Announcing the Linode + DEV Hackathon!

Hey DEV community!

We have some news about an exciting challenge: today, we're launching a new hackathon for you to build an interesting application in the open, learn something new, and win some awesome prizes in the process...

Announcing the Linode + DEV Hackathon 🎉

You may be familiar with our hackathons here on DEV. If you are, then you know that this community has a ton of fun with them and they get really creative with their inventions. Whether you’ve joined us in the past or not, we hope you’ll throw your hat into the ring by participating in the Linode + DEV Hackathon

Keep reading to get all the details on how you can enter this contest and learn more about Linode and the prizes they’re offering our community.

All About Linode

Akamai Cloud Computing based on Linode provides a number of services and products that give both developers and enterprises the flexibility and support they need to build, deploy, and scale their modern applications. Linode's global data centers make it a great cloud hosting choice for users who want to run their own virtual web server hands-on. Linode started as a company built by developers for developers. Today, it continues to serve these new innovators as well as the growing teams, startups, and larger enterprises it helped create.

From now through February 20th, DEV has partnered up with Linode for a community hackathon that will give you the chance to build a new application using Linode. Anyone who submits a valid project (including an official submission post, published on DEV) will be automatically entered to win a variety of fantastic prizes (including up to $1,000 USD).

Project Categories

The Linode + DEV Hackathon is calling for projects in the following five categories:

• Smooth Shifters: Awarded to the team whose app shows the most seamless and successful migration to Linode’s platform.
• EdgeWorker Experts: Awarded to the team that demonstrates the most innovative and effective use of Linode’s EdgeWorkers service.
• SaaS Superstars: Awarded to the team whose app shows the greatest potential for success as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) product or money-making venture.
• Integration Innovators: Awarded to the team whose app shows the best integration with other services offered by Linode, such as managed databases or object storage.
• Wacky Wildcard: Awarded to the team whose project is particularly creative, unusual, or outside-the-box. With this category, we are looking for some truly silly and/or fun submissions. Feel free to dream big and ridiculously — and utilize any offering that Linode offers.

💰 Prizes 💰

Five Grand Prize Winners (one per category):

• $1,000 USD gift card or equivalent
• $300 USD credit to the Forem Shop
• DEV Sticker Pack
• DEV “Linode Hackathon” Grand Prize profile badge

Runner-Up Prizes (10 Total – across all categories):

• $250 USD gift card or equivalent
• $150 USD credit to the Forem Shop
• DEV Sticker Pack
• DEV “Linode Hackathon” Runner-Up profile badge

Participants (with a valid project):

• DEV Sticker Pack
• DEV “Linode Hackathon” participant profile badge

Cost of shipping included. If shipping outside of the U.S., international customs and duties may apply. Please research your local import laws for more information on customs fees or reach out to shop@forem.com with any questions.

How to Participate in the Linode + DEV Hackathon

1. Create a Linode account using this registration page to receive $100 in credit.

2. Create an app using Linode that falls into one of the categories listed on this announcement post.

3. Code must be made publicly available on GitHub.

4. Code must be licensed with a permissive license (MIT, Apache-2, etc).

5. Publish overview of the app on DEV between January 24th and February 20th using this submission template.

6. Provide the app’s demo URL, relevant screenshots, description, etc.

⚠️ Heads-up that you'll only be able to view our submission template linked above if you're logged into DEV.

Additional Resources

The Akamai team has an extensive library of technical docs, guides, blogs, and other resources available on their website. You can check out their content series for inspiration on apps to design, or visit the Linode YouTube channel for some hands-on tutorials.

Additional Notes and Rules:

• We encourage you to share update posts on DEV using the #linodehackathon tag to keep us posted on your progress (hint: use series: [“series name”] in the markdown heading of all your Linode Hackathon-related posts to link all content in a series)
• Multiple submissions are allowed, however, users cannot win multiple prizes.
• If you collaborate with anyone, please list their DEV handles in your submission post so we can award a profile badge to your entire team! DEV does not handle prize-splitting, so in the event your project is named a Grand Prize-winner or runner-up, you will need to split those amongst yourselves. Thank you for understanding!

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Open only to 18+. Contest entry period ends February 20th, 11:59 PM UTC. Contest is void where prohibited or restricted by law or regulation. All entries must be new projects and created during the hackathon period. For Official Rules, see Contest Announcement Page and General Contest Official Rules.

Community Support

To ask any questions about Linode or about the rules of this contest, leave a comment in the Linode + DEV Hackathon help thread. Our team will be monitoring this space to answer your questions in collaboration with the Linode team.

Need some external motivation and guidance? Who doesn’t! We encourage all participants to swing by our community discussion thread where you can share your ideas and get suggestions on improvements from the DEV community as you build your app. You can also use this thread to share your progress along the way to get support from others.

Important Dates 🗓

• January 24th, 2023: Hackathon Begins
• February 20th, 2023: Hackathon Submission Due at 11:59 PM UTC
• February 23rd, 2023: Submission judging begins

Winners will be selected and announced approximately two weeks following the final submission deadline.

We’re so excited for you to join us for this brand new hackathon with our friends at Linode. Have fun, learn lots, and keep us posted along the way.

Good luck and happy coding! 🍀