Hackathon Organiser Awareness Dashboard

Abstract

There is little support available for organisers to keep an overview of the online hackathon they are running. Support for organisers of colocated hackathons is well-established in literature and practise,yet, it does not cater to the challenges posed by online hackathons. This study aims to determine how existing infrastructure can be used to provide overview of online hackathons to organisers. Specifically, it investigates what information is required to provide hackathon organisers with the overview, how to obtain this information and present it to hackathon organisers. In this context, we explore the concept of awareness from CSCW literature to develop a theoretical foundation for information required to provide an overview to hackathon organisers. We use raw chat data gathered from four hackathons to extract this information. We design a dashboard styled web application to present this information to hackathon organisers. To validate the relevance of information and to evaluate the usability of the dashboard. The participants were presented with scenarios that hackathon organisers can typically face in an online hackathon. Their interaction with the dashboard was recorded and we followed up with questions. The data collected from study was then analysed to validate the relevance of information presented and further identify means of improvement of our dashboard. Although participants approve of the overall dashboard design, improvements to the dashboard design are structured according to their importance. The results suggest that hackathon organisers find the information presented on the dashboard to be helpful in keeping an overview of the hackathon.