Well I must honestly say I was very disappointed. Perhaps I expected to much or didn’t know what a hackathon is about but I didn’t picture it being what happened today.
From wikipedia:
“A hackathon, a hacker neologism, is an event when programmers meet to do collaborative computer programming. The spirit of a hackathon is to collaboratively build programs and applications. Hackathons are typically between several days and a week in length. A hackathon refers not simply to one time hacks, but to a specific time when many people come together to hack on what they want to, how they want to - with little to no restrictions on direction or goal of the programming.” http://ping.fm/XPwG6
Let me walk you through the day. We got there and made ourselves comfortable. It was hosted at Wits university and the venue seemed pretty impressive and I prepared for a good time with like minded people. Then it started. First we got a presentation from one of the GTUG members (Google Technical User Group or something). The presentation made me feel like I was back in high school being subjected to an English speech that was not prepared before hand.
Then we moved on to a video call from one of the Google developers in the UK or somewhere. Myself and others spent most of the time lip reading what the guy was saying as we couldn’t hear anything! So you sit wondering what you missing and people started getting distracted and then the whispering and conversations start. Things are going down hill fast. Video call ends and then we move on.
Next we get what can only be described as a whirl wind trip through using OpenAuth presented in Ruby. I still cannot remember anything from the explanation other than the individual presenting was a Ruby expert of sorts.
Moving one we were issued with the orders to build something using the Google+ API. Cool! Lets get cracking. Start investigating the Google+ API and get the fright of my life. The API only supports read requests. I kid you not, the social application said to be Facebook’s major competitor only has read access via the API. WHAT! So I mean really how hard can it be to make an HTTP request, receive a JSON formatted response and render that data. This is where things get really interesting.
I was under the impression that a hackathon was an event where everyone starts from scratch and starts nailing things together. How wrong I was. It seems that terms in the software industry are nothing more than marketing hype. Upon beginning development I started noticing that groups were getting ready to deploy their applications. What is going on here? Well it seems that there where a few groups who had actually developed their applications prior to the “hackathon” and merely brought them along to present. Now, again, I am not sure if I am just the idiot, but I am certain the title of the event was hackathon not exhibition? The event then proceeded to run an hour over time with myself and a few others extremely disillusioned about the entire event. Towards the end of the day I couldn’t help but look forward to being told the day was over so I could go home.
Sorry Google but I think you missed the mark with this one. Your Google+ API is wafer thin and offers nothing. If you are hoping to regain the traction you initially had I would recommend you start allowing developers to push and pull data from different applications and platforms. There is nothing that separates your social network site from Facebook and by virtue of the fact that the majority of the market is on Facebook, you really need to give people a reason to use Google+. I signed up for it with great expectations when it became available. Since then my usage has steadily decreased to next to nothing.
That being said, I am really hoping that the developers conference on Friday makes up for today because today was truly disappointing. That being said, the gapping holes in the API and client interfaces has given me an idea for a new open source project.
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