[opensource-wg] hackathon discussion at RIPE 78 opensource-wg session

Hi Martin and Open Source WG,

On 11/01/2019 16:24, Martin Winter wrote:
> [back to WG-chair mode]
> We are “only” the chairs, trying to figuring out what’s best or most
> interesting to community.
> 
> So pushing this a bit back to the community:
> 
> Opinions? Should we host a round-table discussion on this? Or some other
> form of discussion?

Yes, I would be interested to have this discussion.

> Anyone wants to talk about good or bad experiences on a hackathon?

I can share my (personal) experiences with the IETF hackathons that have
been organised in the past four years.

For me and my colleagues at NLnet Labs, IETF hackathons were an
excellent opportunity to implement upcoming or new internet standards in
one of our projects.  The IETF hackathons bring software developers
together in a room where they can discuss issues, collaborate in a
project or carry out interop tests.  As an example for the DNS crowd at
the hackathons, we have worked on DNS privacy in various settings, with
DNS "vendors" (for example CZ.NIC, ISC, NLnet Labs and PowerDNS), the
software developers of Sinodun or individuals of different
organizations.  On the other hand, with the implementation of
DNS-over-HTTPS during the IETF hackathon in London last year, many
ambiguities in the internet draft were reported and clarifications were
sent to the authors.  A hackathon is therefore valuable for both sides:
making open source code of new standards available to the community; and
feedback to authors of internet drafts to improve their documents.

I have seen similar results from the TLS protocol and software
developers, in which the new TLS 1.3 specification was (partially)
implemented and tested with different applications.  The development of
QUIC libraries and applications using the libraries also profited
enormously from the hackathons: interop matrices were presented with
successes and failures, and as such helping the developers of the
various libraries.

The integrity of hackathons can be safeguarded by the organisers, I
think.  For example, by setting some rules and expectations for
participation (by a project) and participants.

Cheers,

-- Benno

-- 
Benno J. Overeinder
NLnet Labs
https://www.nlnetlabs.nl/