Approaching the Green Tech Hackathon

The Green Tech Hackathon takes place on 10-11 December 2024. We'll be:

• In person in Amsterdam (VolksHotel)
• Online
• Hybrid, in multiple Local Hubs (Greece, Ireland, Slovenia, UK, Serbia,…)

We already have 30 in-person participants and as many online - but we're still looking for a dozen more! Please apply:

Apply for the hackathon

Introduction webinar and closing show

For those who cannot dedicate two whole days to hacking together, we've added other possibilities:

• 3 December (Tuesday), 09:00 - 10:30 CET: Introductions and Inspirations webinar via Zoom
• 11 December (Wednesday) 17:00 - 21:00 CET in VolksHotel: Presentation of projects and a borrel*

In the Introduction Webinar, one week before the main event, we will have several guests to sparkle inspiration, a preparation talk about logistics, and extra time for discussions and getting to know each other.

At the end of the second day of the hackathon, when the results of the team projects are presented, we will open up the room to the wider audience — afterwards we'll all mingle together, share snacks and drinks, discuss possible follow-ups and create new connections.

Participation in this "borrel"* is open and free, but we do ask for registration, in order to better manage the quantity of food and drink, and to keep participants informed of any updates:

Register for the borrel

Potential projects

From the 60+ people who applied so far, we have received many exciting ideas and project proposals. Here are some of them:

• Develop best-practice documentation around tuning a Linux system for low power usage
• Code and documentation to run BIND with "ecofloc" for energy measurements
• Investigating permacomputing and degrowth approaches to Internet infrastructure
• Algorithm for real-time traffic flow adjustments to reduce energy consumption
• Solar powered e-paper sign post display
• Wikimedia based documentation in form of Wikidata, media pages, knowledge graph
• Contribute to “beyond carbon” IETF draft
• Decrease e-waste by building solar batteryless devices which rely on ambient energy for their operation and use hybrid supercapacitors for electricity storage

The nature of the hackathons makes it uncertain which exact topics will be chosen - it will be a combination of most interesting, most feasible and “mostly harmless” ;-)

In a way, hackathons are like unconferences: whoever joins; that's the right people. Whichever projects we will work on; they're the right projects.

If you're thinking of taking part but need inspiration, maybe look back at presentations from October's “Green Tech Open House”, where Mallory Knodel, Max Schulze, and Wim Vanderbauwhede gave wonderful talks about intersection of environmental sustainability and engineering. You can find the slides and recordings of videos here.

Continuity and communication

This hackathon is only one in a series of past, similar, and future events:

• The IETF has a similar hackathon three times a year! For example:
  • Last year in Prague: (Vesna’s IETF118 Report)
  • Next year in Madrid: https://www.ietf.org/meeting/123/
• The RIPE NCC is co-organising DNS Hackathon in March 2025
• You can read more about past events on labs.ripe.net/hackathons

While we are preparing for our event, there are more coming up in December:

• 3 December 2024: "1st International Workshop on Low Carbon Computing" (hybrid: online and in-person in Glasgow)
• 3-5 December 2024: Green IO Conference (Paris)
• 27-31 December: CCC / #38c3 with the Community Stages focusing on Green IT

To learn more about RIPE NCC hackathons, here are some resources:

• Video and slides of the presentation Vesna gave in 2023
• RIPE Labs article Hackathons Are Awesome from 2018
• Much more at GitHub repository: github.com/RIPE-Atlas-Community/Green-Tech

If you would like to stay in touch with like-minded people, you can join our mailing list, Forum, or wiki (with links to many more communities):

• hackathon-list@ripe.net
• https://forum.ripe.net
• https://wiki.techinc.nl/Sustainability