Smart, WebGeek to hold foursquare hackathon

MANILA, Philippines - Smart Communications Inc. and WebGeek Philippines (WebGeekPh) are inviting local application developers to the country’s first foursquare hackathon on Dec. 1.

The event, called Foursquare Hack Day Philippines, will be the first foursquare-approved developer event outside the United States.

Spearheaded by the Smart Developer Network (Smart DevNet), the telco’s developer community, the event is anchored on the existing partnership between Smart and Foursquare Labs Inc.

The latter is the company behind foursquare, a leading location-based social networking service that allows users to “check in” at specific locations and share information with their social networks.

Foursquare is widely used worldwide and has a large fan base in the Philippines. Foursquare apps are available in all leading mobile platforms such as iOS, Android, BlackBerry, and Windows Phone.

Co-organizing Foursquare Hack Day PH is WebGeekPh (webgeek.ph), the community for Filipino geeks, developers, designers, and startups.

Attractive prizes await developers who will build the best mobile app using the foursquare API (application programming interface), which will enable them to come up with apps that interact with the foursquare location and recommendation platform.

The hackathon or programming marathon will be conducted over a nine-hour stretch at the event.

Sajid Mehmood of Foursquare Labs’ New York-based platform engineering team will join the event to share with Pinoy developers the ins and outs of the foursquare API.

Those interested must form a team composed of two or three members, and register at http://hackday.webgeek.ph/.

Ticket price is pegged at P1,000 per participant, but a 50 percent discount will be given to those who will register until today.

“The Philippines is not lacking in talented developers. Through events like Foursquare Hack Day PH, Smart DevNet is giving local developers a venue to showcase and refine their skills. We want to help create a vibrant ecosystem in the Philippine tech scene,” said Jim Ayson, Smart senior manager for partner management.

Meanwhile, Smart developer evangelist Paul Pajo said, “Smart — through Smart DevNet — has a proven track record in putting the local developer community in the spotlight. Just a few weeks ago, Smart and the Department of Science and Technology launched the Project NOAH mobile app, which was one of the winning apps in Smart’s recent HTML5 DevDay hackathon in Davao.”

For his part, Michael Marin of WebGeekPh said, “Since this would be the first foursquare hackathon here in the Philippines, we want it to be big. We want it to be the largest mobile app hackathon that has been done in the Philippines.”

“This event is truly a milestone, not only for the organizers but also for the participants who will be able to showcase their awesome skills at this event. Given that, we are expecting a lot of cool apps coming out from this competition,” Marin added.

At Foursquare Hack Day which will be held at the Smart headquarters in Makati City, apps will be judged based on the quality of software development, user experience, user interface, innovation, and quality of demo pitching.

Participants may use a mix of programming languages, application frameworks, and development tools during the hackathon. They must demonstrate their app using a smartphone.

Early this year, the Smart-Foursquare Labs partnership created Philippine Internet history by launching the first Philippine foursquare partner badge — the Smart Live More badge, which debuted during Lady Gaga’s concert in the country.

Parties interested in more information about the foursquare hackathon may join the Smart DevNet Facebook group (http://facebook.com/groups/smartdevnet), e-mail at [email protected] or view the event’s official site at http://hackday.webgeek.ph.

Smart DevNet, launched last August, is now one of the fastest growing online communities. Additional information on Smart DevNet may be found on http://smart.com.ph/developer.