Innovation and Competition in St. Louis

I read Walter L. Metcalfe Jr.'s editorial this morning in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. In his editorial, he calls on St. Louis to start a new competition similar to the one that brought us the Gateway Arch to spur collaboration and innovation. While reading this article, I couldn't help but think of hackathons.

Hackathons are generally time-limited competitions in which technology specialists work to create prototype solutions to problems. Sometimes these problems are business-oriented, but quite often the problems are civic focused. These competitions require teams of people to work together to solve the problem.

My company Clearent and the University of Missouri - St. Louis are partnering for a competition in the same spirit as Mr. Metcalfe is calling for, but on a smaller scale. We are sponsoring a hackathon called HackEdu. This is an inaugural event in which we are going to bring together educators, technology specialists, and business people to solve some of the most pressing challenges in education using cutting edge technologies. HackEdu has several goals in mind.

First and foremost, we want to introduce many different constituent groups to each other, and help them learn how to collaborate together effectively. Quite often we see divisions between educators, business people, and technologists. This division limits innovation, especially in the education sector. Within the context of the HackEdu, we want to help these different groups learn how to work together effectively.

Another goal of this event is to teach participants how to to function in a hackathon. Many participants in a hackathon don't have the tools necessary to implement a process that helps them effectively achieve their goals. During the HackEdu event, we plan to introduce participants to a methodology that Clearent uses to develop software. Our process focuses on business value, features, and functions. This approach allows us to break down business goals into smaller features and ultimately individual functions that allow us to incrementally release software that provides value quickly.

The obvious goal of the HackEdu event is to solve a problem related to education. A specific problem will be announced at the event, but it will focus on an educational need that could benefit from a technology-oriented solution.

Because much of the HackEdu event is directed toward teaching people how to collaborate and create functional solutions, we are offering the winners of the HackEdu tickets to Globalhack VI. Globalhack is an annual hackathon where numerous teams come together to solve a civic-oriented problem. Our hope is to prepare people to effectively compete in the Globalhack event this year.

I believe that the HackEdu competition and the Globalhack event are preparing people in St. Louis to participate in a competition like the one Mr. Metcalfe describes in his editorial. If nothing else, I think we are building the skills necessary to continue to build the St. Louis area as a colloborative, innovative community!