We had a 2 hour hackathon yesterday and boy it was fun.
The Yo API has only one endpoint and yet so much can be done with it.
Each of these ideas are implemented for a single use case - that might serve just a few - to prove the concept. But, by generalizing the idea and publishing an easy to use on-boarding experience, can be used by many.
Some of the things we saw:
BASKETBALLBERRY — This hackathon team loves playing basketball. But, every time they try to organize a game, the hassle of trying to coordinate who’s coming and to see if they have enough players, becomes a burden.
Solution: When the game time arrives, all the people that want to come Yo BASKETBALLBERRY. If enough players Yo’d BASKETBALLBERRY, they all get a Yo back. If not…
You can call it BASKETBALLBERRY, but you can think of a thousand use cases for this social coordination tool that leverages the Yo API.
SFRAIN — You will get Yo’d at 7am on days that it will rain, one Yo per 0.1 inch of rain http://wattadu.com/yo/. 20 minutes of coding. Not bad Matt.
SFSURFSUP — Know when surf is up at the Ocean Beach.
HOTINHERE— The weatherman said it’s hot and it’s not? You’ll get Yo’d.
YORESTAURANT — Local restaurants, not only The Cheesecake Factory, can now Yo you when your table is ready. This hackathon team made a web app for a tablet that the host can use to manage the queue. They did it in 2 hours.
GOLDENGATEBAKERY — There is a bakery in SF called Golden Gate Bakery that is so good, that they open at random times without telling anyone. Someone went ahead and opened a website for it: http://www.is-the-golden-gate-bakery-open-today.com/. This hackathon team decided they want realtime updates about when it opens. So they thought of a crowdsourced Yo service for the bakery: Th first time you Yo GOLDENGATEBAKERY, you are subcribed to updates. From then on, if you hear that it opens, you Yo GOLDENGATEBAKERY, and then it Yo’s all the subscribers.
IGRYAN — Ryan loves to take selfies on Instagram. His friend wanted to get a Yo when Ryan posts one. 2 hours later, we were live. Long story short, you will soon be able to easily setup your own selfie service and automagically Yo your friends when you post a photo on Instagram.
GITHUBSTAR — This is the story of a developer who wants to code more open-source projects but can’t find the time. He needs encouragement. He hacked a Yo service that Yos him every time someone stars (likes) one of his Github projects. Alot of people don’t know what GitHub is, but would they be interested to get notified every time their Facebook photo gets more than 50 likes? Maybe.
YOASTER — Yo your Toaster to start toasting, get a Yo from it when it’s done. Seriously. Might seem funny but Internet of Things is a thing.
The winner of the judges category was a service called WHATSONG.
You hear a song on the radio and you want to know what it is — you Yo WHATSONG. Then, you log on to the WHATSONG website where you can see the song that was playing at that time on that specific radio station.
You might say: “How boring.. yet another Shazam cloneâ€â€¦
But if you think about it just a little bit more you might say: “How cool.. this is a frictionless personal real life bookmark..â€
Yo your radio station when you hear a good song, Yo your TV station when you watch a good TV show or a movie, Yo your favorite restaurant when you’re eating there. Later you can logon to http://yojournal.com and you have an awesome journal of your life.. After using it a few months looking back at a random day will probably bring some nice memories..
Obviously there are some obstacles, and for this to work it needs to be frictionless, easy to use, and fun. No one said it’s easy, but this is our job. Given the resources and talented people, it can be done.
A lot of ideas can be made using the Yo API. Execution is what matters.
If you have an idea and you want to share it, drop us a line, we would love to hear it: [email protected].
If you have an idea and you already executed it and it’s now up and running, you still have a chance of winning the “People Choice†award ($2,500 — service with most subscribers — ends midnight 4th of July ).
If you have an idea and you can execute it or executed it, drop us a line and let’s talk business: [email protected]
We will have more hackathons. To get notified when the next one is on our website — Yo us at YOHACKATHON!
For more photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/125735532@N07/
