Organize a Hackasaurus Jam

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Task Navigation 

Preflight


Last minute prep for running the event
  1. Practice makes perfect. Practice your materials and facilitation. Get a friend or event volunteer to run through your materials with you.
     
  2. Make every attempt humanly possible to define the space as interactive.Break up the space as much as possible. Set up design centers or stations so people can easily move about within the event space.
     
  3. Gather Materials For group sessions and other brainstorming collaboration, here are some recommended supplies:
    1. Computers. If you don't have the means to provide computers, make sure participants know to bring their own and have an updated version of their browser installed!
    2. “Post-it” notes, in multiple colors and sizes 
    3. Flip-chart pads, with “Post-it” sticky backing if the budget permits 
    4. Colored markers and pens 
    5. Easels with clips to hold up flip-charts 
    6. Masking tape
    7. Print Badges and Cheatsheets - The Hacktivity Kit includes badges and a rubric for assessing your participants. It also contains some helpful cheatsheets for use at your hackjam. Download and print these resources.
       
  4. Complete the IT checklist - Download the IT Checklist as a PDF.

  5.  Create a video, screencast, or blog post detailing your practice session and post to the Task Discussion. What happened? How was your space set up? What was unexpected?

We know you were frustrated at least once during this IT check. Did you throw anything or did you just rant? Describe what made this hard, and comment on two of your peers posts.

Task Discussion


  • JeanAustinR said:

    Loads of photos during our Mozilla Summer Code Party events here http://www.flickr.com/photos/mozph/tags/mozparty/show/

    Enjoy!

    on Oct. 31, 2012, 9:59 p.m.

  • Jess Klein said:

    The practice session went well. We realized a few things.

    • We probably don't have enough laptops so we are now prepared for possible "peer coding"
    • We need to make sure all of the computers are charged in advance so we don't have to deal with power cord issues
    • Having the event in the common space is hard because there is soooo much light coming in from the windows. We are going to tape some posters to the windows to hopefully diffuse some light. This will help participants see their computer screens and the projections
    • Youth needed to practice facilitation- so we had them pair off and take turns one person pretended to be a "difficult" participant and the other acted as a facilitator who had to help them without touching the computer. It actually ended up being a lot of fun!
    on Feb. 17, 2012, 10:27 a.m.

    JeanAustinR said:

    Friends help friends learn how to make the web :-)

    Nice!

    on Oct. 31, 2012, 10:01 p.m. in reply to Jess Klein