

How not to run a hackathon - brianckeegan
http://www.brianckeegan.com/2013/08/how-not-to-run-a-academic-hackathon/

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cbhl
I believe that having self-selected teams results in the best results at
hackathons -- at the expense of having a bi-modal distribution of results
(i.e. the best teams do better, and the worst teams do worse). In general,
considering the externalities involved in hackathons, I expect that most
organizers will prefer to have the bi-modal distribution than one in which
everyone produces equally mediocre results.

With regards to your other points -- they _seem_ reasonable, but your post
would be more _useful_ to hackathon organizers if you instead focused on how
_to_ run a hackathon (i.e. what things they should do to keep participants and
volunteers happy -- like having lots of food and/or clear expectations about
BYOB).

