What is a hackathon?
In the context of ImageJ, a hackathon is a coding spree, or if you want, a one or two-week brainstorm session where scientists with programming skills sit together and work in a low-distraction, high-energy environment to advance the software side of their research. Typically, results get accomplished much faster (read: days instead of weeks or months) than without hackathons, because the setting is ideal to discuss advanced ideas with similar-thinking scientists and ideas can sprout much faster. Sometimes, results are achieved that would not have been possible without a hackathon at all.
{{#ev:youtube|ZDZvoJX3PDM|425|right|The "hackathon effect" in effect!}}
Why?
First and foremost, hackathons are fun. The participants like what they are working on, and rarely have the same opportunities to talk to and inspire each other about their ongoing research.
Also, hackathons are the perfect excuse to concentrate on a particular subject without distractions. A lot gets done at a hackathon (see right!).
Origin of the term hackathon
The term comes from the original meaning of hack, i.e. a clever and unforeseen way to use or improve a technical system.
It is not clear whether Sun's marketing team or OpenBSD were first, combining the words hack and marathon to form hackathon.
Ever since, OpenBSD held annual hackathons during which OpenBSD was improved in leaps and bounds.
In 2007, the first hackathon revolving around neuro-science was taking place at Janelia Farm. In a sense, it can be seen as the first Fiji hackathon, since Fiji was born in the wake of that hackathon, and probably would not have happened without it.
ImageJ hackathons
ImageJ has benefitted from many hackathons over the years:
ImageJ Hackathons
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When
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Where
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Who
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Topic
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2007 Summer
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Janelia Farm Ashburn, VA, USA
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acardona, bene51, jefferis, hanchuan, dscho, mhl, StephanPreibisch, axtimwalde, rasband, Arnim Jenett, Julie Simpson, Torsten Rohlfing, Yuriy Mishchenko
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Neuroscience
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2008 Apr 21 - 2008 Apr 30
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MPI-CBG Dresden, Germany
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acardona, bene51, ysis, chalkie666, frederikfly, tinevez, dscho, mhl, StephanPreibisch, axtimwalde, Pavel Tomancak
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Fiji
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2008 Dec 8 - 2008 Dec 13
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INI Zürich, Switzerland
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?
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Fiji
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2009 Mar 23 - 2009 Apr 03
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MPI-CBG Dresden, Germany
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?
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Segmentation
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2010 Mar 14 - 2010 Mar 27
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EMBL Heidelberg, Germany
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acardona, axtimwalde, bene51, cmci, ctrueden, dscho, iarganda, larrylindsey, mhl, StephanPreibisch, tnargsirrah, vkaynig
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Fiji
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2011 Jan 27 - 2011 Feb 13
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WID Madison, WI, USA
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iarganda, paulbarber, acardona, bdezonia, arthuredelstein, afraser, frederikfly, grislis, tnargsirrah, hinerm, luisibanez, LeeKamentsky, larrylindsey, melissalinkert, mhl, tpietzsch, StephanPreibisch, ctrueden, axtimwalde, dscho, bene51, Kevin Eliceiri, Rick Lentz, Mark Rowley, Pavel Tomancak
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Multidimensional visualization
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2011 Dec 9 - 2011 Dec 19
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MPI-CBG Dresden, Germany
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jburel, Stephane-D, bdezonia, dietzc, mdoube, Fab14, frederikfly, hornm, chalkie666, tomka, alex-krull, melissalinkert, mhl, joshmoore, tpietzsch, StephanPreibisch, ctrueden, dscho, bene51, Fernando Carrilo, Kevin Eliceiri, Jiri Matas, Jurgen Mayer, Peter Pitrone, Pavel Tomancak
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Interoperability
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2012 Oct
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Universität Konstanz Konstanz, Germany
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hornm, dietzc, tpietzsch, dscho
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KNIME+Fiji
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2013 Jan 22 - 2013 Jan 25
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LOCI Madison, WI, USA
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thewtex, ctrueden, dscho, hinerm
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SCIFIO ImageIO plugin
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2013 Apr 14 - 2013 Apr 18
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LOCI Madison, WI, USA
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iarganda, dscho, ctrueden
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Trainable Weka Segmentation
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2013 Apr 27 - 2013 May 3
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LOCI Madison, WI, USA
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StephanPreibisch, tpietzsch, ctrueden, dscho, bdezonia, hinerm, grislis
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ImgLib2
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2013 Nov 14 - 2013 Nov 27
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LOCI Madison, WI, USA
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dietzc, dscho, ctrueden
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KNIME+ImageJ
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2014 Mar 4 - 2014 Mar 13
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Universität Konstanz Konstanz, Germany
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ctrueden, dscho, dietzc, hornm
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ImageJ OPS
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2014 Mar 11 - 2014 Mar 13
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Heimathafen Wiesbaden, Germany
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joshmoore, ctrueden
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ImageJ-OMERO
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2014 Mar 20 - 2014 Mar 21
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LOCI Madison, WI, USA
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jburel, pwalczysko, ctrueden
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ImageJ-OMERO
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2014 Jul 7 - 2014 Jul 10
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LOCI Madison, WI, USA
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marktsuchida, derakon, dscho, stuyvenberg, ctrueden, hinerm
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Micro-Manager and OpenSPIM
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2014 Sep 14 - 2014 Sep 18
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LOCI Madison, WI, USA
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dietzc, bnorthan, hinerm, ctrueden, apal4, yuminguw, awalter17, Ginger Pocock
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ImageJ OPS + KNIME
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2014 Oct 13 - 2014 Oct 17
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LOCI Madison, WI, USA
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tpietzsch, StephanPreibisch, axtimwalde, dscho, ctrueden, hinerm
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ImgLib2
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|
As you can see, in recent years ImageJ has trended toward smaller, more targeted hackathons, as we find them very focused!