Net2NO, the fourth largest Net2Local meetup group in the world, has grown from 30 members to now over 1,100 people since 2008. The New Orleans meetup Net2NO has hosted events to connect local entrepreneurs, innovators and tech people.
Its May 6th meetup welcomed the theme “The Great Hackathon Debate.” Organizers explained, “Hackathons are defined as a gathering of people coming together to build something in a short amount of time. While this has mainly been confined to software and developers, but in more recent years, hackathons have expanded to include many different disciplines and talents beyond technology. These collaborations have been imparted to draw those with skills reaching far beyond just code in order to create and innovate. Some of these gems turn into real businesses, while others are DOA by Monday morning.”
The meetup brought together local hackathon producers to get their take on the events, including Matthew Tritico of BarCampNOLA,Travis Laurendine of Codemkrs, and Bryan Joseph of the upcoming OpenSourceNOLA hackathon.
Some of the questions covered during the panel are listed below:
- What types of hackathons are there and what are the pros and cons of each type? Open source, startup weekend/hackathons, competitive community hackathons, brand hackathons, non-techical, other
- Why do people hack? Love, press, money/prizes, education, community…
- Why do companies sponsor hackathons? Developer mindshare, proof of concepts, press, lead gen, community support, recruiting, free labor….
Net2NO also released upcoming announcement to the local startup community, including:
- 1 Million Cups – every weds morning @ 9 at Launch Pad http://neworleans.sites.
1millioncups.com/
- The Irish House – Our Hosts – @IrishHouseNOLA
- Trivia Nights, Every Wednesday at 7pm (in the same space we are in)
- FIlm Screening of “Indie Game: The Movie” – in conjunction with NOLA Game Developers Group. Friday, May 23rd at Burgundy Picture House. Cards with more info at the front table.
- BarCampNOLA in July — if Tritico can get some help organizing. If anyone is interested or would like to know more about what is involved, drop an email tobarcampnola@gmail.com with questions or for more info.
- GNOCode first Thursday of every month – http://www.meetup.com/gnocode/
- OurSocialTribune.com – a new curated, continuing ed resource hub for social media managers. get directly into the beta with oursocialtribune.com/meganbeta
- Hacknight – Every Tuesday, 7pm at Launchpad – http://www.meetup.com/
nolahacknight/ (Just be sure to save the first Tuesday of the month for Net2NO) - National Day of Civic Hacking: The City of New Orleans in partnership with the White House Climate Data Initiative, Intel’s Code for Good, and Esri is holding a “techarrette” or technical design charrette to answer critical questions for the development of a crowdsourcing platform for the scoring of property conditions. To find out more please visit: http://hackforchange.org/
events/new-orleans-tech- charrette/ You can also watch the announcement here: White House Climate Data Initiative Launch
The next meetup, the 6th annual mini BarCamp exstravganza, will be on June 3rd from 6:00 to 9:00 PM, again at The Irish House. More information is available here: meetup.com/net2no/