Developers, the new rock-stars in the Philippines

·Hackathon not for the faint-hearted

·Only 9 hours to develop a mobile app

COMING on the heels of its successful WebGeek DevCup Hackathon in August, which saw 38 teams take part, Smart DevNet and WebGeek are about to unleash a new hackathon on Dec 1.
 
The Foursquare Hack Day Philippines  (#4SQHackPH) promises to be an intense all-day mobile app hackathon that its organizers hope will give rise to the most creative and skillful team to deliver the best mobile application using Foursquare APIs (application programming interfaces).
 
Applications may be assembled using any mix of programming languages, application frameworks, and development tools. Participants are expected to bring the necessary tools to build their competition entry and must demo their app through a smartphone.
 
Participants will be given nine hours to craft a mobile app conforming to the theme to be given on the event day itself. 43 teams have confirmed their participation thus far.
 
The idea behind only sharing the theme on the day itself is to ratchet up the pressure on the teams and ensure that only the fittest, most determined and most composed under pressure are still standing at the end with their app. All the participants know for certain is that they must develop a mobile app on the Foursquare API.
 
It will surely be an intense experience but the organizers are confident the teams can pull it off. With their mantra “We believe developers are the new rock-stars. So rock out at #4SQHackPH!” the organizers are as excited about the event as the teams are.
 
One of the judges Paul Pajo, developer evangelist at SMART Communications, says “We want to highlight the fact that developers are the ones who actually do the work on these applications. Normally, once the product is launched, no one remembers who the developers are. In hackathons, the spotlight is on the developer.”
 
The organisers are flying in Sajid Mehmood of Foursquare’s platform engineering team from New York to give Filipino developers the ins and outs of the Foursquare API for Connected Apps. Foursquare’s APIs enable developers to build apps that interact with the Foursquare platform for location check-ins, venue information.

Teams need to be formed before the event, either a duo or a trio. Walk-in participants are not allowed because preparation is key, say the organizers, who advise teams to prepare well because this will serve as the most important key in developing a great mobile app. Teaming up with the right people is critical too, they say.

Apps will be judged according to their development quality, user experience, innovation and demo pitching. Fantastic prizes are promised.
 
WebGeek was founded in May 2009 as a community and an organization for web enthusiasts – Filipino geeks, developers and designers. Prior to launching its website on August 2009, WebGeek conducted tech events at universities.
 
DevCup meanwhile is one of the efforts of the Philippine’s top technology blog to gather IT industry players to promote the IT and app development industry.