2 month hackathon on a remote tropical island | Hacker News Reader

2 month hackathon on a remote tropical island

comehackwithus.com

52 pointsmopoke81 comments

Besides being at the top of HN, what sort of validation does this have as an actual viable event. I mean, can I get a tropical picture with some water, make a simple one page website, and just start harvesting your guys emails to?

I'm not trying to be overly negative, it just seems like there is sooo little information being given to be making the top of HN

Yeah, I wasn't expecting this. It's an idea that is in my head that I want to make a reality, but only if there is enough interest. I can promise you I won't do anything with those emails except keep you up to date on what happens next.

Now that it seems like there is enough interest, we can go to the next phase: figuring out wether it would be a paid thing or a sponsored thing. Opinions welcome...

You should offer more than just the trip. Preferably have some mentors/advisors available to the group. There is no point in spending thousands going to a tropical island to do exactly the same you can do at home, that's just spending money on a fake vacation.

That is exactly what we hope to achieve, but that all depends on how we shape this idea next..

Paying these mentors would bring up the cost though. Travelling to a remote island and renting a villa doesn't sound cheap to start with.

Yeah, well, that's where things get interesting. These villa's are pretty decently priced, for 500USD/person/month you have something very nice.

You need to go to cahuita costa rica. They have villas with wifi for crazy cheap (less than 25 a night), and a beach that is probably where that picture comes from. Plus if you want to recruit any ticos, intel and hp are some of the countries biggest employers. Consider it, message me if you want help, I've done business down there. http://www.google.com/search?q=cahuita&hl=en&client=...

I've been to cahuita. The chances are bigger that this will take place in Southeast Asia actually.

Who are you targeting? Are you targeting hackers and devs from Southeast Asia only?

If you are targeting developers from US or Canada, you are going to have issues with passports and all other travel complications like shots (vaccines), visa's etc. Unless, if you do it in Hawaii you will not have any of the above issues.

Great idea nonetheless. Good luck with everything.

in reply to csel: We're planning to do it in Southeast Asia indeed, and target people from worldwide. Many countries around here have very decent visa policies, and vaccinations are not that hard to get either.

I am in SE Asia at the moment (Chris Travers-- signed up on the site). If you need ideas regarding places let me know. I have contacts around, and there are great places like Lombok. The question becomes though how remote is remote.

There are nice islands near Padang, Sumatra too (and Padang is famous for its food). In terms of SE Asia, Indonesia and Malaysia both have lots of tropical islands, but there is always the Maldives and the Philippines too.

Remote is not in a village, but with decent internet (microwave FTW!) and an escape route for the weekends or off-days when you need them..

Again, feel free to email me. I will look around. Last time I was in Lombok the internet connections weren't so good, but that was 8 years ago, and I would expect that there are major improvements.

Would you be willing to provide just a general overview of your experiences in Costa Rica?

Any negatives or things you have to give up by being there? I've heard great things about it from several people.

Excuse me. That picture comes from Bidong Island, Malaysia. I know that because I took that picture during my last diving trip. We also have beautiful tropical islands in this part of the world :-)

If you are considering doing it in Vietnam (islands like Phu Quoc or Con Dao) then I may be able to help with logistics.

hey this sounds awesome, let us know how you progress with this idea! I'm starting a project involving developing a social media tool and have been learning coding lately. Doing this exclusively for 2 months in a collaborative environment sounds ideal.

I've done some tropical island hacking (solo) and it worked really well for me. The longest I did was 3 weeks on Koh Phi Phi in Thailand. I had a nice discrete problem: write Forth drivers for all the interesting hardware in a little ARM SoC. Blog at the time: http://goo.gl/V9qGx I can say that: Finding a place to sleep, entertainment (snorkel, scuba, etc), and food were all easy problems. Finding a place to work can be harder: power, internet, quiet, table/desk all in one place. (Maybe you need to borrow a house?) Three weeks was enough for me: then I wanted a dose of civilization and city life, hard though this was to imagine on day #1. Maybe it's different with more people.

Can you start simple, with just a few people and lasting until they get bored, and scale it up gradually perhaps?

We'll see. I did a three month thing like this, and was sad when it ended. That was all about the people we were with though, that made the world of difference. And we had time during the weekends to get away.

Have you consider Penang island, it is not really isolated or exotic, but we have beautiful beaches here, and when you need a dose of civilization, it is just within 30 minutes driving distance, there are quite a few big companies here like Dell, Intel, Motolora. Standard of living is cheap. The island been ranked by Yahoo! Travel as one of the "10 Islands to Explore Before You Die". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penang

Hope I didn't sound too much like a salesman already.

Penang is an option for sure.

Penang is definitely a good option. Though I haven't been there heard a ton of good things and it's just a stone's throw from the mainland. +1. Accommodation and food is relatively inexpensive in Malaysia.

Thanks for the +1. And I haven't mentioned the great food in Penang, Penang Laksa ranked 7th in the 50 most delicious foods in the world...http://www.cnngo.com/explorations/eat/worlds-50-most-delicio....

Also famous for housing the Hacker Monthly magazine headquarters :)

I've did this (alone) for a while. The things I discovered:

* Mosquitoes really, really suck the fun and productivity out of sitting on a tropical beach coding. * To a lesser extent, so does sunburn. * Finding somewhere comfortable to sit in shade is crucial, and harder than you'd think, and lying is out (appealing though it may be). * The ideal place to work was a beachside bar, without standing pools of water close by (attracting mosquitoes), that was quiet, serving coffee and wifi. Often hard to find, though. * Lack of wifi was sometimes a plus, provided it was never too far away. It's easier to focus on coding without Internet access.

In the end, my favorite tropical location to write code in was Singapore. The beach is overrated :)

Wow. You guys made the news here in the UK.

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-19018930

12 weeks on a remote tropical island, luxurious villa, 12 geniuses... a cook and housekeeper.. airfare.. time away from current projects... that sounds like a pretty hefty price tag per genius if it's a paid event. I think you may have trouble finding hackers to sign up when the reality sets in. I'd recommend you get to work finding serious sponsors because right now it sounds like a nice dream. Good luck good sir.

Thanks. We are fully aware it might be too expensive for people to cough up all the dough. Preliminary research show that a house for 12 people doesn't have to cost more then 500USD/person/month though. With a bit of smart marketing it should be possible to find some people interested to sponsor this..

I was thinking it'd be just like a startup incubator but instead of getting paid $20k for 5 to 10% you get to go here and get paid $10k

I want to try to stay away from the incubator model. Find a way to get there, hack, go home with good memories.

Sad. OpenBSD popularized the term hackathon, but OS developers aren't invited...

_everyone_ is invited, as long as you can make it clear that you won't be slacking off, and you are a nice person :)

Just sign up and include your expertise in the "additional info" box. We just wanted to quickly put up a simple form. If you can hack something, you can join ;-)

What's the catch? Equity? Price? There isn't such a thing as a free lunch.

We're looking into either getting the whole thing sponsored or charging a fee that will cover cost. Our target is not to make a profit, it is to have a great time working with inspiring people.

What's your selection algorithm?

It will be partly personal interviews, partly skills. In my previous experiences with communal living i have learned that even the most skilled people can be a total pain in the butt to live with. I wanna avoid that at all cost :)

I'm looking forward to it :)

Is this only for singles and those who are willing to be apart from spouses for 2 months? I'd love to go to some remote location to work for few months, but I need to take my better half with me.

If he/she can make themselves useful, you're welcome to sign up both of you. But rest assured that competition for this will be tough, so it might not be easy. Just that it's not excluded from being an option, that's all :)

Hey, I'm also trying to hire coders to work on a remote tropical island [1], although for a little longer term than you. Where is this located? I can recommend some places in the Seychelles if you haven't yet decided on a spot :)

[1] http://www.reddit.com/r/jobbit/comments/x2x1w/hiring_mobile_...

Most likely it will be in the Phillipines, but right now that is just a first idea..

How about Pitcairn Island? You can't get much more remote. Two months fits in fairly well with the supply ship coming and going for transport to/from the island. 12 people would increase the local population by almost 25%!

My startup is based in PH. Email me if you need help with anything.

Thanks, will do!

My company is based in the Philippines. I won't be applying but I'd love to take you and the crew out if you're laid over in Manila for any stretch of time.

Thanks for the invite. We might come to PH to explore our options soon...

You thinking Boracay/Palawan?

Got to admit, the Philippines is a good shout. Is another place on my shortlist for an island hack-a-thon.

While I love the food there (Especially sisig!), you can't beat Thai cuisine.

You spelled "hackathon" wrong in the title.

EDIT: unless it's meant to convey that you "hack a ton" but I'm really not so sure...

ouch! Correcting asap :)

EDIT: if only I could get a hold of the guy who has the logo source..

That's a really obvious thing. Did you guys proofread? It's the little slips that make people doubt an organization i.e. "if they missed this tiny detail, then how will they perform on the big things?"

I don't mean to be a jerk. Best of luck with your event and everything, but if you're going to plan a 12 week hack vacation for people, then details matter.

Agreed, and it's pretty dumb. Then again, we weren't aiming for big exposure like this. Also, both of the people involved in this are not native English speakers, can I put that up for a valid excuse? :P

That's what happens when you design a site at 4am in the morning. But otherwise, we have performed on big things here before so no worries. already corrected the typo :-)

If you're still unable to get a hold of the source, maybe this would help: http://i.imgur.com/u2nVg.png

I just moved around the pixels in the .png. Working off the native file would probably produce a nicer result.

Cheers!

It's fixed already, together with a few other small changes

Fixed

Due to the level of publicity around this, a crowd-funded approach could be pretty successful. Backers could also help vote on project ideas etc.

What is the goal, to have everyone hack on a single project? or just provide a space for people to work on their own stuff?

All in all a very cool idea, hope you can make it happen!

I'm actually very intrigued, I just booked a flight to Indonesia to spent a month or so hacking / designing for myself in Bali, but doing this with others sounds like a much better plan. Any details on the schedule yet?

Great to see the interest. If anyone is interested in hacking and joining a start up incubator on MAUI, please sign up here. http://www.startupmaui.com

Similar concept here but for a business model instead of a hackathon: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4306223

Sounds like a great idea. What is your timeline?

Most likely we'll aim for late 2012, early 2013. Depends on how things develop from here..

Besides being excessive, why?

There was an article on HN not too long ago about the merits of having the startups office in Hawaii.

Something about the beaches... and team building. :)

Yup. If anyone is interested in hacking and joining a start up incubator on MAUI, please sign up here. Trying to nail down dates. More details soon. http://www.startupmaui.com

I think you mean this one:

http://blog.simplehoney.com/how-to-build-a-startup-from-a-be...

I was looking for it as well :)

Well, I decided to organise this because I have loads of experience in location independent living and communal living. I have experienced how great it is when you are in a place that makes you feel good, surrounded by people that are smart and motivating. In a luxurious villa on a tropical island, there is no distraction. By having a cook and housekeepers as well, you really don't have to worry about anything but getting shit done :)

This all sounds amazing, but why only 12 people?

Because finding a bigger house is not easy :)

That's cool, I'll bring my own tent.

Given your experience, what locations do you have in mind?

Looking at Phillipines for now, but any SEA country is in the running. Might end up in Bali or Thailand, who knows..

How is the Internet there?

Since 'there' isn't defined yet, I don't know yet. But rest assured that it will be one of the primary things we base our choice for a house on..

Who is going to take care of my day job..another idea #fail!

or you should grow a pair, quit and follow your dreams ;)

By the way guys, there's nothing set in stone yet. We're trying to put together an awesome event for all of us to benefit. Please send in your ideas/suggestions :-)

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