Facebook to reengineer the IPO with all-night hackathon
To prove that the “Hacker Way” is alive and well at Facebook, the social network will be hosting an all-night, employee hackathon at its Menlo Park campus and satellite offices.
The event, dubbed Hackathon 31, is especially significant for the social network as it comes on the eve of its initial public offering and is meant to reinforce the mantra that, while its public listing is important, Facebook’s focus will always be on building and shipping products, a source familiar with the event told VentureBeat.
Facebook’s 31st hackathon starts tonight around 7 p.m. Pacific on campus at the company’s “Hacker Square,” and will run up until the company rings the opening bell early Friday morning. All participants will receive a commemorative Hackathon 31 t-shirt — t-shirts are a traditional part of Facebook hackathons — and are only required to work on a project that is not their day job. The hackathon is also said to be inclusive of all Facebook staffers, not just the engineers.
