One-off events? An empirical study of hackathon code creation and reuse

Area of Science:

• Software Engineering
• Computer Science
• Information Systems

Background:

• Hackathons are collaborative events for software prototyping, but their code evolution remains understudied.
• Existing research primarily examines in-event activities, neglecting post-event code lifecycles.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the evolution of code created and used during hackathons.
• To quantify the reuse of hackathon-generated code (code blobs) in subsequent projects.
• To identify factors influencing the reuse of hackathon code.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of 22,183 hackathon projects from Devpost and associated code blobs from World of Code.
• Tracking code reuse by examining commits and projects containing hackathon-created code blobs.
• Surveys of hackathon participants and code reusers to understand reuse dynamics.

Main Results:

• 9.14% of code blobs and 8% of lines of code (LOC) in repositories originate from hackathons.
• Approximately one-third of hackathon-generated code is reused in other projects.
• Increased number of associated technologies and participants correlates with higher code reuse probability.

Conclusions:

• Hackathons can serve as significant sources of reusable code, contradicting the 'one-off' event perception.
• The study provides a foundation for further research into hackathon code evolution and impact.
• Findings highlight the potential for hackathons to contribute to longer-term software development ecosystems.