EDINA ran an completely online hackathon between 5 – 12 December 2012 under the auspices of the Will's World project.

The event was well-attended and at the end prizes were awarded to participants in several categories.

EDINA would like to thank our esteemed judges for their time, their insightful input and fairness. They reviewed all the hacks carefully which took a little bit more time than planned. So apologies to all of you who had to wait for an extra 20 minutes for the results to be announced!

The judges were:

• Sarah Ellis from the Royal Shakespeare Company
• Erin Maguire from Culture Hack Scotland
• Mahendra Mahey from UKOLN DevCSI

Best Set Up

The best set-up prize was judged on the photos submitted by our participant of their hack environments and can be seen by following the Pinterest link at the end of this article. The winner is Neil Mayo for his unusual sun umbrella over his work desk, and his festive mulled wine in his Will’s World Online Hack mug in the photo of his home setup.

The judges also liked Owen’s family friendly set-up and were envious of Kate’s double screens. All agreed that the cat would have won if it had been eligible!

The best set-up prize was for £50 Amazon voucher and a RSC Shakespeare goodie bag.

The Best Presentation

The best presentation went to Kate Ho and Tom Salyers for their second screen app. The judges agreed that it was very clear and well explained. Although the video was recorded ahead, as Kate was unable to attend the meeting, Tom was able to add comments on the fly which was very helpful. The judges also liked Owen’s presentation which they thought was the best of the live presentations.

The best presentation prize was for £100 Amazon voucher and a RSC Shakespeare goodie bag to share by the team.

The Best Shakespeare Hack

The best Shakespeare hack was decided on the best used of Shakespeare resources and in the spirit of one the suggested theme by the RSC of “How can Shakespeare be past, present and future?”. In that respect, Richard Wincewicz‘s “Shakespeare through the ages” timeline application was the best fit. The RSC noted the great potential of this app for story telling and our judges like the clean and clear display.

The best Shakespeare hack prize was for £100 Amazon voucher and a RSC Shakespeare goodie bag.

The Best Open Hack

The best open hack was judged on the spirit of open sources and open data. Owen Stephens was clearly ahead of the competition in this category with his sterling dissemination efforts for his “ShakespearePress” on Twitter, in his blog and with demonstrator applications on his website and code on github.

The best open hack prize was for £250 Amazon voucher and a RSC Shakespeare goodie bag.

The Best Overall hack

This was a tight battle with some very serious contenders in our nine amazing hacks but the judges chose Kate Ho's and Tom Salyers’s second screen app “The Play’s the thing” for the innovative idea, it’s wide potential of use and the advanced level of the prototype application. Some of our judges related fully to Kate’s experience of the Taming of Shrew and could see the appeal of her app straight away! You can view the presentation of this hack on YouTube.

The best overall prize was £500 Amazon voucher and a RSC Shakespeare goodie bag to share by the team.

And more…

The judges wanted to mention Richard Light‘s Linked Data hack as having a very strong potential too, especially for further development based on the linked data produced. They also liked Owen Stephens‘s Shakespeare press very much for the use of the data and use of the popular WordPress technology.

Is it the end?

Not quite! We have invited all the participants to write a blog post to describe their hack; in the mean time check the current hacks page on our wiki for more information. We will soon be posting a summary of our experience of this hack and of your feedback too.

Will's World Blog
Will's World Hack Pinterest page