Helsinki Python Hackathon – a role model for future MariaDB hackathons!

One of the most fun and rewarding activities the past two-three months has been working with the participants in the Helsinki Python hackathon on MariaDB Vector. Robert already blogged about the outcome and the award winners. Let me reflect a bit more on the entire process, as it has inspired us to do more of the same: Scaling out from Finland to other hackathons.

The goal: MariaDB Vector contributions

Our goal was to solicit contributions related to MariaDB Vector, but we didn’t have precise ideas about exactly what type of contributions or how we should arrange the hackathon.

The partner: Helsinki Python Group

Anna noted that the Helsinki Python group (HelPy) is vibrant and Robert visited a meetup they arranged at Wolt. It seemed like a good match, and we got in touch with the HelPy team.

The setup: Small teams, two months, two tracks

After discussing with the HelPy team in a number of meetings and Discord chats, we concluded on the following setup:

The team size should be small, including individual contributors
The duration should be two months, with an initial ideation phase and pre-approval
The guidance over the project should consist of several follow-up Zoom meetings
The categories of contributions should be divided into two tracks: integration and innovation

Two months pass in no time

We blogged about the hackathon and the Helsinki Python meetup shared the plans. How many submissions would we get? The deadline for the ideation phase was approaching, and one day before, we had just one submission. Deadlines are what makes us programmers work, so we got seven timely idea submissions – two in the Integration, five in the innovation track. Five by individuals, two by teams. Every single one of the submitters were enthusiastic and brilliant people to work with, from ideation approval all the way to the award ceremony earlier this week.

The conclusions for the future

Also MariaDB plc got excited. They were excited enough to give us an extra Hackathon award budget, which we plan to use as follows:

We will continue to work with language specific user groups, but not limit ourselves to Python
We will look for vibrant meetups and groups across Europe, US, and elsewhere; for the Helsinki Python group, the only physical event was the award ceremony with the demos
We will keep the subdivision into integration (making MariaDB available to other tools and environments) and innovation (creating role model apps that showcase MariaDB functionality), and add the category of core contributions (new functionality in MariaDB Server)
We will work closely with AWS and use their Hackathon experience, including their core contribution specific AI agents
We will detail our wish lists in the three categories (integration, innovation, core) and raise the prizes to four digit monetary awards for the winners

Thank you to all our Hackathon stakeholders!

A number of thank yous are due:

Thank you Helsinki Python group for being excellent hosts and teaming us up with so many great contributors!
Thank you to the five teams for your great contributions, and all seven Hackathon participant teams for our fun and exciting meetings!
Thank you to MariaDB plc for increasing our Hackathon budget, enabling us to up the game with monetary awards next time!
Thank you to Amazon AWS for organising your own internal Hackathons and being willing to share your AI agent experiences (and soon the AI agents themselves?) with the rest of the MariaDB community!