STEMGeeks Second Hackathon

[themarkymark]

Back in 2020, I hosted a STEMGeeks Hackathon that raised 12,623.370 HIVE (~$4,000 at the time) from donations.

One of the biggest results of the hackathon was HiveOnboard by @roomservice, coming in first place. In my opinion, this was a huge win for Hive and dramatically improved our onboarding experience.

This time around I want to greatly increase the exposure of the Hackathon outside of Hive. I am reaching out to journalists and want to announce the Hackathon on many tech platforms outside of Hive and potentially even buy ads.

I plan on submitting a proposal to fund the prize pool rather than depend on donations from users. Although donations will be welcomed, I believe the DHF would be a good source of funding for this project that has the potentially to reach a lot of people outside of Hive and potentially create great improvements for our ecosystem.

With a bigger budget, I was thinking I should have more than three winning entries, spreading the prize pool to more contestants. I considered simple changes like 5 winners or even 10, or even base it on how many contestants there are.

The first hackathon was set for 2 weeks, I am considering extending this to one month or even longer. I think 2 weeks is a good time to have enough time for a decent prototype but it does limit how much functionality is available.

This time around, I am thinking about two phases. The first phase will keep a lot of participants, where the second phase will give more time to the final contestants to add more functionality and make more progress on their project. Each phase would have their own prize pool, everyone continuing to the second phase would win a portion of the prize pool.

I do know most people like to wait until the end to announce their project to keep it secret until the very end. This would change that strategy to some degree but potentially open each project to far more constructive feedback for the final entry.

I do however have some decisions to make, and I welcome everyone's opinion on this.

If you want to express your opinion, please leave a message in the comments answering any or all of these questions:

1. How much should I request from the DHF for the prize pool?
2. Should I create a proposal for marketing the hackathon?
3. How many winners should be eligible for the prize pool?
4. One phase or two phases?
5. Got any ideas to make the Hackathon better?
6. Would you be participating?

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Comments

[fredrikaa]

1. I would ask for 750 HBD for 2 months (or 60 days) = 45,000. Even if the hackathon only last one month, you'll need to work to organize and promote it, etc.
2. The above could include 10k (or 5-15k) for marketing already, as I think doing some marketing should be a guarantee if it goes through. An optional DHF for additional marketing could always be added on top, starting high in value and then adjusted down if needed. (I think bundling marketing the hack with also marketing that Hive is a great place to build dApps, and has a fund to support good contributions might kill 2 birds with one stone).
3. There could be many options here. A top 3 from a jury, one community voted "favorite", and one for "best newcomer" giving an additional reward to devs that were not already on Hive, but can incentivize new people to come and give it a shot. (Fair both because they'll have a steeper learning curve, and also because we want to attract new devs)
4. I like the idea of the second phase, but think it will likely work out better in practice if most of the effort is put into making the hackathon amazing. We could always work on the side to build something like a "Hive incubator", that could also work year-round, and provide it as a vehicle for good entries. But best done separately imo.
5. Many, will do a separate post and link it here later as a reply.
   But if I had to give one suggestion, it would be to have a week in advance where you encourage users and stakeholders to share "what problems they think are most worth solving". So that there is a list of suggested starting points and also issues that actually need a solution.
6. Not myself alone, but will see if I can get some devs I know not active on Hive atm to do something together with.

Anyways, I love the initiative! And will be happy to help in the ways that I can.

@maxgou you should have all the right channels to share this, and know a fair amount of people who could participate and win:).

[sanat]

I think, 45k is bit overkill. Hackathons doesn't need much marketing just need correct platform to initiate it, like you create hackathon where you see dozen developers. You can do 2 hackathons with that amount and have quite good exposure...

[sanat]

If asked from DHF, can we make it Hive Hackathon, not stemgeeks? That would serve as personal project otherwise and doesn't need DHF funding. But Hive Hackathon would be supported more widely as official hackathons that is done yearly like Hive Fest.

1. 20k
2. Hive Hackathon name is more general and that should be marketed as part of proposal.
3. 5
4. 1
5. Yes, change name to HIVE HACKATHON
6. Depends, but for sharing information around for sure.

[manniman]

that sounds about right

[sanjeevm]

Stemgeeks has potential to be the next dapp that can bring students from schools / colleges / universities on HIVE. And any dapp built on HIVE will benefit HIVE for sure. I agree, it could be termed as Hive Hackathon and may be reward given in HIVE as well as STEM. HIVE from DHF Funding and STEM from burn rewards would be a good combination I think.

[sanjeevm]

hive is too small, and cant scale up

So are you saying, hive is not usable ? https://telos.net just brings me a blank page.

[r0nd0n]

1. No idea, would depend on timeframe, price of HBD, and the offerings on the DHF at the time.
2. Yes, but not a separate proposal. Put it all in one.
3. Probably 5. 2 runner up rewards for phase one, then 3 prizes for 3 people that make it to phase 2.
4. 2
5. Clear rules. This is the hardest part of any contest, and it's especially hard for something like this. Last time wasn't bad, but if there's anything that could be improved, it's managing expectations. Make it clear what criteria will be judged, and how that criteria will be weighted. Again, easier said than done.
6. No, but I'm sure I'll find some people who would be interested.

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[lordbutterfly]

Ill cover this with Ignite with a few press releases. A CT pop-up for HIVE.io related to the Hackathon might be a possibility as well (ill need to double check for that).

Related to the ads, id prefer avoiding spending already designated funds for HIVE promotion.
What I could do is ask Ignite to create a separate campaign based on analytics gathered for HIVE but you would have to create the banner ads and collect the advertising funds.

[nathen007]

I think the timing of his post is 'interesting'....

[enforcer48]

There's nothing "interesting" about it.

It's been discussed in "other places", but it's finally out in the open.

[nathen007]

Well let's hope the hatchet can be buried and there can be a coordinated effort in these 'other places' to stop two separate marketing initiatives becoming competitive rather than complimentary.

[bluerobo]

1. $10k prize pool. Maybe I'm thinking too small here. If this one goes over well again, just double the pool for the third iteration.
2. marketing budget yes, please. Make it one proposal (prize pool + marketing). The whole thing has a marketing element to it. I don't see a reason to split it up.
3. 3 winners: $6k for first place, $3k for second, $1k for third.
4. 1 phase, 2 weeks

EDIT: what rishi said: payout in HIVE

[bitcoinflood]

This is super cool some great ideas and work come out of hackathons!

How much should I request from the DHF for the prize pool?
A: Not sure what the normal rates on these are but I would say anywhere from $10k - $25k should be sufficient to get people involved and make some headlines since you want to go as public with it as possible and make it worth their time. Make it all Cash no gimmick prizes like ipads or whatever.

Should I create a proposal for marketing the hackathon?
A: Yes, this is what the pool is used for the betterment of Hive.

How many winners should be eligible for the prize pool?
A: I'd say 3 Even with a $10k budget you're looking at a sizeable pool for all 3 $5k $3k $2k

One phase or two phases?
A: Two depending on how many enter will kind of determine this as well. Two allows you to find promising ideas and push forward with them into the next round so perhaps the first round is a lower win value and the second is where the big win comes in to provide motivation.

Got any ideas to make the Hackathon better?
A: Off hand no I'm not sure how the last ran.

Would you be participating?
A: No - just the QA guy lol the one the devs hate ;)

[pche]

This is awesome I must say

[mintrawa]

1. To be honest no idea (after reading comments $35K HBD seems good)
2. Yep
3. 7 or 5 phase one and 3 phase two
4. Two phase
5. Add extra bonus if participant made some live on Twitch or upload video on Youtube or story instagram or tik tok... (everthing than can give more visibility/promote the contest and HIVE.
   Exemple for a Twitch live/youtube:

• the promotion of the Hackathon with presentation of their team
• can be about some phase of their project
• can be a team meeting (can be a capture of Zoom/Discord meeting) about their concept or the presentation of their project...

1. I don't know yet, it will depend on how much time I can allocate to it.

---

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[bala41288]

Great. The previous hackathon was a big success and we got the Hive Onboarding tool.

The first hackathon was set for 2 weeks, I am considering extending this to one month or even longer. I think 2 weeks is a good time to have enough time for a decent prototype but it does limit how much functionality is available.

I like this. One month's time is very good to even build a complete product instead of just a prototype. I remember someone did build a prototype in the last hackathon and won a prize and then that code was never touched after that. I understand that everyone have their own projects and commitments but Hackathon shouldn't be a place to make quick money just because they are popular on Hive. So, in my humble opinion, it is better to have final solutions than prototypes. Or at least 80% built and ready solutions.

1. I was thinking $25k should be good. Also, it would be good to convert it to Hive and reward the winners in Hive.
2. Yes that will be good.
3. This can be selected based on the number of entries. I would suggest keeping 5 as a minimum number and as you mentioned, be flexible about the final number of winners.
4. Two phases. In the first phase, they submit their prototypes and in the second, they submit the full working solution.
5. Some members from the community as judges and also from outside if possible. If we can allocate some budget for the judging.
6. Right now I don't have any idea in my mind. I will keep thinking and if I get some valuable idea. I will definitely try to participate.

Overall, I like this initiative so much and also the idea of taking this Hackathon to the open world. I guess this will create more awareness and can bring more traffic to Hive.

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[taskmaster4450le]

1. $25K at a minimum
2. Hell yes
3. 5 in the first phase 3 in the second
4. 2 phases ($10K prize in the first phase, $15K in the second)
5. Other than dancing bears, no.
6. My coding skills leave a lot to be desired so I will have to participate in spirit.

Great idea to push the development on Hive forward.

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[guiltyparties]

I think one month would be a good change.

1. 35k HBD
2. No, I think 5k HBD should be rolled in for marketing into the proposal with 20k HBD for the prize pool. The existing marketing initiatives can also be looped in.
3. What do you think about doing two streams of entries, a team one and an individual one? They would have separate prizes. 3 prizes each stream. 15k/15k, divided up as 10k, 7k, and 3k.
4. One phase.
5. Blind voting assistance by a non-Hive party familiar with hackathons.
6. I probably won't participate myself simply because I have a backlog of deliverables.

[rishi556]

1. $15k which should be converted to Hive and awarded as Hive
2. Depends on where you'll market it. Some ads on site where programmers hang out would be awesome. I'd support that.
3. Go for top 3 first phase and just 1 winner second phase.
4. 2 as implied by #3
5. If we are going to have the proposal fund the reward, I'd like to see some more community judges. Not just developers, but regular users too. Maybe a committee of 4 or 5?
6. Not this time around, I need to finish what I've got up currently before starting anything new. @foxon will kill me for not finishing stuff.

I really like what Hive got out of the first one and I hope with a larger rewards pool even more people will join.

[enforcer48]

Not this time around, I need to finish what I've got up currently before starting anything new. @foxon will kill me for not finishing stuff.

[tfranzini]

1. Somewhere between 15k and 40k maybe?
2. Yes!
3. Not sure
4. 2
5. Not at the moment
6. Not really a dev, so I wouldn't be able to contribute.

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[sanjeevm]

I will throw some ideas that can be executed as part of the Hackathon.

[dannychain]

• How much should I request from the DHF for the prize pool?
  • ~30K
• Should I create a proposal for marketing the hackathon?
  • Sure! That would probably mean +10K in the DHF proposal.
• How many winners should be eligible for the prize pool?
  • 3
• One phase or two phases?
  • One phase only.
• Got any ideas to make the Hackathon better?
  • Not yet, but I might update the post if something comes to mind.
• Would you be participating?
  • Count me in!

[sayee]

wow, its cool. I remember @roomservice handing out prize money to @filler and other participants which was really kind of him.

[themarkymark]

I thought that was pretty awesome.

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[sayee]

Yes, indeed.

[brianoflondon]

I'm going to try my luck with an entry this year!

[akumagai]

am down for supporting you man!

[ervin-lemark]

By the way, I would like to ask what is the difference between
https://stemgeeks.net
and
https://stem.openhive.network/

Thank you.

[themarkymark]

STEMGeeks is my community, it is a Hive-Engine tribe and a Hive Community. The focus is on all STEM topics, from casual to professional.

STEM.OpenHive.network (Aka STEM Social) is more professor level focused and seems mostly on Science. It was around first on Steem, but I built my community to have focus on a wider audience and less formal.

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[ervin-lemark]

Thanks a lot for the clarification. STEM on :)

[ervin-lemark]

I'll answer the questions I feel I am qualified to answer :)

How much should I request from the DHF for the prize pool?

@fredrikaa's suggestion sounds great.

Should I create a proposal for marketing the hackathon?

Yes. A separate proposal to keep it transparent.

How many winners should be eligible for the prize pool?

With two phases, 10 to qualify for the second round, 3 winners.
With one phase, 5 winners.

One phase or two phases?

Two.

Got any ideas to make the Hackathon better?

Not for the moment.

Would you be participating?

Yes, as a one-man-band without any hope to qualify for the second phase :)

[codingdefined]

Lets start thinking about the Idea to participate :)

[poshbot]

[phuong.sitha]

The caption you write meaning for read and picture so cute in the relationship friends you are post.

[alex1407]

agree, it could be termed as Hive Hackathon and may be reward given in HIVE as well as STEM. HIVE from DHF Funding and STEM from burn rewards would be a good combination I think.

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[olastickz]

The ideas are very encouraging and interesting

[softmetal]

This is how your post looks like. Can you stop making shit? Stupid!