Pioneering Internet of Things startup, Pachube, is running a global hackathon starting on April 8, 2011 at 2pm U.K. time. Internet of Things (IoT) is a term for when real world objects and environments get connected to the Internet. The hackathon runs for 24 hours and will bring together over 100 developers working on IoT apps.
The main hackathon event is in Pachube’s home city of London, but there are also events in New York City,
Tokyo, Zurich, Eindhoven (Netherlands) and Lancaster (U.K.). Pachube is encouraging "developers, designers, makers, mixers, mashers, tinkerers, philosopher-mechanics and sales engineers" worldwide to meet up and tinker with IoT technologies.
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The Pachube hackathon coincides with Global Internet of Things Day on Saturday April 9. That day was invented by the Internet of Things Council, a group of European brainiacs whose website is a useful resource for this growing trend.
I spoke to Pachube founder Usman Haque and asked him what he wants to achieve with the hackathon.
"People have said that the ‘Internet of Things’ is still a way off," Haque replied, "but enthusiasm about the hackathon shows me that there are already plenty of developers throughout the world making things, building innovative services, applications, mobile apps, sensor devices, interactive experiences… and more things I can’t even imagine. That tells me the Internet of Things is already HERE!"
Pachube currently has about 400 feeds, so hackathon participants can use any of those – or something completely separate. A recent example of real world usage of Pachube feeds was monitoring of radiation data from Japan, after the devastating earthquake.
I’m excited to see what is developed over the 24 hour period by participants of the hackathon. The Internet of Things is a trend that ReadWriteWeb has been actively tracking for the last couple of years. Indeed, Pachube was one of the first IoT companies we profiled and we named it among our Top 10 Internet of Things Products in both 2009 and 2010.
Find out more details about the IoT hackathon on Pachube’s website or register for the London event.
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