
Sociologists Examine Hackathons and See Exploitation - eeZah7Ux
https://www.wired.com/story/sociologists-examine-hackathons-and-see-exploitation/
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bko
> To the tech industry and its imitators, these are normal ideas. To a
> sociologist, they’re exploitative. “From my perspective, they’re doing
> unpaid work for corporations,” Zukin says. (Even hackathons thrown by
> schools, non-profits, publishers, and civic organizations tend to have
> corporate sponsors.)

Later

> The irony is that, regardless of whether hackathon participants willingly
> participate in self-exploitation or are simply having fun and learning, they
> rarely produce useful innovations that last beyond the event’s 36 hours.
> Startup lore has plenty of tales of successful companies that were created
> at hackathons—a popular example is GroupMe, the messaging app created at a
> TechCrunch hackathon, which sold to Skype for $85 million one year later.
> But such examples are rare. “Hacks are hacks, not startups,” Swift wrote in
> a blog post. “Most hackers don’t want to work on their hackathon project
> after the hackathon ends.”

I don't understand how it can be both exploitation and not create anything
useful. Maybe they're used as a recruiting tool?

> Hackathons are not particularly effective as recruiting strategies for large
> companies, either, the study finds. But they sell the dream of self-
> improvement via technology, something companies want to be associated with
> regardless of any immediate benefit to their bottom line. As symbols of
> innovation, they’re not likely to go anywhere anytime soon.

So hackathons are corporate exploitation where the corporation gets no
benefit. Maybe some people just enjoy getting together with other like-minded
people and working on a project with a limited time commitment. Why does
everything have to be viewed through a corporate exploitation lens?

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matuszeg
I think the corporate benefit is free prototyping. Get a lot of people to try
a a lot of ideas really fast. See what you like about what they did and run
from there.

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goldenkey
What's new? The world has been co-opting low confidence, naivety, and
passionate goodwill for unpaid internships, unpaid overtime, and free work -
since the dawn of hunting. "Thanks for feeding the town Mike - here's a new
gun we crowdfunded (10% of the meat profits) - keep up your fascination with
firearms!"

Some people don't care if they are being taken advantage of, if they are
having fun somehow. They don't consider it their problem. But in true fashion,
they are devaluing themselves and screwing over their peers - all because they
are too naive to see that all work has a value when someone else is the
headcrab selling it.

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sharemywin
I can just see lumbergh coming over to some interns "workspace" since there
aren't even cubes anymore and saying yah...I'm going to need you to attend
this hackathon this weekend...it'll...ummm...be unpaid but....
you....yay...ummm... it'll be good for your career...

[https://blog.jostle.me/blog/how-not-to-manage-like-bill-
lumb...](https://blog.jostle.me/blog/how-not-to-manage-like-bill-lumbergh/)

~~~
matuszeg
Had this happen the first week of my first internship. Made me work Saturday
through Sunday. No sleep. unpaid. Only thing I learned was I needed a new job.

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OnlineCourage
Not all hackathons are the same. Some are run by the participants themselves
and go during the day. Is it possible for one to exploit one's own self?

