Sri Lankan Hackathon Scene - 4 Most Disruptive Open Hackathons in Sri Lanka

Posted by Unknown June 20, 2015

Sri Lankan Hackathon Scene - 4 Most Disruptive Open Hackathons in Sri Lanka

Image Source - http://www.claruscommerce.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/hackathon-graphic.png

For Sri Lankans, Marathon is not a new word, as wikipedia explain "A long-distance running race, strictly one of 26 miles 385 yards (42.195 km)." We have our own type variation of Marathon "ගම වටා දිවීම / Run around the village"during Sinhala and Tamil new year.

But Hack-a-thons was something new to us back in 2010s. But not anymore.

Quoting wikipedia, "A Hack-a-thon is a an event, typically lasting several days, in which a large number of people meet to engage in collaborative computer programming.". A Hackathon can last for more than 12 hours, 24, 36, 48 and 72. These are not just coding competitions but fun filled, networking events where you might find your company co founder or an investor for your idea.

The first time I ever head about a hackathon was back in 2012. At university a bunch of us wanted the rest of the students to learn Agile methodologies by getting some real stuff done. My good friend Randika Chandrapala said why don't we do a Hackathon? The rest of the bunch had never heard about this and he sent Linkedin Hackday video to educate us. Our 12 hour hackathon was called Scrum-agize. The most remembered Hackathon and that was the start of Hackathons for me.

Since then I've seen and been to many hackathons happening around Sri Lanka. Colombo is the epicenter of hackathons. Jaffna and Kandy notably is in the game. Hackathons can be of two types. 1. Internal hackathons by companies to improve their products or to add new features 2. Open hackathons where teams from different disciplines get together and create a product / service using various API's/ technologies.

Let's unfold 4 most disruptive open hackathons in Sri Lanka which is shaping Sri Lankan tech landscape and Hackathon Scene.

#1 - Code Ultimatum by Dialog Ideamart

Dialog Ideamart is a product by Dialog Axiata PLC which won the Best Technology Enabler title at 20th Global Mobile Awards 2015 in Spain because of their Ideamart Eco System (The platform, the community, the startups, the investors and the engagements).

Ideamart sponsor and partner for many hackathons around the country to generate more startups and to encourage innovation in Sri Lanka. Code Ultimatum is their main home grown Hackathon organized by a team of 5 people (The coolest tech team at Dialog as I call them). What's unique about this hackathon is that Ideamart makes sure the attendees use Ideamart API's mashed up with other APIs to create something unique and which will solve a local / global problem. This hackathon is an exercise to identify young Sri Lankan talent and provide them an opportunity to become next gen entrepreneurs. Prizes vary year by year and this hackathon is recommended for the teams who wants to get some Real stuff done and not forgetting to have a great time.

Code Ultimatum attracts, entrepreneurs, IT professionals from cooperates, university undergrads and tech enthusiasts.

They usually change the location of the hackathon. This year November only god knows where they will be hosting hackathon.

Image Courtesy - XtremeYouth.com. Taken at Code Ultimatum 2014 by Suhardha Prabash

Image Courtesy - XtremeYouth.com. Taken at Code Ultimatum 2014 by Randil Dimuth

#2 - WSO2Hackathon by WSO2 (#WhoGivesAHack)

Image Source - www.wso2hackathon.com

WSO2 is a Sri Lankan company and known for their ground breaking middleware product suits, Google looking office in Sri Lanka, free food and super cool designs

WSO2Hackathon is one of the coolest hackathons in Sri Lanka which WSO2 coins as Geek Party. In this hackathon use of middleware, cloud technology is mandatory. It either can be a WSO2 product or a different product. Initially started back in 2014 and recently concluded London Hackathon was based on Internet of Things / Device API's / M2M technologies. Sri Lankan hackathon is about 48 hours and the හැක්ඩ් participants will be revitalized with presentations by industry leaders, comedians, guest artists and singers. Geek Party figuratively ends with a DJ party while winners get some cool geek prizes.

Image Courtesy - ReadMe. Taken at WSO2Hcakthon by Ushan Gunasekara

#3 - TADHack Sri Lanka - Organized by Hsenid Mobile (#WhatTheHack)

Image Courtesy Hsenid Mobile

Hsenid Mobile is a Telco based platform development company originated in Sri Lanka which operates more than in 10 countries. The name of the company has a popular secret. Hsenid is the reverse of Dinesh. Mr. Dinesh is the CEO of Hsenid Group of companies and one of the thought leaders in the country.

Telco Application Developer Hackathon or TADHack is a Global Hackathon which happens in 11 countries covering northern and southern hemispheres. TADHack Sri Lanka is the largest of them all which this year attracted more than 500 applicants. TADHack Sri Lanka try to give a Sri Lankan traditional flavor to the hackathon since its inception in 2014. The picture above shows is a traditional dancer in Sri Lanka. TADHack Sri Lanka this year happened in two locations, Jaffna and Colombo.

Must mention, most of the superb entertaining acts are been done by Hsenid employees (They call themselves as Hsenid-ians).

Again this hackathon also attracts entrepreneurs, IT professionals and university undergrads.

The winners get a chance to pitch their ideas for Lankan Angel Network and get venture funding to take their idea further as a start up.

#4 Yarl Geek Challenge by Yarl IT Hub

Yarl IT Hub, these guys are on a mission. A mission to make Jaffna the next Silicon Valley. Yarl IT Hub is founded by a bunch of passionate individuals who were originally from Jaffna and who are IT professionals in different companies and notably a few from Silicon Valley. They maintain a start up incubator in Jaffna.

Yarlpanam / Jaffna is one of the fastest growing cities in Sri Lanka after 30 years of conflict. The talent pool we find there is immensely noteworthy.

Yarl Geek Challenge hackathon happens in two different categories. Junior category for school students and Senior category is the open category for all levels. Junior category is more like a competition but we get small kids talking about Mongo DB, NodeJS and NoSQL which is absolutely startling. Senior category attracts teams from all over Sri Lanka who would travel 10 - 12 hours from different parts of the country to hack at the peak of Sri Lanka.

End of this hackathon the team gets to pitch their Ideas to Lankan Angel Network investors and get funded to take their idea forward. The teams will be located at Jaffna Yarl IT Hub incubation center or Colombo Lankan Angel Network Incubation center.

Image Courtesy - ReadMe

Some of the other notable hackathons around Sri Lanka are, Spiralation Hackathon by ICTA, Colombo Java Script Hackathon by JS Meetup, Mora Hack by Dialog Ideamart, LAN Hack by Lankan Angel Network, Kandy Hackathon by University of Peradeniya, Hackanix by AIESEC Sri Lanka and Microsoft and Google IO Extended Hackathon by Google Developer Group.

Note -

It's great to see Sri Lanka has adapted a Global trend to rapidly develop product and services which really matters. What really important is that these winning products and services needs to be taken to market with a Go-To-Market strategy but not just letting those great ideas which solve real problem die down. We are slowly maturing in the start up scene but one day we will get to the top. By that time we essentially would need to have entrepreneurs who were born from these hackathons telling their success stories and revealing importance of such engagements.

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