Hack-A-Ton DC



The Hack-A-Ton DC is being held October 22–24, 2010 just outside Washington, D.C. in the United States. This is our first developer event on the East coast of the United States, and it's designed more of a hackathon/bugsmash than the Developers' Workshop in Berlin, which focuses on demonstrations and small group discussions.

On Bugzilla, a new keyword, bugsmash, has been added to tag bugs that should be looked at during the event.

Venue / Hotel
We will be meeting at the Embassy Suites in Tysons Corner (map), just outside of Washington, D.C. See Wikitravel's page for more information.


 * An overview of getting to DC, and getting around once there.

Transportation

 * The DC metro area is served by two international airports, Reagan (DCA) and Dulles (IAD); Baltimore (BWI) is about an hour north of the city, but can be substantially cheaper to fly into (there's a train you can take into the city for about $10)
 * The subway system in the DC area, called "The Metro" serves 5 colored lines as spokes through the center of the city. Metro connects you to DCA (use trains and busses from IAD and BWI). DC also has an extensive bus network.  Tysons Corner is not near a Metro stop.  You will need to take Metro's Orange Line out to Vienna (or West Falls Church?) and there might be carpools or shuttles (?) at designated times from there to the Hack-A-Ton venue. Or there is the bus or you can take a taxi (a little bit expensive).
 * Taxis can get expensive if you travel far, but are readily available throughout the city.

Emergency numbers
Emergency numbers work free of charge from any land line or cell phone.
 * Police / Ambulance / Fire: 911

Electricity, Internet, etc.

 * 120V at 60 Hz. People from Europe, etc: bring an adapter!
 * "NEMA" plugs, 5, see NEMA 5
 * Cell phone coverage is good pretty much everywhere in DC, except in the subways
 * Free wi-fi can be found at some coffee shops (any Starbucks, for example); you might have to look around though

Weather

 * October in DC tends tends to be mild, with temperatures in the mid 60s F (around 15–21 C); suggest bringing a jacket for night time
 * Forecast: BBC and Weather Channel

Money

 * DC is very card-friendly; Visa, MasterCard, American Express are all widely accepted
 * ATMs are everywhere

Q&A

 * When will we be gathering on Friday evening? When on Saturday? Where in the hotel?


 * Why Hack-A-Ton?
 * Well we plan to do a ton of hacking. Also, everybody has FooBar-thons, so we decided to be different.


 * How safe is the DC area?
 * DC is a pretty safe city. Of course, like most medium to large cities, there are parts of town you should avoid. But we're not going to be in those parts, so you shouldn't have to worry. The biggest concern in the DC area is panhandling.


 * What kinds of food are there?
 * DC is a medium-sized city, so there are plenty of food options for most people. Vegetarian cuisine is available as well.


 * Can we meet local Wikipedians?
 * Yes! There will be a special Wikipedia meetup on Saturday evening in DC (near Foggy Bottom Metro station), to get hackers and local DC area (and maybe out-of-towners) Wikipedians together. See w:Wikipedia:Meetup/DC_12 for details.

Participants
(This is an informal list for now, just to gauge interest) This has pretty much become the official list :)


 * Chad
 * JanPaul123
 * Reedy
 * Catrope
 * Aude
 * RobLa
 * Siebrand
 * Mglaser
 * Nikerabbit
 * BloodyViking
 * Does anybody know when we'll be starting Friday? If there is no plan, maybe we should each say when we're planning to show up, so others can plan accordingly.
 * Mark Bergsma
 * Tomasz Finc
 * Brandon Harris
 * Arthur Richards
 * Ryan Lane
 * Trevor Parscal
 * MZMcBride
 * ArielGlenn
 * Bryan (Friday evening - Sunday afternoon only)
 * Jeroen De Dauw
 * RussNelson Arriving 1:30PM Friday, leaving 1PM Sunday.

Maybe

 * Clarence
 * Dgennaro
 * Econterms (fluent in DC area; not as fluent in PHP & relevant tools but would like to learn)
 * Josh - Friend of Chad's
 * TheBlueWizard (Saturday only; would like to learn...)