researchers page should be "problem owners"

[minillinim]

or something similar

[sauramaia]

here's what we sent researchers last year, probably a good start for content:

What to expect at a hackathon

• You are a the product and problem owner for the duration of this hackathon. You will be a central part of the team! You or another scientist quite familiar with the problem and data will need to be there for as much of the weekend as possible and reasonable. We do close overnight and encourage everyone to sleep and shower.
• We kick off Friday evening 6pm with drinks and food. After some brief intro speeches, you and all the other problem owners will be given a minute each to pitch your idea. Please describe the issue you'd like help with, how it affects your life, and how in solving this might make your life or the lives of others easier. You do not need slides, but if you think it will help you explain your problem, feel free to make one or two. If you have an idea of the kinds of skills necessary to solve this problem (data visualisation, web app, APIs), now would be a good time to bring it up. If you don't know what's needed don't worry, that's what this this is all about - bringing multiple skills to the table and figuring out how to solve problems together.
• After pitching, groups form centred on problems and problem owners. You will likely be asked a lot of questions by a lot of people, until everyone figures out what they want to work on. This is a good sign. The organisers will be on hand to help teams sort out useful groupings.
• Usually people want to get started on problems Friday evening, once they've sorted out teams and figured out what they're doing, so that might be bit of a late evening.
• The hackathon continues all day and evening Saturday, and until Sunday evening. Things wrap up sunday around 6-7pm: 4pm tools down, then judging & prizes etc.
• Dropping in and out on Saturday and Sunday is fine. It would be good if you could make yourself available to answer questions, explain what you need, test solutions, have a look at what's going on, guide the team on what's useful etc. That's especially true of the early parts of the hack. Whatever is reasonable for you is right - don't be afraid to say “I'm going home now and I'll be back at time X”.
• We'll need a writeup of the problem to put on the site ahead of time, including a 1-sentence summary and a 1-paragraph description. We are happy to provide as much help as possible with that. The earlier the better. You may need to clear that with your institution, including the marketing department. It would be great if you could include a sentence or two about the kind of real life applications your work might lead to.
• We will also need a bio of you, feel free to point us towards one online.
• If you are using your research data, please take care of any permissions to have it seen & used by someone outside your institute. We would like the opportunity to download large datasets ahead of time.
• We will be using NeCTAR infrastructure to host, process and display all work. Please provide your data ahead of time, and links to any datasets that might be useful over the weekend, so we can organise that.
• Do participants need access to any software packages, accounts or permissions to work on your problem? Could we set up generic accounts and download stuff before the weekend? That's much easier to do on a weekday. It's a good idea to try accessing all the data and software as if you were new to it, a few weeks ahead of time
• Be aware that any tools and software produced at the hack will be free and publicly available during and after the event.
• However, your data doesn't need to be released or seen if there are reasons to keep it private. Do consider whether you can make it publicly available (if it isn't already, of course). If you can't release your data, your team would have to think about how to manage that as part of the solution. Keep in mind that the tools will be displayed afterwards; what other data might be used that shows how they work? Can we help you create dummy data for display or use?

FAQs

But I have no idea what kind of problem I can bring! / My problems are different! / I have no idea what I'm doing!

Not to worry. Speak to one of the organisers. We can usually help tease out something small enough that a group of people can solve over a weekend, but large enough that it would make a difference. Even if you think this is weird, have a chat with an organiser and see what's possible.

I have lots of ideas! Can I bring them all to the hackathon?

You can certainly bring more than one! You can pitch several ideas and ask a group to choose one, or suggest two groups work on different ones. We suggest no more than two problems per problem owner. If you have lots of ideas, we suggest you bring another scientist to the weekend to act as problem owner for some of them.

Will there be food?

Yes! We will provide food, alcohol, and caffeinated and non-caffeinated beverages over the weekend. Each city will be doing things slightly differently, but you'll know ahead of time what to expect. We will be catering for vegetarians and those with lactose and gluten intolerances, please let us know when you register if there are other ways we can help look after you.

What if nobody wants works on my problem?

Sometimes it happens that an idea just doesn't get the attention it deserves, through no fault of anyone's - maybe there aren't the right skills in the room, or there is lots of interest in something else. In that case you are welcome to stay and participate - perhaps join another team and provide your expertise, or you are welcome to go home and have an unexpectedly free weekend.

What do I need to bring?

A laptop and enthusiasm. We'll have whiteboards, paper, sticky notes, sharpies etc. If you think of anything else that might be necessary, let us know as early as possible.

I have another question...

We are always happy to help.