Fishackathon 2018: A US State Dept and HackerNest Initiative

    See event website


    About Fishackathon

    First organized by the US Secretary’s Office of Global Partnerships in 2014, Fishackathon inspires the creation of digital solutions to address sustainable fisheries challenges.

    Overfishing and other serious problems harm marine environments and can devastate already-struggling, small-scale fishing marketplaces and communities, many of them in developing countries. Protections exist, but actual enforcement faces major obstacles.

    To combat this, Fishackathon brings together thousands of concerned designers, developers, and subject matter experts for a weekend to build practical tech solutions to endemic problems defined by the world’s most respected fisheries experts.

    Save our waters, save our world!

    How it works

    Teams of volunteer coders and technologists take a weekend-long challenge to consider problem statements from fisheries experts around the world and present usable solutions. An expert panel of judges evaluate the presentations to select a winner from each Fishackathon contest site, and a grand prize is awarded to the global winning team.

    Demos and Judging


    Teams have 3 minutes to demo. Cities may have multiple local prizes available, but only 1 "city winner" team moves forward to the global finals from each city. These teams have 7 days to submit a 3 minute demo video (in English OR with English subtitles) for global judging. 

    [#PROTIP] Strong demos usually answer these questions: 

        1. Who does your project benefit; who are the main users? 
        2. What problem are you solving? 
        3. What is your solution? 
        4. What does a successful outcome look like; what impact will it have? 

    Judging criteria: 

        - impact (how will this improve things?) 
        - practicality (can it be implemented, is it adaptable?) 
        - creativity and technical innovation (how cool is this?) 
        - polish (how well-put-together is the team/demo?)

    Global Prizing


    Our prizing aims to help teams succeed at getting their product to market. We are finalizing partnerships for the following: 
        - acceptance into a prestigious incubator/accelerator 
        - mentorship from/intros to potential investors 
        - demo spot at a major conference 
        - useful prizes from AWS


    Rules


        1. We're all in this together; treat each other right. 
        2. Team maximum is 5 people. 
        3. You must participate in person. 
        4. Fresh code expected, but hardware may be pre-built (i.e. a mobile phone = hardware). 
        5. Follow the HackerNest Code of Conduct.




    Schedule

    Saturday

    8:30 AM

     Registration (come early!)

    9:45 AM

    Welcome Note

    10:00 AM 

    Overview and instructions     

    10:30 AM 

    Hackathon starts, team matching session

    14:00
    Mentoring Sessions

    Sunday

    08:30

    Breakfast           

    2:30 PM

    Hackathon stops, teams practice demos for mentors.

    3:30 PM

     Teams demo for judges

    5:30 PM 

    Deliberations

    6:00 PM 

    Closing remarks and winners announced





    Location

    Think Rise Cape Town
    Cape Town, South Africa

    Dates

    From 10th February 2018 - 08:30 AM
    to 11th February 2018 - 06:30 PM