Would you refuse a hackathon prize where companies hijacked it?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29844807

by cookiengineer • 5 years ago

8 6 5 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Dear fellow HN citizens,

A friend of mine and me were taking part in a Hackathon that was lasting 48 hours. The theme was "open source" and we had to implement all products from scratch, as instructed by the organizers.

Later, we found out that multiple companies have hijacked this Hackathon and were selling their established products and even legal company entities as an idea that was supposedly created during that time frame. They even had company websites where the exact same product was marketed years before the Hackathon.

None of those "commercial" participants interacted with anyone on the Hackathon, and were just there with single members to pitch their established products and businesses.

We won the 3rd place, but said companies got the 1st and 2nd place. So, our question is now an ethical one:

Would you accept the prize money?

If yes, do you have suggestions what kind of Open Source project to sponsor with it? (We don't want to keep the money)

From our perspective we feel like an obligatory winner, and we think that this was very unfair to all other (non-commercial) participants of the Hackathon that were putting much work and faith into the spirit of the competition.

jka2• 5 years ago

Unless you have good reason to see any malice: assume there is none, because it'll be less stressful, and you're less likely to get into embarrassing self-defeating arguments.

The incentives make sense for commercial companies to participate to gain exposure, and the organizers probably don't mind if it boosts their attendance (although it can, as you've observed, reduce the sense of authenticity for some participants - even award-winners like yourselves).

Choosing a project to sponsor with the winnings is a tricky question. What kind of properties would you look for in an honest, enabling open source project? (disclaimer / notice: I both work in the area of open source software, and have a (free and) open source project, and I wouldn't make any request for your money in either of those contexts -- I'm not indirectly fishing for anything)

For some reason your comment made me think of the film "They Live" (very tongue-in-cheek) which you might enjoy, if you haven't seen it already.

jka2• 5 years ago

(to clarify a little further in the context of that small FOSS project: at the moment the paperwork overhead alone related to accepting funds would likely not be worth it, on balance, from a quality of life / bureaucracy perspective; so not only would I not request funding in that setting at the moment, I'd have to decide not to accept it, regardless of absence of any strings/suggestions for project direction attached => so perhaps donating the funds to an established, capable charity that is proving valuable to the wellbeing of others could be a good idea)

SwSwinger• 5 years ago

If you were the only party to win in the spirit of the competition, you should be the first person to accept the prize money. Why would you let the unethical companies get even more prize money from a hijacked idea? Also, if you make an ethical stand too early, you lose the ability for the Hackathon to publicly list you as a winner and give you a platform for reform. That publicity will create a situation where other individuals reach out to you proactively and you can tell your perspective as a winner.

smabie• 5 years ago

Whether it's fair or not, money is money and I'd accept it. Rejecting it harms no one but yourself.

speedgoose• 5 years ago

Accepting money that goes against your values can feel bad.

If someone ask me to do money laundering, I wouldn’t accept.

seism• 5 years ago

It's all up to you and your team-mates to decide what the "right thing" to do is here, but thanks for bringing your concerns to the village square. I'm sure that you're not the only one with doubts on this topic. Some contests are hard to take at face value, and it's unfortunate - but just - that opaque incentives and unclear conditions are giving hackathons a bad rep. A great way to fight back to this would be to take your winnings, donate them to causes that you feel are wholeheartedly backing grassroots efforts to support Open Source development. Then share your story, and keep up the good hacking!

Would you refuse a hackathon prize where companies hijacked it?

Related Stories