Hackathons are Going Online. What’s Changed?
Name
Maria Smirnova
Abstract
The number of hackathons significantly increased in the past few years. The growth spurt in online hackathons took place in 2020, significantly outweighing the number of offline competitions. Many studies focused on the advantages and disadvantages of online competitions since this has been a topical issue lately, especially in connection with the COVID-19 breakthrough that resulted in restrictions in face-to-face gatherings. While prior work mainly focuses on reports of single events and provides qualitative information on hackathons, it is not clear whether these statements can be generalized for a large number of competitions. We, therefore, add to these studies large-scale quantitative research on different aspects defining the differences between online and offline hackathons. Our findings indicate that hackathons differ in duration of the submission, judging stages and total length. The results also show a significant difference in themes and judging criteria and the absence of distinctions of technologies in use and participants' skills. Moreover, online hackathons' average spatial and time zone distances are higher, indicating a more significant geographic diversity. While we also can see a trend towards an increase in various participating countries, both online and offline.
Graduation Thesis language
English
Graduation Thesis type
Master - Innovation and Technology Management
Supervisor(s)
Alexander Nolte
Defence year
2022