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The Coca-Cola Company offers $10K Prize to Re-Imagine the Soda Fountain

hackerdojo.com

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Re: The Coca-Cola Company offers $10K Prize to Re-Imagine the Soda Fountain

#11

Post by rollo_tommasi »

The Coca Cola Company pulled in nearly fifty billion dollars of revenue last year. They can afford to hire some industrial designers.

These kind of corporate hackathons are just scams designed to allow the company to take advantage of hundreds or thousands of hours of skilled labor in exchange for pocket lint. It's ultimately detrimental for everyone trying to make an actual living in the field.

Don't work on spec.

EDIT: You will also have to pay for using the 3D printer! Marvelous.

Re: The Coca-Cola Company offers $10K Prize to Re-Imagine the Soda Fountain

#14

Post by bluehat »

rollo_tommasi wrote: post #11

The Coca Cola Company pulled in nearly fifty billion dollars of revenue last year. They can afford to hire some industrial designers. These kind of corporate hackathons are just scams designed to allow the company to take advantage of hundreds or thousands of hours of skilled labor in exchange for pocket lint. It's ultimately detrimental for everyone trying to make an actual living in the field. Don't work on spec. E…

And yet nobody objects when Facebook runs a hackathon like this? Or is the food industry magically held to different standards than the tech industry?

Re: The Coca-Cola Company offers $10K Prize to Re-Imagine the Soda Fountain

#16

Post by bluehat »

rrhyne wrote: post #13

Saw a digital one in San Diego recently. It had a touch screen and allowed you to make your own flavors of lots of brands of soda. Vanilla coke, orange coke, vanilla sprite, peach Fanta, etc. The sodas it produced were predictably terrible.

Come make a better one then :p

Re: The Coca-Cola Company offers $10K Prize to Re-Imagine the Soda Fountain

#17

Post by bluehat »

untog wrote: post #6

It's interesting to see Coca-Cola embracing this- I attended a hackathon they organised with Spotify last year and had a great time. It's particularly pleasing to see that the terms of the prize are very upfront here- they will pay you $10k for your prototype and IP. You are free to walk away.

Yeah. We (Hacker Dojo) worked with them extensively on these terms, and we're really pleased how flexible and understanding they have been. It has been very impressive to see such a large company listen.

Re: The Coca-Cola Company offers $10K Prize to Re-Imagine the Soda Fountain

#18

Post by n3rdy »

gbaygon wrote: post #9
Tichy wrote: post #5

I'd design it like a Cobra to stress the fact that Soda is toxic... To each their own, but I like my hackathons to be about bettering the world.

"Everything is poison, there is poison in everything. Only the dose makes a thing not a poison." Overconsumption may be the problem, i treat soda like a candy and drink one glass once/twice a week.

Moderation is good. Wouldn't recommend drinking candy though.

Re: The Coca-Cola Company offers $10K Prize to Re-Imagine the Soda Fountain

#19

Post by Taylorious »

Tichy wrote: post #5

I'd design it like a Cobra to stress the fact that Soda is toxic... To each their own, but I like my hackathons to be about bettering the world.

Sweet delicious wonderful poison mmmm... I love Coke and other pops. I try to limit my intake though. I drink a lot of Yerba Mate tea too, and that supposedly has links to cancer (what doesn't these days). So I'm not going to worry too much about the health risks of pop.

10k is a pathetic prize though. Come on, I bet Coke spends more than that on dining out for their corporate leaders.

Re: The Coca-Cola Company offers $10K Prize to Re-Imagine the Soda Fountain

#20

Post by swang »

bluehat wrote: post #12
knodi wrote: post #10

10k is kind of a small prize for something like this.

Show me a weekend hackathon with half as big a prize pot.

Are those hackathons sponsored by one of the largest corporations in the world, one that is asking you to revolutionize a product for pennies on the dollar?

It is essentially a corporate takeover of the hackathon without understanding of it at all. Most sponsored hackathons are, "Hey write for our API, here is food and $2K and some t-shirts."

Coca-cola is just hitching on the whole notion of the hackathon, hoping someone is willing to work for cheap on something that can probably bring them a billion if it all works out.

Edit: I should probably note that its their event and they have the right to set the prizes, but man, $10K is low for something that can earn Coca-cola a lot of money.

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