Opinion
How to compete in the Digital JAM 2.0 24hr Sports Hackathon/Code Sprint
Goal: A Sports Hackathon/Code Sprint that will presumably use 24 hours to create some awesome apps to help solve some problems and fill some gaps in the Jamaican Sports Industry.
When: The 24hr Hackathon takes place on Thursday, June 28th, 2012, the first of the 3 day Digital JAM 2.0 event at the Jamaica Conference Centre.
Benefit to You: There’s nothing like a hackathon/code sprint to help you demonstrate your coding prowess and design talent especially if you don’t mind not getting much sleep.
It’s an opportunity to participate in an event that really brings your local developer community together: you’ll meet fellow developers and designers, see what they’re up to, and show what you can do.
Added to that the Jamaican Sports Industry is screaming for some app solutions why not give it to them.
For Who: Students, self taught and professional designers and developers, business/marketing heads who are new or experienced to participating in a Hackathon/Code Sprint. Ages 13-35.
Registration Deadline: You can register to participate in the 24hr Sports hackathon online. Deadline is June 21st, 2012.
Why the Sports Theme?
Jamaica, which has been dubbed the Sprint Factory of the World, is known globally for the excellence of our sports men and women. We have the oldest and most known high school sports championship in the world. And yet, most of the sports sectors ( school programs, meets, events) operate with high levels of inefficiency, word-of-mouth communications and at times informality.
There is a tremendous socio-economic development opportunity to improve and enhance the many of the sporting sectors, through the incorporation of technology into operations, as well as create new jobs youth seeking entrepreneurial opportunities in ICT.
Sample of problems across the sporting sectors:
– In most organizing bodies for the sport, there is no central database or record of athletes at various stages of development in education system
– Despite global appeal of sport personalities and brand Jamaica, no services or tools currently exist to “follow” favorite athletes or teams
– Despite Jamaica’s large Diaspora, whom most of which have strong connections to their respective high schools, there are no prominent services to facilitate financial contributions or accessing information updates on the programs of the schools
-Despite the articulated importance sports at a community level, there is no central repository or listing of the sporting activities in a particular community that an individual can access to get more involved.
The Digital JAM 2.0 needs you to code some apps solutions in 24hrs, do you have what it takes?
RULES
1. Attend a Tech Camp in your area to get details on the hackathon/code sprint- the problems, ideas, rules, prizes, the overall event, meet fellow coders and creatives and more.
Schedule of Tech Camps
Tech Camp Kingston Wed 9 May
Medallion Hall Hotel | 5pm-7pm
Tech Camp Mandeville Thu 10May
Mandeville Hotel | 3pm -5pm
Tech Camp Montego Bay Fri 11 May
MoBay Comm College | 1pm-3pm
2. Your Team size: 2-4 people and at least 50% must be Jamaican. We also encourage you to have at least one designer/digital artist on your team. Your app has to solve a problem, work well and look good.
3. Age Limits: The members of your team must be the age of 13-35.