Innovating Through Hackathons

Elliott Masie's hack talk explores an alternative way to view the concept of hacking. Rather than associate hacking with negative connotations and breaches of security, Masie encourages us to look at hacking and Hackathons as an opportunity to recharge a team's creativity and innovate.

According to Masie, a Hackathon is an event where individuals come together to break through an obstacle and come up with creative solutions. Companies and corporations can use Hackathons as a way to bring co-workers together, that don't normally interact on a daily basis, to work together to tackle a problem. The idea is that these individuals are working together for a certain period of time with the singular goal of inventively solving a dilemma. The diverse mix of individuals leverages a wide variety of talents and skills.

"We believe that Hackathons are part of tapping the wisdom of the crowd," Massie says, "and increasingly we’re going to see Hackathons that aren’t about physically getting into a room together but are, in fact, diverse and distributed around the world linked by technology."