OpenBSD: Hackathons

In June of 1999, OpenBSD held the first hackathon. In the months leading up to this, either Theo or Niels Provos had coined this new word hackathon. A bunch of developers from around the world congregated into a house in Calgary, and within the week had the first IPv6 and IPSEC stacks completely integrated into an operating system... an industry first... an accidental scrape in a hardwood floor commemorates the event.
In succeeding years, the OpenBSD development process has benefited greatly from holding more of these events. In our form, hackathons do not have talks, nor a specific schedule. People will arrive at a hackathon to work for a straight stretch of time on the projects they wish to, in the same room as the people who they need to talk to about their ideas. Hackathons are about writing code. At hackathons there is an attempt to get new changes into the source tree quickly. Since people from many different timezones are in the same room, development is almost around the clock. Developers sometimes joke about returning home without jet-lag.
Hackathon attendees come by invitation only. Some new people in the community who show promise are sometimes invited to see if they have what it takes. However, hackathons are not developer training events.
The event space and accommodation is typically funded by donations to the OpenBSD Project, or by the OpenBSD Foundation, however most developers pay for their own travel. The facilities are always chosen to be highly economical; generally near Universities or in cheaper locales. If anyone wants to help us FUND ONE OF THESE EVENTS OR A DEVELOPER'S TRAVEL, please contact Theo de Raadt (who generally has the most knowledge about upcoming options), or directly offer travel expenses to a developer for the next event. General financing is more interesting, but we will entertain offers for free locations as well.
Here are some details about past and future events, also showing a part of the artwork from the event T-shirt (if there was one made). The shirts are only given to people who attend the event, and are worn with pride. Every shirt contains at least one developer in-joke, so don't worry if you can't understand the shirt. Just enjoy them.