ANZDF Logistics Hack Awards

Greetings from the ANZDF Logistics joint hackathon awards. The judges thanked the 500 participants, 70 mentors (I was one of those), the Australian Computer Society who hosted the event, and the platform Slack.The awards were held using Zoom, which had also been used for the opening, and for several organizer meetings in between. This worked flawlessly for the awards, however, without an audience, or the winning teams, or the videos of what they did (for security reasons) the awards ceremony was a bit of an anti-climax. I suggest for this sort of event a little pomp is in order, perhaps music, envelopes opened, some trophies, and a few speeches thanking families. But at least it was short, at only 15 minutes. ;-)

Making a Better Hackerthon

At the moment I am in the post event meeting of Lead Mentors for the  joint hackathon to Secure Supply Chains for the Australian and NZ Defence Forces. The Slack communications tool used used for the event and worked well, but it has taken me about four such events to get used to it.  Here some suggestions I offered, which may be applicable to other hackerthons:

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  Innovation ACT Participants 2020

  
  The Innovation ACT competition have steps for the teams, with badges, to make sure they have done the basics. Some can be very simple things, like a tick for initially contacting your mentor: https://innovationact.org/iact19/participant-info/

Canberra start-up "OK RDY" have an app for connecting people with mentors. I mentored the project team when they won the Innovation ACT competition. There are a few products like this. Perhaps one could be used for the hackerthons. https://blog.highereducationwhisperer.com/search/label/OK%20RDY

It might be useful to also have a hurdle where mentors have to sign up to Slack in advance. The idea would be to filter out the people who are very clever, and important, but might not get around to actually participating. 

Coaches not lead mentors: Rather than having someone administratively in charge of a group of mentors, have people to provide advice. I took on the Coach role for GovHack 2017. https://blog.tomw.net.au/2017/07/toms-ten-tips-for-govhack.html

For team building, something like the ANU TechLauncher process could be used. Each person with a project idea gives a very brief pitch. Those interested then sign up. The organisers then check there are not too few or too many, and do some rearrangement. https://cs.anu.edu.au/TechLauncher/dates/team_formation/

ANZDF Logistics Hack: A Blizzard of Messages.

A joint hackathon to Secure Supply Chains for the Australian and NZ Defence Forces starts at 7pm (Canberra Time). I have volunteered to help, as a Lead Mentor, mentoring some of the mentors, who in turn provide advice to the participants). The Slack communications tool is being used for the event. This can be a little overwhelming, with a blizzard of messages. It can be easy to miss some important, in among lots of "hello I am...". This is something academics teaching online at university could useful experience, as it is similar to the bewildering flood of messages a student receives. The academic running a course may send out a message and wonder why students did not receive it. What they do not see are the other several hundred messages the student will receive from the university the same day.

Some of the pre-reading for the hack, may be of interest:

1. COVID-19 crisis, By Katherine Ziesing, Australian Defence Magazine, 5 April 2020
2. Covid-19 shows Australia needs a national sovereignty strategy, by David Fawcett, Australian Strategic Policy Institute,12 May 2020
3. Three Examples of a Supply Shock, Simplicable,6 February 2020
4. One hundred days of the coronavirus crisis, By Inga Ting and Alex Palmer, 4 May 2020

Hackathon Friday to Secure Supply Chains for the Australian and NZ Defence Forces

Senator Reynolds,
Australian Minister for Defence

Senator Linda Reynolds, the Australian Minister for Defence, announced today the Australian and New Zealand Defence Forces will host a joint hackathon to strengthen supply chains. This is to be run by the Australian Computer Society (ACS), starting this Friday. Australians and New Zealanders have been asked to contribute ideas to secure the logistics of our military, in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as recent bushfires, earthquakes and floods.

Participation can be as team members, mentors and partners. The event will be held over three days, with  the same hackerthon format as used for the Flatten the Curve hack in April. On day one teams are formed, day two they design and build, and on day three they refine and present their proposals, which are judged for prizes.

ps: I have volunteered to help, with my experience working at Australian Defence Force Headquarters in the 1990s, while President of the ACS, developing national policy online as part of what the media called the Internet "Cabal".