Sociologists Examine Hackathons and See Exploitation

> To the tech industry and its imitators, these are normal ideas. To a sociologist, they’re exploitative. “From my perspective, they’re doing unpaid work for corporations,” Zukin says. (Even hackathons thrown by schools, non-profits, publishers, and civic organizations tend to have corporate sponsors.)

Later

> The irony is that, regardless of whether hackathon participants willingly participate in self-exploitation or are simply having fun and learning, they rarely produce useful innovations that last beyond the event’s 36 hours. Startup lore has plenty of tales of successful companies that were created at hackathons—a popular example is GroupMe, the messaging app created at a TechCrunch hackathon, which sold to Skype for $85 million one year later. But such examples are rare. “Hacks are hacks, not startups,” Swift wrote in a blog post. “Most hackers don’t want to work on their hackathon project after the hackathon ends.”

I don't understand how it can be both exploitation and not create anything useful. Maybe they're used as a recruiting tool?

> Hackathons are not particularly effective as recruiting strategies for large companies, either, the study finds. But they sell the dream of self-improvement via technology, something companies want to be associated with regardless of any immediate benefit to their bottom line. As symbols of innovation, they’re not likely to go anywhere anytime soon.

So hackathons are corporate exploitation where the corporation gets no benefit. Maybe some people just enjoy getting together with other like-minded people and working on a project with a limited time commitment. Why does everything have to be viewed through a corporate exploitation lens?

What's new? The world has been co-opting low confidence, naivety, and passionate goodwill for unpaid internships, unpaid overtime, and free work - since the dawn of hunting. "Thanks for feeding the town Mike - here's a new gun we crowdfunded (10% of the meat profits) - keep up your fascination with firearms!"

Some people don't care if they are being taken advantage of, if they are having fun somehow. They don't consider it their problem. But in true fashion, they are devaluing themselves and screwing over their peers - all because they are too naive to see that all work has a value when someone else is the headcrab selling it.

I can just see lumbergh coming over to some interns "workspace" since there aren't even cubes anymore and saying yah...I'm going to need you to attend this hackathon this weekend...it'll...ummm...be unpaid but.... you....yay...ummm... it'll be good for your career...

https://blog.jostle.me/blog/how-not-to-manage-like-bill-lumb...

Not all hackathons are the same. Some are run by the participants themselves and go during the day. Is it possible for one to exploit one's own self?