Qualcomm Spark has offered the following response to my previous blog post, Hackathons don’t solve problems.
My name is Michelle Kessler, and I’m the editor-in-chief of Qualcomm Spark. First, we want to thank Charlie DeTar, J. Nathan Matias and the MIT Media Lab for participating in our most recent video, “Hackathons: Tech’s Answer to Big Problems.” Also, thanks to Charlie for giving us the opportunity to respond to his comments and ideas.
The goal of our video was to shine a light on this phenomenon: Hackathons have transcended the world of technology, and are being employed for everything from voter rights to disaster relief. They provide a methodology for addressing problems that may seem insurmountable to everyday citizens. Where existing systems fail, hackathons can create a new path toward a successful outcome.
With that said, we agree that hackathons are not a quick fix. Technology doesn’t solve real-world problems, people do. In the full transcript of Charlie’s interview—as in his blog post—he rightly points to the amazing work Occupy Sandy has done for hurricane victims on the ground, mobilizing quickly and circumventing red tape to get aid to people who need it. We understand that Hurricane Hackers was not involved in aid work, but we also acknowledge that the open nature of the data allowed the group to take part in the post-disaster response in ways that would have been impossible in the past.
And as any good technologist or scientist would, Charlie refutes the simplistic notion that hackathons are a definitive and mathematical solution. But as Qualcomm Spark covers technology and invention as a force of change, so then in our view can hackathons be considered a malleable invention with social and technological underpinnings, and therefore a way for technology to contribute to fixing big challenges.
My reply to this is in the comments.