Running an IETF Hackathon
draft-ietf-shmoo-hackathon-00
The information below is for an old version of the document.
| Document | Type |
This is an older version of an Internet-Draft that was ultimately published as RFC 9311.
|
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Author | Charles Eckel | ||
| Last updated | 2021-05-27 | ||
| Replaces | draft-eckel-shmoo-ietf-hackathon | ||
| RFC stream | Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) | ||
| Formats | |||
| Reviews | |||
| Additional resources | Mailing list discussion | ||
| Stream | WG state | WG Document | |
| Document shepherd | (None) | ||
| IESG | IESG state | Became RFC 9311 (Informational) | |
| Consensus boilerplate | Unknown | ||
| Telechat date | (None) | ||
| Responsible AD | (None) | ||
| Send notices to | (None) |
draft-ietf-shmoo-hackathon-00
shmoo C. Eckel
Internet-Draft Cisco Systems
Intended status: Informational 27 May 2021
Expires: 28 November 2021
Running an IETF Hackathon
draft-ietf-shmoo-hackathon-00
Abstract
IETF Hackathons encourage the IETF community to collaborate on
running code related to existing and evolving Internet standards.
This document provides a set of practices for running IETF
Hackathons.
Discussion Venues
This note is to be removed before publishing as an RFC.
Discussion of this document takes place on the Stay Home Meet Only
Online Working Group mailing list (manycouches@ietf.org), which is
archived at https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/browse/manycouches/.
Source for this draft and an issue tracker can be found at
https://github.com/eckelcu/draft-ietf-shmoo-hackathon.
Status of This Memo
This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.
Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute
working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet-
Drafts is at https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.
Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."
This Internet-Draft will expire on 28 November 2021.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2021 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.
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This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (https://trustee.ietf.org/
license-info) in effect on the date of publication of this document.
Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights
and restrictions with respect to this document. Code Components
extracted from this document must include Simplified BSD License text
as described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are
provided without warranty as described in the Simplified BSD License.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. Timing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.1. Agenda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.2. Hackdemo Happy Hour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.3. Code Lounge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.4. Code Sprint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.5. Online Only . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3. Funding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.1. Sponsorship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.2. Expenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3.2.1. In-person Event Expenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3.2.2. Remote Participation Expenses . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4. Project Presentations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4.1. Project Pitches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4.2. Results Summaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4.2.1. Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4.3. Upload to GitHub . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
4.4. Presenting in Person . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
4.5. Presenting Remotely . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
5. Tooling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
5.1. Datatracker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
5.2. IETF Website . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
5.2.1. Hackathon Webpage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
5.2.2. Meeting Webpage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
5.3. Registration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
5.3.1. Participant List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
5.3.2. Caps on Registrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
5.4. Meeting Wiki . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
5.4.1. Hackathon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
5.4.2. Lost and Found . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
5.4.3. Results Presentation Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
5.4.4. In Person Only . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
5.4.5. Online Only . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
5.5. Mailing List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
5.5.1. Hackathon Chairs Email Alias . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
5.6. GitHub . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
5.7. Meetecho . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
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5.8. Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
5.8.1. Remote Networking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
5.9. Webex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
5.10. Gather . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
6. Statistics and Metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
6.1. IETF Survey Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
6.2. Hackathon Survey Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
7. Roles and Responsibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
7.1. Hackathon Chair(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
7.2. Secretariat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
7.3. Sponsor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
7.4. Champions of Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
7.5. IETF LLC, Director of Communications and Operations (was
ISOC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
7.6. Judges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
8. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
8.1. Privacy Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
9. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
1. Introduction
IETF Hackathons encourage the IETF community to collaborate on
running code related to existing and evolving Internet standards.
IETF Hackathons aim to:
* Advance the pace and relevance of IETF standards activities by
bringing the speed and collaborative spirit of open source
development into the IETF
* Bring developers and young people into IETF and get them exposed
to and interested in the IETF
IETF Hackathons are free to attend and open to everyone. Software
developers are the primary audience, but participation by subject
matter experts who are not necessary developers is encouraged and
very important as well. Similarly, while the Hackathon is meant to
attract newcomers and those who do not typically view themselves as
standards people, long time IETF contributors, including Internet-
Draft authors, working group chairs, and subject matter experts, are
key participants as well. Group dynamics and blending of skillsets
and perspectives are extremely valuable aspects of IETF Hackathons.
In addition to the running code created and improved as a result of
each Hackathon, the exchange or ideas, extensions of human networks,
and establishment of trust, respect, and friendships are some of the
most valuable outputs of each Hackathon. Code written in a
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programming language can be more illustrative and less
confrontational than opinions expressed during a meeting or in an
email. Working together to find common understanding of proposals,
concerns, and solutions that result in improvements to evolving
Internet standards is as important as the development of running code
that implements or validates the correctness of these same proposals.
Consequently, IETF Hackathons are collaborative events, not
competitions. Any competitiveness among participants is friendly and
in the spirit of advancing the pace and relevance of new and evolving
Internet standards.
This document provides a set of practices for running IETF
Hackathons.
2. Timing
The first IETF Hackathon was held the weekend before the start of the
IETF 92 meeting. The rationale was to avoid conflicts yet make it
relatively convenient for those attending the IETF meeting to
participate in the Hackathon as well. Holding the Hackathon on the
weekend was also viewed as making it more accessible to non IETF
meeting participants, including students and working professionals
who would have other commitments during the week. The weekend before
was viewed as better than the weekend after so that things learned
during the Hackathon could be shared and discussed with the rest of
the IETF community during working group sessions and the like. This
worked well at IETF 92, was repeated at IETF 93, and quickly became
an established norm with the IETF meeting being officially extended
to include the Hackathon at the start. An additional benefit of this
timing noted and appreciated by participants is that it serves as a
more informal and social way to physically and mentally acclimate to
changes in time zones, surroundings, and subject matter.
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2.1. Agenda
The IETF Hackathon is a strenuous event. Though not a competition,
participants want to make the most of their time together, much as
with the IETF meeting in general. Competitive Hackathons typically
run non-stop for on the order of 40 hours. There is a strict
deadline and teams are judged and winners declared at the end.
Afterward everyone is wiped out and heads off to briefly celebrate or
commiserate, but mainly to recuperate. As the IETF Hackathon serves
as the start of the overall IETF meeting, we aim to strike a
compromise that provides enjoy time to get valuable work accomplished
without exhausting themselves before the main IETF meeting even
starts. While some people participate in the Hackathon only, the
majority of people remain and plan to be actively engaged in the rest
of the IETF meeting.
The typical agenda is as follows:
Saturday before IETF meeting week
08:30: Room open for setup by project champions
09:00: Room open for all - Pastries and coffee provided
09:30: Hackathon kickoff
09:45: Form Teams
12:30: Lunch provided
15:30: Afternoon break - Snacks provided
19:00: Dinner provided
22:00: Room closes
Sunday before IETF meeting week
08:30: Room opens - Pastries and coffee provided
12:30: Lunch provided
13:30: Hacking stops, prepare brief presentation of project
14:00: Project presentations to other participants
15:45: Closing remarks and opportunities for next time
16:00: Hackathon ends
17:00: Tear down complete
The time on Saturday morning provides team champions time to setup
and participants time to socialize and learn more about projects and
team they might want to join. The kickoff presentation and
formalities are kept to minimum to leave as much time as possible for
team to work together with their team on their projects. The
proximity of teams to each other fosters communication and
collaboration across teams as well.
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Lunch and dinner are provided as a convenience and an incentive to
remain at the Hackathon. Participants are free to come and go as
they like. It is well understood and accepted that there are other
things vying for time and that meeting with friends or colleagues
outside of the Hackathon is an entirely reasonable thing to do.
The room closes Saturday evening to give hotel staff unfettered
access to the room and to encourage people to pace and take care of
themselves. There are no rules against continuing work on Hackathon
projects outside of the Hackathon room. Similarly, working on
projects long before and after the Hackathon is allowed and
encouraged.
The end of the Hackathon on Sunday is driven by other IETF meeting
events. There typically are Newcomer events that start at 16:00.
The IETF Hackathon typically includes many newcomers in its list of
participants. It is important to provide them time to participate in
the Newcomer events. The opening reception typically start at 17:00,
and we want to make it easy for all Hackathon participants to join
that as well.
Hackdemo Happy Hour (ref) and the Code Lounge (ref) exist to
facilitate ongoing discussion and work on projects beyond the
official end of the Hackathon weekend.
2.2. Hackdemo Happy Hour
Hackdemo Happy Hour provides an opportunity for more in depth sharing
and discussion than is possible within the time constraints of the
result presentation that occur at the end of the Hackathon. This
opportunity is made available to all teams. As with the results
presentation, participation is optional.
Initially, we did something similar as part of Bits and Bites. This
worked well for the Hackathon but the Bits and Bites event was
eventually abandoned for other reasons. Hackdemo Happy Hour was
created as a low cost, informal event to provide a venue for the IETF
community to engage with the Hackathon teams in more in depth
discussions related to their projects.
Hackdemo Happy Hour is typically Monday evening, roughly from 18:00 -
19:30, often overlapping a bit with the last working group session of
the day but continuing long enough to allow everyone an opportunity
to join. The goal is to make it convenient to attend by not
conflicting with other meetings but also no running too late into the
night.
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Light snacks and non alcoholic beverages are provided, and a cash bar
is available to align with the spirit of a happy hour.
2.3. Code Lounge
The Code Lounge provides space for groups to gather and continue to
collaborate on running code after the Hackathon. It is typically in
the IETF Lounge and open the same hours as the IETF Lounge.
Champions are encouraged to look at the final agenda and determine
time slots best suited to ensure successful attendance of Code Lounge
sessions as well as any traditional working group sessions. It is
okay for multiple teams to sign up for the same time slots. This is
in fact encouraged for work that spans multiple working groups or
projects.
2.4. Code Sprint
Some efforts were made to have the Hackathon and the Code Sprint work
together or potentially be combined into a single event focusing on
the development of IETF protocols and IETF internal tools. There is
some concern that the events currently compete for resources. There
is also a great deal of synergistic potential. Several Hackathon
projects, such as those related to YANG model validation, involve the
creation or modification of IETF tools.
The Code Sprint existed long before the Hackathon and has its own
identity and way of doing things. The Code Sprint organizers are
against combining the events and potentially losing this identity the
benefits of a customized event. The practice that exists today is to
locate the events physically close to each other to facilitate
switching back and forth between the two events.
2.5. Online Only
The IETF 107 Hackathon was originally scheduled to be the weekend at
the start of the IETF meeting in Vancouver. When COVID-19 hit and it
became clear the IETF meeting could not occur in person, the
Hackathon already had 23 projects and 176 registrations. With only
10 days until the anticipated start of the Hackathon, a survey
(https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-9HLRXN8M7/) went out to the
Hackathon community, including all project champions and registered
participants, to see if they wanted to participate in the Hackathon
exactly as planned except with everyone participating remotely rather
than in person. A relatively small number of people expressed
interest in participating, with even fewer wanting to continue to
champion their projects. The fact that the Hackathon was planned for
the weekend before the IETF meeting and in the local time zone, both
of which were historically very convenient and attractive to
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Hackathon participants, suddenly became huge obstacles.
Consequently, the IETF 107 Hackathon was cancelled.
We knew more in advance that IETF 108 would be an online only
meeting. We moved and expanded the schedule to run the entire work
week before the rest of the IETF meeting. The Hackathon kickoff was
set for Monday, the closing for Friday, with all the time in between
left for individual project teams to arrange to meet how and when was
most convenient for them. The kickoff and closing sessions were
schedule to align with the time frame established for the IETF 108
meeting. All of this was, of course, not ideal, and it worked much
better for some people than for others, but at least everyone knew
the plan and corresponding time commitment well in advance and had
the ability to plan accordingly.
We ultimately had 19 projects and almost 300 registrations. It is
hard to say how many people actually participated and for how long,
but many projects were able to get substantial work done. For the
closing, 10 teams produced and shared presentations summarizing their
findings and achievements. All presentations as well as the agenda
and a recording of the closing session are available via the IETF 108
Hackathon wiki (https://trac.ietf.org/trac/ietf/meeting/
wiki/108hackathon). This level of participation was strong enough to
be considered a success and justify including the Hackathon in future
online only IETF meetings.
Hackdemo Happy Hour and the Code Lounge are not applicable for online
only Hackathons.
3. Funding
The Hackathon requires funding, and that funding increases with the
number of participants. Participating has always been free;
therefore, funding from other sources than participant fees is
required.
3.1. Sponsorship
The initial funding model was to have Hackathon sponsors sign up to
sponsor and fund the Hackathon for one year. As part of starting the
Hackathon, Cisco volunteered to sponsor and fund the Hackathon for
its first year (i.e., three Hackathons, one at each IETF meeting
during a calendar year). This sponsorship was to rotate. Huawei
volunteered to sponsor the second year of the Hackathon. After the
second year, a sponsor for the 3rd year was not found. However, the
Hackathon had become a proven success. Consequently, the IETF
decided to fund the Hackathon as part of the IETF meeting, with
Hackathon sponsorship being on a best effort basis.
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Online only Hackathons in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and
increased remote participating in general, result in increased cloud
infrastructure requirements that make Hackathon sponsorship more
attractive to cloud infrastructure providers.
Hackathon sponsorship is available at different levels as part of
being an IETF Running Code Sponsor (https://www.ietf.org/about/
support/#running-code).
3.2. Expenses
The primary expenses associated with the Hackathon are those for
hosting an in-person event, e.g., meeting space, food and beverage,
etc. It is often challenging to quantify the portion of this
associated with the Hackathon from that incurred for the IETF meeting
overall.
3.2.1. In-person Event Expenses
The following expenses are associated with in-person participation in
a Hackathon. When the IETF meeting is online only, these expenses
are eliminated.
3.2.1.1. Meeting Space
The meeting space for the Hackathon is sometimes included as part of
the overall contract for the IETF meeting. Other times, additional
expense is incurred to secure a large enough space earlier than would
otherwise have been required. Typically, the space is needed for
setup from Friday afternoon before the start of the IETF meeting
until Sunday afternoon. After the Hackathon, the space is typically
repurposed for the IETF Lounge. If the size of the Hackathon
continues to increase, it might be necessary to use the same space as
is later used for the IETF plenary.
3.2.1.2. Food and Beverage
Some portion of the food and beverage expense is often included as
part of a minimum spend the IETF is obligated to make. When a
Hackathon sponsor is identified, funds resulting from this
sponsorship are typically used to offset food and beverage expenses,
or to increase the food and beverage budget.
The minimum food and beverage for the Hackathon has been,
* coffee, tea, and water Saturday and Sunday morning
* lunch Saturday and Sunday
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Additional items, in order of importance, include,
* beer Saturday evening
* dinner Saturday evening
* continental breakfast Saturday and Sunday
* afternoon snacks Saturday and Sunday
3.2.1.3. T-shirts
Hackathon t-shirts are an important part of the Hackathon. They have
been provided for all in-person Hackathons and greatly appreciated by
many participants. The also serve as great advertising for the IETF,
the Hackathon, and sponsors. Cisco or other event sponsors have
often covered expenses associated with t-shirts. The current model
is that the secretariat covers the expenses using whatever funding is
available.
The number of size distribution of t-shirts for IETF 107 is provided
here as an example.
* 380 t-shirts at a cost of roughly $10 USD / t-shirt with shipping
to the Secretariat included
- 50 Small
- 120 Medium
- 110 Large
- 75 XL
- 25 XXL
The t-shirts are all standard cut. We previously tried providing
fitted cut t-shirts as an option for Hackathon participants, but
these were not well received.
3.2.1.4. Stickers
Laptop stickers are popular with developers. Stickers have been made
available at the Hackathon for those that want them. Expenses have
been covered by the IETF LLC, Director of Communications and
Operations.
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3.2.2. Remote Participation Expenses
The following expenses are associated things done primarily to
facilitate remote participation in a Hackathon. This includes
participation when the Hackathon is online only as well as remote
participation when the Hackathon is in-person.
* Meetecho: cost associated with Hackathon kickoff and closing
* Gather: costs associated with premium service, required to enable
more than 25 concurrent users. This has not been necessary, but
will almost certainly be if Gather becomes a valuable way for
Hackathon participants to meet within and across teams.
* Webex: IETF Webex accounts are made available to champions for the
duration of the Hackathon and some period beyond that encompasses
at least the rest of the IETF meeting. These accounts are
available at no additional cost to the IETF at present
* Network: setup and support of the IETF network, and remote access
to it
The change in timing and extended duration of the Hackathon at an
online only IETF meeting increases the duration and use of remote
participation facilities from 7 days to 12 days. This may result in
increases to the cost of providing these facilities.
4. Project Presentations
Project presentations are an important mechanism for capturing what
each team intends to accomplish, what they actually accomplished, and
sharing the results and findings with the IETF community.
For the first few Hackathons, we had two very distinct types of
presentations,
1. Presentation that served as project pitches at the start of the
Hackathon
2. Presentations that summarize results at the end of the Hackathon.
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4.1. Project Pitches
The project pitches were 5-10 minute presentations by a champion of a
project describing what they wanted to do and how they proposed to
accomplish it. This gave everyone in the room a better understanding
of all the projects and helped participants match themselves with
appropriate projects. This worked well when we had a small number of
projects, but it became unwieldy as the number of projects increased.
As knowledge of the Hackathon grew and advanced planning became more
common, many participants knew exactly which team they planned to
join and wanted to get to work as quickly as possible rather than
spend a couple hours listening to presentations. Project pitches
were dropped from the Hackathon. Champions are encouraged to share
this type of information in advance via the Meeting Wiki
(Section 5.4) instead.
4.2. Results Summaries
The results summaries are brief presentation by each team of what
problem they tried to solve, what they achieved, and highlights that
include lessons learned, feedback to associated working groups, and
collaboration with open source communities and other standards
organizations. They also highlight individuals who are participating
in their first IETF Hackathon or first IETF event to facilitate their
introduction into the IETF community. The production and
presentation of results summaries is optional. Fortunately, despite
the lack of awards and prizes, most teams participate.
As with the project pitches, results summaries can become unwieldy as
the number of projects increases. With this in mind, the total time
for all results summaries is limited to 2 hours. The maximum
duration of each presentation is calculated based on the number teams
that have indicated the desire to present. This maximum is strictly
enforced to ensure all teams have the opportunity to present their
results. Maximum durations of 3-5 minutes are typical.
4.2.1. Templates
Project results presentation templates provides guidance on what to
cover. The use of these templates is optional. They are made
available in various in various formats in a GitHub repo created
specifically for the presentations for each IETF Hackathon, e.g.,
https://github.com/ietf-hackathon/ietf110-project-presentations
(https://github.com/ietf-hackathon/ietf110-project-presentations).
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4.2.1.1. PPTX
For portability, presentations that use this template should be made
exported into PDF format as well.
4.2.1.2. HTML format
This template should render within any browser. It can be rendered
as a slideshow using remark (https://github.com/gnab/remark).
4.3. Upload to GitHub
All presentation are uploaded to the GitHub repo created the
Hackathon, e.g., https://github.com/ietf-hackathon/ietf110-project-
presentations (https://github.com/ietf-hackathon/ietf110-project-
presentations). The contents of this repo are used as the source for
all project presentations at the end of the Hackathon and remain as a
reference after the Hackathon.
One must be a member of the IETF-Hackathon GitHub org to upload a new
presentation or update/replace an existing presentation.
To be added as a member, presenters are asked to
* include the name by which they are known in their GitHub profile
* enable two factor authentication (2FA)
* send your GitHub user name to the Chair(s)
Presenters are asked to do this at their earliest convenience as the
Chair(s) typically get very busy as the start of presentations
approaches.
4.4. Presenting in Person
Presentations are run from a shared ChromeBook at the front of the
Hackathon room. This Chromebook is provided by the Secretariat.
4.5. Presenting Remotely
Remote presenters are welcome to run their own presentations using
the screen sharing functionality in Meetecho. Alternatively, the
Hackathon Chairs can share the presentation and advance slides for
the presenter.
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5. Tooling
The IETF Hackathon uses the same tooling used by the IETF community
for its work and meetings.
5.1. Datatracker
The datatracker (https://datatracker.ietf.org/) supports the notion
of Teams that are not a part of the standards development process.
The Hackathon exists as one such Team. From the datatracker menu,
navigate to "Other" -> "Active Teams" -> "Hackathon". Here exists a
datatracker space for the Hackathon similar to what is available for
working groups, including meeting materials, agendas, etc.
Initially, there was some attempt to copy materials hosted in GitHub
(https://github.com/ietf-hackathon) to the datatracker. Now this is
done only when required for integration with other IETF tooling,
including:
* requesting sessions (https://datatracker.ietf.org/secr/sreq/) for
the Hackathon kickoff and closing, and for Hackdemo Happy Hour
* posting agendas (https://datatracker.ietf.org/meeting/agenda/)
5.2. IETF Website
5.2.1. Hackathon Webpage
The IETF website includes a dedicated page for the Hackathon webpage
(https://www.ietf.org/how/runningcode/hackathons/). This page
contains information about the Hackathon in general as well as links
to past, present, and future Hackathons. The relevant links are
updated after each IETF meeting. Other content on the page is
updated on a more ad hoc basis.
5.2.2. Meeting Webpage
Each IETF meeting webpage (https://www.ietf.org/how/meetings/)
contains information about the corresponding Hackathon, including the
dates of the Hackathon in the header, a link to the Hackathon webpage
in the "Additional Events" section.
5.3. Registration
Registration for the Hackathon is through the IETF meeting
registration (https://registration.ietf.org) system. Participant
registration for the Hackathon is
* independent of participation registration for the meeting
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* free
* required
As with meeting registration, registrants for the Hackathon
acknowledge the Note Well (https://ietf.org/about/note-well/) during
the registration process.
5.3.1. Participant List
An active list of all registered participants, e.g.,
https://registration.ietf.org/110/participants/hackathon/
(https://registration.ietf.org/110/participants/hackathon/), is
maintained by the Secretariat. Important information displayed for
each registrant includes the set of projects and technologies in
which each participant is interested and an email address. This
information is optional at the time of registration and may be
updated or removed by editing one's registration.
5.3.2. Caps on Registrations
Registrations were capped for the first several Hackathons. This was
done both for space and costs considerations. The cap was hit
multiple times, each time resulting in temporary confusion and
frustration among would be registrants, followed by the cap being
increased. Currently, there are no caps enforced by the registration
system.
5.4. Meeting Wiki
The meeting wiki serves as the primary source of information for each
Hackathon.
5.4.1. Hackathon
A page within the meeting wiki, e.g.,
https://trac.ietf.org/trac/ietf/meeting/wiki/110hackathon
(https://trac.ietf.org/trac/ietf/meeting/wiki/110hackathon), is
created by the Secretariat for each Hackathon and initialized with
information that is based largely on the information from the
previous Hackathon. Once created, the Hackathon Chairs update and
moderate this page. Champions are requested and responsible for
adding information about projects for which they are a champion.
Anyone can edit the wiki by logging in using their datatracker login
credentials. Credentials can be obtained by requesting
(https://datatracker.ietf.org/accounts/create/) a new datatracker
account.
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5.4.2. Lost and Found
A Lost and Found wiki page, e.g.,
https://trac.ietf.org/trac/ietf/meeting/wiki/110hackathon/lost&found
(https://trac.ietf.org/trac/ietf/meeting/wiki/110hackathon/
lost&found), is created by the Chairs for each Hackathon.
Participants looking for a team are encouraged to add themselves to
the "Skills to Offer" table, providing some information about their
skills and interests. This will help others with matching needs and/
or interests find them. Champions wanting help on their projects are
encouraged to add their teams to the "Skills Needed" table, providing
some information about the skills they seek.
5.4.3. Results Presentation Schedule
A Results Presentation Schedule wiki page, e.g.,
https://trac.ietf.org/trac/ietf/meeting/wiki/110hackathon/
resultspresentationschedule
(https://trac.ietf.org/trac/ietf/meeting/wiki/110hackathon/
resultspresentationschedule), is created by the Chairs for each
Hackathon. Hackathon teams are welcome and encouraged to present
their results during the Hackathon Closing. Hackathon teams add the
name of their project and the name of the presenter to the table at
the bottom of this page.
5.4.4. In Person Only
The following wiki pages are applicable for in-person Hackathons
only.
5.4.4.1. Hackdemo Happy Hour
A Hackdemo Happy Hour wiki page, e.g.,
https://trac.ietf.org/trac/ietf/meeting/wiki/106hackdemo
(https://trac.ietf.org/trac/ietf/meeting/wiki/106hackdemo), is
created by the Chairs for each Hackathon. Champions are welcome and
encouraged to add their project by entering the project name/acronym
and a contact name and email address in the table displayed on the
page.
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5.4.4.2. Code Lounge
A Code Lounge wiki page, e.g.,
https://trac.ietf.org/trac/ietf/meeting/wiki/106codelounge
(https://trac.ietf.org/trac/ietf/meeting/wiki/106codelounge), is
created by the Chairs for each Hackathon. Champions are welcome and
encouraged to add their project by entering the project name/acronym
and a contact name and email address in the table displayed on the
page.
5.4.5. Online Only
The following wiki pages are applicable for online Hackathons only.
5.4.5.1. Team Schedule
A Team Schedule wiki page, e.g.,
https://trac.ietf.org/trac/ietf/meeting/wiki/110hackathon/
teamschedule
(https://trac.ietf.org/trac/ietf/meeting/wiki/110hackathon/
teamschedule), is created by the Chairs for each online only
Hackathon. Online only Hackathons take place globally for an entire
week. It is up to individual project teams to determine the
preferred dates, times, and ways to meet to work on their project
within the context of that week (e.g., Zoom, Webex, Slack). This
page is meant to help facilitate coordination of schedules within and
across teams.
5.5. Mailing List
The Hackathon mail list, hacakthon@ietf.org
(https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/Hackathon), is used for all
email communication and announcement related to the Hackathon. All
registrants and given the option to subscribe to the list. Anyone
interested in staying up to date on the Hackathon is able to
subscribe at any time.
5.5.1. Hackathon Chairs Email Alias
The email alias hackathon-chairs@ietf.org (mailto:hackathon-
chairs@ietf.org) was created and is maintained by the Secretariat.
It is used on hackathons webpages and wiki pages to provide a single
point of contact for the Hackathon.
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5.6. GitHub
The IETF-Hackathon (https://github.com/ietf-hackathon) is used to
share code, presentations, and other artifacts at IETF Hackathons.
The Hackathon Chairs are responsible for administering the GitHub
org.
Code for Hackathon projects often exist elsewhere, which is perfectly
fine. Anyone needing a place to host code for the Hackathon can
request the creating of a repository for their project.
A repository is created and maintained by the Chairs for each
Hackathon, e.g., https://github.com/ietf-hackathon/ietf110-project-
presentations (https://github.com/ietf-hackathon/ietf110-project-
presentations). This repo is for participants to upload project
presentations. The contents of this repo are used as the source for
all project presentations at the end of the Hackathon and remain as a
reference after the Hackathon.
5.7. Meetecho
Meetecho (https://www.meetecho.com/) is used for the kickoff and
closing sessions of the Hackathon. This provides many capabilities,
including the following:
* allows participants to join Hackathon sessions in person or
remotely
* validate registration of participants at time of joining Hackathon
sessions
* enable remote presentations of project results
* capture recording of Hackathon sessions
5.8. Network
Access to the IETF network is an important aspect of the Hackathon.
The IETF network provides unfettered Internet access that is not
typical within many residential, corporate, and university
environments. For many of IETF participants and projects, access to
the Internet and each other via wireless access to the IETF network
is sufficient. However, due to the nature of the work done in the
IETF, wired access and special networking capabilities are often
required.
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The NOC has graciously met the needs of the Hackathon since its
inception and continues to add more capabilities over time.
Champions are able to request in advance wired access and special
networking functionality, including static IPv4 and IPv6 addresses,
IPv6 only networking, a closed user group, NAT64, and IPv6PD. All of
this, and the IETF network in general, is made available by the start
of the Hackathon and in advance for setup to the extent possible.
5.8.1. Remote Networking
Online only meetings present both a personal networking challenge and
a computer networking challenge. The NOC came to the rescue for the
latter with remote networking options to join the IETF network while
attending the meeting remotely. With a Raspberry Pi 2B, 3B, or 4B,
the NOC has a recipe that allow teams to be virtually connected to
the IETF network with all the previously mentioned options. This
remote networking capability is available for in-person and online
only Hackathons.
Virtual connectively to the IETF network remains generally available
between meetings. Individuals or project champions can request
access through the IETF Ticketing System
(https://tickets.meeting.ietf.org/newticket).
5.9. Webex
Champions can request a Webex account
(https://ietf.webex.com/webappng/sites/ietf/dashboard?siteurl=ietf)
they can use to schedule meetings for their team. These are similar
to the Webex accounts allocated to working group chairs to be used
for virtual interim meetings. An account can be requested by a team
champion at any time. Accounts remain active and available
throughout the duration of the Hackathon and the associated IETF
meeting. A project name may be used in place of "Working Group Name"
in the request form.
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5.10. Gather
Gather (https://gather.town/) facilitates virtual hallway interaction
during IETF meetings. A dedicated area within the overall space is
created by the Secretariat for the Hackathon. The area includes
tables, identified by letters of the alphabet, that teams are free to
self assign and use as and when they like. Eight to ten seats around
each table facilitate group discussions within the team. A
whiteboard or shared notes tablet (via CodiMD) at tables facilitates
sharing of information within the team. The tables also facilitate
collaboration across teams. One cautionary note, Gather has relative
high network bandwidth and CPU requirements, and as such may not be
well suited for some Hackathon participants.
The Gather space remains available between IETF meetings, with
incremental improvements and additions made during this time. The
space is cleaned about a month prior to the start of the next
meeting, removing anything left over from the previous meeting.
Hackathon teams are encouraged to make a copy of anything they want
to retain within a week of the end of the IETF meeting.
6. Statistics and Metrics
Statistics for the Hackathon have been gathered informally from the
first Hackathon, at IETF 92, and more formally since IETF 101.
Registration is required but it is also free, which can lead to
misleading statistics. Starting with IETF 101, an effort has been
made by the Secretariat to validate registrations for all in-person
participants by checking registrations at the main entrance to the
Hackathon room. Badges similar to those issued for the rest of the
IETF meeting are now issued for the Hackathon as well. There is
still no good mechanism for determining the number of remote
participants.
Hackathon participation has grown from 45 at IETF 92 to a maximum of
406 at IETF 104. Participation is tends to be slightly higher when
the IETF meeting is located in Europe. Recent in-person Hackathons
have had roughly 30-40% as many participants as the corresponding
IETF meeting. For roughly 20-30% of Hackathon participants, the
Hackathon is their first experience at any IETF event.
6.1. IETF Survey Results
For each IETF meeting, there is a post event survey that often
includes a question or two about the Hackathon, e.g., IETF 106 Survey
Results (https://www.ietf.org/media/documents/
IETF_106_Meeting_Survey.pdf).
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6.2. Hackathon Survey Results
Hackathon specific surveys have been used on some occasions to obtain
more detailed feedback about the Hackathon from the IETF community.
This has been especially useful for feedback on online only
Hackathons. Survey have been short with most questions being
optional, e.g., IETF 110 Hackathon Survey Results
(https://ql.tc/8K1JeZ).
7. Roles and Responsibilities
This section provides a summary of the roles and responsibilities of
individuals and groups involved in a successful IETF Hackathon. The
summary provided here is not meant to be exhaustive. Some
responsibilities are described entirely or in more detail throughout
the rest of the document.
7.1. Hackathon Chair(s)
The role of a Hackathon chair is similar to that of a working group
chair. As with working groups, it is typically best to have co-
chairs share responsibilities and workload. The Chairs work very
closely with the Secretariat on all responsibilities. Key
responsibilities include:
* Organize and deliver a Hackathon at each IETF meeting, soliciting
help from all other roles to do much of the heavy lifting
* Encourage and provide guidance to champions who volunteer to lead
projects
* Maintain the Hackathon wiki, e.g.,
https://trac.ietf.org/trac/ietf/meeting/wiki/110hackathon
(https://trac.ietf.org/trac/ietf/meeting/wiki/110hackathon), and
all of its child pages.
* Moderate hackathon@ietf.org (mailto:hackathon@ietf.org) email list
* Request sessions (https://datatracker.ietf.org/secr/sreq/) for the
Hackathon opening and closing in the IETF meeting
* Emcee the Hackathon, including the opening and closing sessions
and announcements in between
* Create and manage the GitHub repo used for each Hackathon, e.g.,
https://github.com/ietf-hackathon/ietf110-project-presentations
(https://github.com/ietf-hackathon/ietf110-project-presentations)
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* Serve as main point of contact for all Hackathon questions and
concerns
7.2. Secretariat
Key responsibilities include:
* Configure and manage Hackathon registration system
* Maintain Hackathon web page (https://www.ietf.org/how/runningcode/
hackathons/)
* Create and maintain web page for each Hackathon, e.g.,
https://www.ietf.org/how/runningcode/hackathons/110-hackathon/
(https://www.ietf.org/how/runningcode/hackathons/110-hackathon/)
* Create wiki page for each Hackathon, e.g.,
https://trac.ietf.org/trac/ietf/meeting/wiki/110hackathon
(https://trac.ietf.org/trac/ietf/meeting/wiki/110hackathon). This
is initialized and updated at times by the Secretariat, but the
Chair(s) are ultimately responsible for maintaining it.
* Handle venue logistics for Hackathon, Hackdemo Happy Hour, and
Code Lounge (e.g., reserve room, food and beverages, AV, etc.)
* Internal IETF promotion (e.g., email messages to IETF community)
* Assist with external outreach, as needed, including finding
sponsors
* Validate Hackathon registrations for in-person participants,
including issuing badges and participant t-shirts when available
7.3. Sponsor
Key responsibilities include:
* Provide some funding to help offset costs of Hackathon (either per
meeting or per year, depending on model)
* Optionally provide t-shirts or other giveaways
* Optionally provide support staff to assist with Hackathon
Key benefits include:
* Sponsor logo on Hackathon t-shirts
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* Sponsor logo on Hackathon signage
* Sponsor logo on Hackathon webpage and wiki
* Sponsor logo and call out in Hackathon kickoff and closing
presentation
* Sponsor logo and call out in IETF Plenary presentation
* Sponsor logo and call out in Hackathon recap on IETF blog
(https://www.ietf.org/blog/)
* Recognition in IETF community for helping the IETF Hackathon
remain free and open to everyone
7.4. Champions of Projects
Champions of projects are the key to a successful Hackathon. Key
responsibilities for champions include:
* Volunteer to lead a project at the Hackathon
* Serve as primary contact for the project
* Add and manage information on the Hackathon wiki for the project
* Promote the project to appropriate groups inside IETF and outside
as well
* Welcome and organize members of the team
* Provide focus, guidance, and leadership for the project
7.5. IETF LLC, Director of Communications and Operations (was ISOC)
Key responsibilities include:
* External promotion outside of IETF, including web search engine ad
words, social media posts, and listing on external event calendars
such as https://www.ripe.net/participate/meetings/calendar
(https://www.ripe.net/participate/meetings/calendar) and
https://nsrc.org/calendar/ (https://nsrc.org/calendar/).
* Outreach to local universities
* Provide photographer, including optional team photos and candid
photos of collaborating during in-person events
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* Laptop stickers (Section 3.2.1.4) at in-person events
7.6. Judges
The first several Hackathon involved judges who listened to summary
presentations by teams at the closing of each Hackathon and
identified winning teams for an arbitrary number of project
categories. Prizes were made available to members of winning teams.
This was done as an incentive to participate in the Hackathon and
present results, and to provide a fun yet informative end to the
Hackathon that could be appreciated by the entire IETF community.
Judging and awarding of prizes led to confusion regarding the nature
of the Hackathon, making it appear to some overly competitive.
Procurement of appropriate prizes was financially and logistically
challenging. Arrangement of judges, determination of winners, and
awarding of prizes all became more time consuming, especially as the
number of projects and participants grew. Ultimately, it was deemed
best to eliminate judging, awards, and prizes entirely. Apparently
the IETF community has an innate incentive to participate and present
results in the Hackathon.
8. Security Considerations
None.
8.1. Privacy Considerations
Participant names and email addresses are displayed publicly in the
Participant List (Section 5.3.1). Participants may opt-in or opt-out
of the display of their email address as part of their registration.
The email addresses of individual champions are often shared publicly
by the champions on the wiki. This is done voluntarily by individual
champions to make it easier for others to contact them.
9. IANA Considerations
This document has no IANA actions.
Acknowledgments
Michael Richardson and Benson Muite provided valuable contributions
to this document.
Author's Address
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Charles Eckel
Cisco Systems
Email: eckelcu@cisco.com
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