Hackathon Retrospective

Sunday, 11th October

22:15

An sharing time on what has happened over the weekend, good points, bad points, achievements - without following a strict circle but sharing when we feel like sharing

Tais Real

what was great:

- new devs who enjoyed the project and atmosphere

- getting to meet Flo and Kristijian in real life after their remote contributions

- watching Nick's presentation

- mixing my Berlin friends and my yunity friends during the party

- Katia's sharing circles, her patience and motivation to cook

- the creativity and positive feedback that came out of the product talks

what gone done and was great:

- all the productive dev work on the 3 projects

- by preparing the Hackathon wiki space, setting up the basis of an "open tasks" list, that we realized we needed in yunity ages ago and never actually did

- trying out a new facilitation method, a dreaming meeting that I actually enjoyed. The fact that we didn't have the 3^rd one today doesn't frustrate me so much, because I'm satisfied enough with the basis we got yesterday, like laying down the path for many more of those, at future wuppdays for yuniteers to get involved in creative real life community ideas and in product specification (whether they know it or not!) or during the tours with emerging communities, to help them explore all the possibilities they have.

what was not so great:

- I got a bit stressed before the event. I don't usually get stressed but for that kind of thing I easily feel responsible for everything going smoothly. Maybe I got a bit impatient then. But then that was only for like 1,5 days and as soon as the event started I let the flow take over :)

-Janina and Tilmann not being here today without saying anything... so seeing that the Neuried lamasch-lazyness travelled intact to this productive space

-the period pain today, why I disappeared.
Otherwise I was on an energy high on Friday and Saturday, organizing, saving food, cooking, partying, cleaning. I was driven by the challenge of doing my best to enable people here to make something out of this Hackathon, and it was definitely a rewarded effort.

Katia:

Thanks Nick and Tais for organizing

Quite surprised that i was the only one who wanted the morning and evening circle. It's usually a big thing to share feelings in yunity and i would like to see this coming from everyone.

Very tired, i've been dreaming a lot. Wasn't sleeping a lot, because of what I heard and what I've been doing. Very good feeling.

I passed a quiz and I'm a foodsaver today! (cheering)

Really enjoyed Nick's presentation.

Did some translation. Could do some more, it was fun. Would advise translators to have native skills. I'd rather do it by myself because I realized that correcting takes more time.

Too bad i didn't participate in the global homepage, would like to participate to that in the future.

Got excited with Björn about lots of sharing events in Berlin, exercising what we're talking about.

Heard of Nerd Cafés on mondays and Hackers Lounge on Friday 5pm, if we were planning ahead next time that's good to know.

I hope we keep on going since many people are staying to Berlin. Possibility of going to Frei Raum?

Taïs: suggests keeping talks about what happens after the Hackhathon for the next round

Matthias: To Katia, about hacking spaces: it's good to send hackers to invite hackers.

Katia: sure, maybe we make a team? Like maybe not Nick who doesn't like social interaction, uuuh I mean...

Nick: oh no no I like real life interactions quite a lot actually, just not really this online inviting thing

Katia: Nerd Café on monday, i heard they're very active politically.

Nick Sellen:

Really happy with how it all went. Didn't put so much planning into it. Just... whatever. Nice having Philip doing stuff in advance, sending emails and stuff. I'm not well suited for communication stuff.

A bit anxious when it started, mixing two worlds for me: developers and yunity. Sure yunity started with devs focus but drifted off ; I really enjoyed drifting off with it but I still need a devs focus with it.

This was an experience with trying to bring in more devs work.

Felt a bit responsible about the space but not feeling anxious about it at all. Feel really relaxed. Alex from Co-up was super nice, so I feel very confident they'd enjoy what we've done and would be able to support us more. I like the idea of making this happen again, now that we know what it is, know a bit about the accommodation issue that I wanted nothing to do with.

A nice thing would be a floor level for sleeping, cause I've been increasingly zombie-like.

For me hackathon is not so much about hacking but human connection. This aspect was very nice. This Adrian guy just walking in and made loads of valuable contributions to foodsharing already. I like that: you just make yourself available, create space and right atmosphere and people just drop into the project. Getting developers to join is very nice cause I like talking to them.

I liked getting some help to get Paul realize his idea, even though I don't really understand his idea.

Philip Engelbutzeder:

To Nick, to the developers team.

Self-determination is a value we talk a lot about in yunity, today we discussed this a lot. So t's up to you what you program. I was very happy to see that you guys took the endeavor and met up and code! Instead of us trying to gather you at wuppdays and feed you and stuff. Also I like you all very much, to be around you. Paul, great day, great working with you again. Always clear, always good ideas, to imagine different perspectives. Would be really up to get going in the next days, next weeks. There's really not much that hinders us, we are all attracted by the same core.

Paul Free:

Just one question: when is the next hackathon?

I liked very much planning a revolution with help.

Interested to continue what we are doing.

Arno Döpper:

Really liked the faces of Nick and Matthias (and also the other ones...!), those two were enjoying their times very expressively.

Really enjoyed seeing the new devs only slightly weirded out, but seeing yunity as a good thing

That my good friend Manu had a good time here, felt good

Party at Tais was good fun

Seeing Tais half way in the dirtiest dumpster I have seen so far

Felt quite creative although having so little sleep

As always enjoyed the community spirit within the group

Was anxious at the start with cooking and cleaning, what are we doing here! But it's always nice to see how things work out always, and that it's not my responsibility.

Really had a great time here, and I always have a great time with you

Konrad Becker:

Really want to thank Nick Sellen and Flo Hoyer, now i really want to continue, work on my own or co-working with you. Yep, really enjoyed this weekend.

Matthias Larisch:

This is the hackathon with the highest non-coders ratio.

Maybe the WuppDays with the highest productivity.

Maybe the WuppDays with the least lamâsching.

Very short, maybe that's why: we needed to compromise and the way we think it's efficient.

Maybe a coder is more likely to join to a hackathon than a wuppdays - really enjoyed meeting new people.

Nick, Taïs, maybe Katia, Tilmann, Philipp organized everything. Super!

I had a feeling i was not interacting on a personal level with all of you. But I really enjoyed having all of you here, with every single one of you.

For me it was quite nice that I didn't have to take care of stuff like cooking, organizing, saving, etc

Tais Real:

A little reminder perhaps that I forgot... If you're here and you're not cooking nor saving food nor actively contributing to the project (most likely through code), then you're probably doing something wrong. I know how easy it is to get into the habit of letting others do it, because, well, they do it. But when you're part of the people who feel responsible for these things to happen (three meals a day for 20+ ppl), it really is a lot of work and help is always appreciated.

fr4nk 0nf1r3:

Been very active this week, now I feel very tired.

I'm looking forward to be home and think how it will go on. I feel like I'm on the right track.

I wasn't doing a lot during this hackathon; i wasn't pushing, doing more about cooking and things. I feel a bit burned out. In case people think I'm annoyed, I'm just on really low energy, but I really enjoyed being here and Berlin was a blast. Very happy with the situation but I feel like i could have a break. Thanks.

Tilmann:

Very interesting : on one hand I was very motivated to help the Hackathon. I knew it was quite a condensed event.

Since August I was traveling with groups and it was quite much, then the wuppbreak, afterwards i was pretty much out of energy. Then bike trip to Berlin, then had some energy again. But I didn't feel like putting so much energy into it, I could work more on the next weeks. Often I'm not so productive in a big group as if I'm in a room alone. I guess I have to alternate between these two things.

For the specifics: a very focussed weekend is nice to attract people, because they don't have so much time, especially developers. It's good we don't show all the stuff that yunity is doing, leave out lamâsching for now, maybe it's not so relevant. The main focus was foodsharing.de and that was really successful. The FSINT tool was also quite successful, seing Flo again and introducing Konrad to it, meeting Manuel and this other guy that came by. I'm not feeling alone anymore with the foodsaving tool.

I enjoyed feeling not so responsible for this event, sorry for the people who feel responsible.

(dishwasher sounds)

Matthias: I would really like to see a see-through dishwasher once.

Arno:

I really like how people are self-reflective here.

Like at the WuppBreak, everything worked so well, I dumpster dived once in two weeks. And here I was like: okay, this is a hackathon! Let's get this done! I also realized i hadn't really been working for a while, I'm very chill.

Janina Abels:

I also enjoyed this a lot, especially cause it was surprising that I could join.

Also why I was unprepared and didn't organize.

Also really enjoyed Matthias's face, especially when he said "this feels almost too productive for me" that's like a new world opened up to me!

Sorry about not joining today, I didn't want to disappoint people. Still figuring things out. Totally weird that WuppDays would only last for 2 days!

Zed Redstone:

Spent some time looking for bugs. Found a bug, which was good. Also found out that I hate web programming. It's why foodsharing.de needs help, there's a lot of that kind of stuff. Still would like to fix the bug.

The one thing that seems weird to me. I've been to hackathons before and people take it seriously, work through the first night. Different feeling here. Not sure that's a bad thing, but would like to call it differently next time.

If we get a lot of yunity people coming, should extend it a bit over a week or two, even informally. More work for the organizers, but if we're all here it means we want to keep on going.

Satisfied by foodsharing.de, impressed by getting running code on my phone in a day, is pretty good.

For a 2 days event, we had a lot of meetings where everybody's in a room. Maybe 20 hours of many people in a building and 3 of them in a sharing circle, retrospective or something. Not sure that's a bag thing, nobody seemed to be uncomfortable with it. If you mention it a little bit ahead of time...

Katia: But if you say "hey come to the Hackathon we hold hands and stuff" that wouldn't work.

Matthias: I feel like it's hard to feel uncomfortable with all this group stuff

Curtis: Like sharing a spoon with 20 people

Matthias: But you're never forced

Nick: If I do another presentation I can think of good pictures!

(laughs and more jokes)

Kiril:

I feel very good and glad to be here with you. You have a very warm and good atmosphere and that's something we should really give value to.

Also I want to tell a story. 3 months ago, at the beginning of my trip, first time i heard of foodsharing, in Macedonia this guy from Estonia told me about dumpster diving and foodsharing, I had no idea. Then looking for accommodation in Berlin I saw this same guy who lives in Macedonia here in Berlin, cause sometimes he lives here. Then I found Taïs for hosting and it's the best way it could have happened. Now I wrote him: now I'm with yunity... and he had no idea! So this time around I got to tell him all about foodsharing and yunity! Sending links and all that. He's also a developer, he's estonian. Maybe some time he comes and writes code for yunity! A few days ago I was outside, now already I'm inside!

About hackathon, for me it was a dream for a long time, because when I was starting engineer project in StPetersbourg, all the time I was dreaming of a team like that and about circumstances like that, when a team is working with passion and not for money. I see that it is possible and it works! I will try to share this feeling and make it happen. Good luck, I wish you the best with all you're doing! But you feel it, so what am I talking about.

Axel Kalitzki:

Short conclusion of my weekend: I spent 28hours on the toilet because of some kind of food poisoning. I ate some banana chips of 2011.

I have no kind of developing skills so I cannot contribute that much, but I enjoy my time here and I'm thankful for developers who do some great stuff here, also like cooking or searching for a permanent wuppspace, with the news from Jörg and the FreiRaum foundation.

Manu (written statement):

Meeting you people and getting to know some of you in conversations. The atmosphere is really impressive and i'm really happy that I spent the weekend with you

Being able to watch over the shoulder of the developers, i learned a lot (although i think i can't contribute to coding in the future due to lack of knowledge)

Taïs is my new dumpster diving idol

PLANS FOR THE FUTURE

Cleaning party after this, should be done quickly

Followed by lamâsching party at Taïs's

Arno suggests a quick round, when ppl are leaving etc

Arno: I'm staying in berlin for a week, busy socializing but with yunity halftime

Konrad: will stay a few more days, not sure where to sleep

Matthias: until Friday at Nick's place, I want to code, meeting Raphael and Martin on wednesday and Thursday, meet Sarah too

Tilmann: stay until I feel motivated to go with my bike again, not sure when, write some code

Franck: leaving wednesday morning

Kilir: leaving tomorrow morning

Nick: I live in Berlin, I have a room. I leave on the 18th. Want to help people who want to code and do the same. Maybe find some foodsharing ambassadors and talk to them. Also got some work to do. Busy but focussed.

Paul: stay some more. Would be nice to find some space to work again. Met that guy today who works on a project similar to Wupphouse, we will meet him tomorrow at 12pm - not sure. I want to go to Saasen but maybe Saasen is for after doing some stuff in Berlin. After that WuppDays in Witzenhausen, would be nicer with focus. Start planning ahead. Invite people for specified tasks.

Katia: live here, stay for the next 2 weeks, then Switzerland, then back. I'm very free with my time!

Taïs: stays here, not sure if I can accommodate many, have to talk to my flatmates. But we could have a couple of working days there. Maybe goes to Saasen around the 20th with my dad and sister, would be good to figure out if some yunity ppl are there - which would be a lot nicer.

Janina: stay here until Thursday, going to Bielefeld to organize moving, then moving here on the 22nd! Could imagine Marseille at the end of November. Also interested in Witzenhausen. And Valencia in January!

Luke: also need moving and also looking for a job!

Philip: whatever is happening, yunity is part of me, wherever we are going I am going! The only thing is I have a toothache and have to go see my dentist for a couple of days.

Axel: Tomorrow would visit the FreiRaum foundation building in Weissenfeld. Then Stuttgart and try to open a foodsharing café. Then Saasen for the other FreiRaum.

Curtis: stay in Berlin for a day or two then go to Saasen. Staying at Adreans, other people can stay there as well.

Now plans:

- WeissenSee Freiraum visit on Monday

- Agora in Neuköln to meet this wupphouse guy

- Saasen again somewhen

- WuppDays in Witzenhausen

Tilmann: yunity festival somewhen next year. We could just do something like the WuppBreak, invite more people, make it bigger. There are other possibilities like joining other festivals, e.g. self organized festival in the north of Berlin (HUMUS festival close to Alt-Tellin) - conversation to be continued, another time, another place

We will communicate about our short-term plans through the #hackathon-berlin slack channel