In this guest post, startup visual designer Jordan Gillman of Jordesign calls for an end to corporate exploitation of the startup community. Is he right to be concerned? Do we need a Charter of Australian Hackathon Organisers maybe?
Last week I saw the announcement about the upcoming hackathon sponsored by the the Sydney Opera House, and posted on Facebook that the new wave of Hackathons are starting to look dangerously like ‘spec work‘. With revelations that the terms for the Sydney Opera House hackathon include signing over all intellectual property — this is looking increasingly like it is the case.
Where hackathons were once a very grassroots, community-run initiative — there has been in increase in the number of events being run by large corporations in search of their next innovative product. Often these events are mutually agreeable and serve more as a practical job application for people. Performing well at a hackathon is bound to get the attention of the organisers — and could lead to a lucrative contract — so long as you retain the copyright over the idea. In most events this is the case.
What is scary about the Sydney Opera House is that they are asking participants to sign over ALL intellectual property of what they create at the weekend, whether they win or loose. This means that for the cost of $4000 prize money, and a venue and some catering they could very well bypass the cost of a custom developed app — which would be a cost magnitudes higher.
It’s a great deal for the Sydney Opera House. Not such a great deal for the winning team — who see their idea whisked away from them for very little reward.
It reminds me spec work in the design industry – the request for contractors (usually designers) to produce work for free in the hope of winning business. Its often referred to as crowd-sourcing – although this tidy name hides the many downsides of the practice. Designers spend time and effort which is often unrewarded. And when they are — it is often for far less than a fair payment would otherwise be.
Thankfully this practice is in decline — and designers are more often being appreciated for the skill and experience they bring to the table.
We need to make sure this remains the same in the #StartupAUS community too.
What can we do to make sure corporations keep engaging with the startup community through hackathons — but in a way that is fair and equitable?
UPDATE: since this post originally appeared, the Sydney Opera House has revised the terms and conditions of the hackathon so that participants retain their intellectual property. However, the same terms also require participants to grant Sydney Opera House Trust a “non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, sub-licensable, royalty-free licence to develop, use and/or communicate any intellectual property rights”. So while the IP is still yours to keep, the SOH can use it free forever, and even sub-license it to other organisations, potentially for a fee, and you won’t get a peso. Hmm… – Ed.
What about it #startupaus? Do we need some sort of Code Of Hackathon Conduct? What should we include?