Running an ethical Hackathon

Call them what you will. There is certainly a debate about what they should be called. Codeathon, Hackathon, Coding Event, Collaboration Party, Edit-a-thon (for wikipedia projects), Hack Battle, Coding Competition, App Challenge (perhaps just "Challenge"), Unconference, Appathon. There is some evidence to suggest that the most common term "Hackathon" is a more attractive to male participants. So the name does matter.

Despite this, I am inclined to continue calling the events Hackathons. I think it is because I remain attached to the original meaning of the word "Hacker". Which I use to mean here:

A person who practices hacking. Hacking is the process of solving hard problems in clever ways, especially with elegant avoidance of central problems and with some delight in ignoring bad rules.

It is this last bit, the willingness to ignore bad rules. There are people that deserve to be called "Crackers" who ignore ethical or legal rules, while they specifically seek to harm other people. The problem is that "cleverness" and "badness" are in the eye of the beholder.

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