In late Septmber, Yahoo opened up its headquarters and businesses to a bunch of hackers from around the world. Yahoo charged the hackers with hacking Yahoo services and products over a 24 hour period. Moreover, the company plans to continue to do this going forward.
The overall winner, determined by a quick huddle of judges after the demos was a hardware/software combination device stashed inside a woman’s handbag. The handbag hackers were three women who came in for the event from New York — here is their website.
This story is interesting in that it confirms the importance of corporations looking for creativity influences from the outside (whether customers, partners, or activities in other markets). Many firms have been doing this for a long time, Yahoo, according the the WSJ, has had hack days for years, but this was the first one open to ‘outsiders.’
From the Yahoo Hack Day Website, “As we said going in, we didn’t know what was going to happen at Hack Day. We never do.” Does your firm or organization undertake ‘open activities’ where the outcome is unknown? How often are you and your colleagues ‘unleashed’ from your normal activities and encouraged to ‘hack’ your business?
