This September we will be holding our first NGINX for Good hackathon, and we’re excited. As the name “NGINX for Good” indicates, we’re inviting participants to build a website or application that helps others, with the site or app running on our dynamic application server, NGINX Unit. Perhaps you have an idea to help underprivileged youth, homeless people, or those struggling with the impacts of COVID‑19. Maybe you want to tackle an issue like climate change or social justice. There’s no limit to what you can do, and it can apply at any scale – your local neighborhood or town, a community in need, or people around the world.
Who
The hackathon is open to anyone who’s developed code, or has a good idea: you don’t have to be an expert developer to participate. Come one, come all! You’ll work in a team of two to eight people – don’t worry, if you don’t have a team we’ll help you find one to join.
Along the way, NGINX experts including architects, developers, and product managers will be available to support you, with regular office hours as well as access via Slack.
Our panel of judges includes technologists from Tech Field Day and NGINX notables like Igor Sysoev, the original author of NGINX!
How
We’ll provide containers with NGINX Open Source already tuned to manage traffic to your app, and NGINX Unit as the application server. You build your app using any of the following languages: Go, JavaScript (NodeJS), Perl, PHP, Python, or Ruby. Beyond that, the architecture is up to you: you can make use of microservices, distributed APIs, Model:View:Control paradigms – whatever works best for the problem and how you want to solve it.
This is a virtual event, so we’ll set up Zoom and Slack channels for each team to use. Of course you’re free to use the communication method that works best for your team.
When
The hackathon coincides with our first virtual NGINX customer and community event, NGINX Sprint. You’ll have three days to work with your team on a prototype site or app. On the fourth day you’ll demo your solution to Sprint attendees and the judges, who will select the winners and award prizes.
- Coding time: 9 a.m. (PDT) September 14–9 a.m. September 17
- Demos: 9:30 a.m.–12:00 p.m. September 17
- Awarding of prizes: 1 p.m. September 17
Prizes
The winners of the grand prize for Best Overall Solution get the opportunity to work with NGINX experts to bring their solution to fruition. NGINX will cover costs and host the solution for six months.
We’ll also award prizes for Best/Most Impactful Idea and Best Implementation.
Winners all receive NGINX swag and donations to the charity or non‑profit of their choice.
Conclusion
If you’d like to hack for good, sign up today. In the coming weeks we’ll be sharing more resources to help you on your way leading up to the hackathon.
Register for the NGINX for Good Hackathon
Register for NGINX Sprint