through Program Theory Analysis

Jeanette Falk Olesen, Gopinaath Kannabiran, Nicolai Brodersen Hansen

Research output: Contribution to book/anthology/report/conference proceeding › Article in proceeding › Research › peer-review

12 Citations (Scopus)

873 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Hackathons are increasingly embraced across diverse sectors as a way of democratizing the design of technology. Several attempts have been made to redefine the format and desired end goal of hackathons in recent years thereby warranting closer methodological scrutiny. In this paper, we apply program theory to analyze the processes and effects of 16 hackathon case studies through published research literature. Building upon existing research on hackathons, our work offers a critical perspective examining the methodological validity of hackathons and exemplifies how specific processes for organizing hackathons are modified for different purposes. Our main contribution is a program theory analysis of hackathon formats that provides an exploration and juxtaposition of 16 case studies in terms of causal relations between the input, process and the effects of hackathons. Our cataloguing of examples can serve as an inspirational planning resource for future organizers of hackathons.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	CHI'21: Proceedings of 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery
Publication date	May 2021
Pages	1-16
Article number	147
ISBN (Electronic)	978-1-4503-8096-6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3411764.3445198
Publication status	Published - May 2021
Event	ACM CHI 2021 conference on human factors in computing systems - Online virtual, Yokohama, Japan Duration: 8 May 2021 → 13 May 2021 https://chi2021.acm.org/

Conference

Conference	ACM CHI 2021 conference on human factors in computing systems
Location	Online virtual
Country/Territory	Japan
City	Yokohama
Period	08/05/2021 → 13/05/2021
Internet address	https://chi2021.acm.org/

Access to Document

10.1145/3411764.3445198

CHI2021_HackathonsProgramTheory_PREPRINTAccepted author manuscript, 522 KB

AUB Link

Search for the material in Aalborg University Library's search engine

Cite this

@inproceedings{be4903cb45674a50978a748d0f387d86,

title = "What Do Hackathons Do?: Understanding Participation in Hackathons Through Program Theory Analysis",

abstract = "Hackathons are increasingly embraced across diverse sectors as a way of democratizing the design of technology. Several attempts have been made to redefine the format and desired end goal of hackathons in recent years thereby warranting closer methodological scrutiny. In this paper, we apply program theory to analyze the processes and effects of 16 hackathon case studies through published research literature. Building upon existing research on hackathons, our work offers a critical perspective examining the methodological validity of hackathons and exemplifies how specific processes for organizing hackathons are modified for different purposes. Our main contribution is a program theory analysis of hackathon formats that provides an exploration and juxtaposition of 16 case studies in terms of causal relations between the input, process and the effects of hackathons. Our cataloguing of examples can serve as an inspirational planning resource for future organizers of hackathons.",

author = "{Falk Olesen}, Jeanette and Gopinaath Kannabiran and Hansen, {Nicolai Brodersen}",

year = "2021",

month = may,

doi = "10.1145/3411764.3445198",

language = "English",

pages = "1--16",

booktitle = "CHI'21: Proceedings of 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems",

publisher = "Association for Computing Machinery",

address = "United States",

note = "ACM CHI 2021 conference on human factors in computing systems ; Conference date: 08-05-2021 Through 13-05-2021",

url = "https://chi2021.acm.org/",

}

Falk Olesen, J, Kannabiran, G & Hansen, NB 2021, What Do Hackathons Do? Understanding Participation in Hackathons Through Program Theory Analysis. in CHI'21: Proceedings of 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems., 147, Association for Computing Machinery, pp. 1-16, ACM CHI 2021 conference on human factors in computing systems, Yokohama, Japan, 08/05/2021. https://doi.org/10.1145/3411764.3445198

What Do Hackathons Do? Understanding Participation in Hackathons Through Program Theory Analysis. / Falk Olesen, Jeanette; Kannabiran, Gopinaath; Hansen, Nicolai Brodersen.
CHI'21: Proceedings of 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Association for Computing Machinery, 2021. p. 1-16 147.

Research output: Contribution to book/anthology/report/conference proceeding › Article in proceeding › Research › peer-review

TY - GEN

T1 - What Do Hackathons Do?

T2 - ACM CHI 2021 conference on human factors in computing systems

AU - Falk Olesen, Jeanette

AU - Kannabiran, Gopinaath

AU - Hansen, Nicolai Brodersen

PY - 2021/5

Y1 - 2021/5

N2 - Hackathons are increasingly embraced across diverse sectors as a way of democratizing the design of technology. Several attempts have been made to redefine the format and desired end goal of hackathons in recent years thereby warranting closer methodological scrutiny. In this paper, we apply program theory to analyze the processes and effects of 16 hackathon case studies through published research literature. Building upon existing research on hackathons, our work offers a critical perspective examining the methodological validity of hackathons and exemplifies how specific processes for organizing hackathons are modified for different purposes. Our main contribution is a program theory analysis of hackathon formats that provides an exploration and juxtaposition of 16 case studies in terms of causal relations between the input, process and the effects of hackathons. Our cataloguing of examples can serve as an inspirational planning resource for future organizers of hackathons.

AB - Hackathons are increasingly embraced across diverse sectors as a way of democratizing the design of technology. Several attempts have been made to redefine the format and desired end goal of hackathons in recent years thereby warranting closer methodological scrutiny. In this paper, we apply program theory to analyze the processes and effects of 16 hackathon case studies through published research literature. Building upon existing research on hackathons, our work offers a critical perspective examining the methodological validity of hackathons and exemplifies how specific processes for organizing hackathons are modified for different purposes. Our main contribution is a program theory analysis of hackathon formats that provides an exploration and juxtaposition of 16 case studies in terms of causal relations between the input, process and the effects of hackathons. Our cataloguing of examples can serve as an inspirational planning resource for future organizers of hackathons.

U2 - 10.1145/3411764.3445198

DO - 10.1145/3411764.3445198

M3 - Article in proceeding

SP - 1

EP - 16

BT - CHI'21: Proceedings of 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

PB - Association for Computing Machinery

Y2 - 8 May 2021 through 13 May 2021

ER -