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Hackathons for Scientific Software
How and When do they Work?
Erik H. Trainer, Chalalai Chaihirunkarn, Arun Kalyanasundaram, James D. Herbsleb
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Software is Key for Science
• Scientists write their own
• Possible community resources
• Useless without maintenance!
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“Open-Source it!” is Not a Good Answer to Maintenance
• Tools address short-term needs [de la Flor et al., 2010]
• Scientists don’t know others’ needs[Howison & Herbsleb, 2011; 2013]
• Scientists’, community’s time scales differ
• Human infrastructure is often weak[Lee et al., 2006; Steinmacher et al., 2015]
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“Open-Source it!”
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Advance technical work via collocation
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Create awareness of community needs via formal & informal communication channels
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Build durable social ties via face-to-face interaction
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Research Questions: 1) What are the stages a hackathon goes through as it evolves?
2) How do variations in how stages are conducted affect outcomes?
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Multiple-Case StudyCases
OpenBio(July 9-10, 2014)
BioHack(November 10-14, 2014)
PolarVis(November 3-4, 2014)
• 7 interviews
• 17 hrs. observation
• Documentation
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• 7 interviews
• 17 hrs. observation• Documentation
DataDescription• OSS bioinformatics
project developers
• 2 days
• OSS bioinformatics project developers
• 5 days
• Polar scientists, visualization developers
• 2 days
• 2 interviews
• Documentation
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Findings
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• Idea Brainstorming• Learning about Tools,
Datasets, and Research Profiles
• Alignment: Preparing Tools and Datasets
• Team Formation• Building Solutions• Knowledge Sharing• Building Social Ties
• Reification of Ideas• Stimulation of User
Engagement• Maintenance of
Social Ties
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Preparation
Idea Brainstorming
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Computer Scientists
Domain Scientists
?• Different disciplines involved
• Tools suggested• Positive comments• Experts brought• Characterizing
disciplines• Unintentional
exclusion
+1
@ X
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Execution
Team Formation
OpenShepherding
Selection byOrganizer
Selection byAttraction
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Execution
Building Solutions
• Tradeoffs• Awareness of
user needs• Technical progress
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Repeateddiscussions
?Homogenous
teams
TASKPolar
Vis
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Discussion
• Mixing domain scientists & computer scientists
• Tradeoffs between technical progress, awareness of user needs
• Ongoing work on follow-through• Implications for funding agencies
• Proposal maintenance plans
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Conclusions
• Practices across hackathon stages address specialized needs of scientific software
• Differences in kinds of disciplines included, team formation strategies suggest tradeoffs among technical progress, awareness of user needs
• Opportunities for policy
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AcknowledgementsCollaborators• Chalalai
Chaihirunkarn• Arun
Kalyanasundaram• Jim Herbsleb • Our participants• Google Open Source
Programs Office
Funding• Alfred P. Sloan
Foundation• National Science
Foundation• #1064209, #1111750,
#0943168
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Thank You
• Practices across hackathon stages address specialized needs of scientific software
• Differences in kinds of disciplines included, team formation strategies suggest tradeoffs among technical progress, awareness of user needs
• Opportunities for policy
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Contact: [email protected]
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EXTRAS
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Improving Inclusiveness
• Computer science more male (than domain scientists)
• Women with same competency will rate themselves lower
• Specify different roles needed• Don’t refer to people as hackers or coders• Reach out to labs (often with phone call) run
by women and minorities
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