You've seen a Facebook page, a tweet or simply had someone tell you; and you want to join a hackathon. Great. Hackathons are an excellent place to learn more about technology, work together with a team under intense deadline pressure and maybe; just maybe win fame and fortune for yourself.
Once almost exclusively the tool of choice for open source projects that want to meet a specific feature based deadline, hackathons are now the social tool of choice for many organisations (both commercial and non-profit). Hackathons can be used as a recruiting tool; to provide publicity for a given cause or quite simply be the source of great ideas or implementations.
Win-win right? Even with all these advantages for everyone participating, hackathons require some preparation and care on both the organisers and participants parts. While a well conducted hackathon can indeed increase an organisation's exposure (both in the media as well as to new, exciting ideas); poorly arranged hackathons can negatively impact a brand a