> The idea behind them is great and does not have many of the downsides indicated: just get together and work on things that require more 'bandwidth' than e-mail or IRC or sub-projects where you can quickly progress when tackling it with a couple of other people. Besides that, it's a good occasion to meet fellow project members, have a barbecue, and talk all night.
That kind of meeting is more generally referred to as a sprint, isn't it?
Depends on which genesis of the word 'hackathon' you prefer.
OpenBSD and Sun both did 'hackathons' in June 1999, OpenBSD's more of the high-bandwidth collaboration type, Sun's more of the 'promote our APIs' sorts.
That kind of meeting is more generally referred to as a sprint, isn't it?