An informal regularly scheduled catchup where your researchers can come and discuss IT or Tech ideas for accelerating their research. Often researchers will come for help with common data science programs like R or Python or for info about data Storage or HPC
Hacky Hours can be paired with Software Carpentry classes (or similar) and Research Bazaar conferences. See the Carpentries Cookbook for more information on starting this.
Pick a public interactive space or cafe. Also somewhere with good wifi. Keep the same place and schedule every week, so people can find you. Using calendar invites can be another great way of keeping people informed. A big sign or flag is essencial so that people can identify you at the venue.
A twitter account is a great way of keeping people informed. You can also celebrate your communities publications and awards this way and highlight new resources that come up.
Your audience will most likely be Higher Degree Researcher and Early Career Researchers. They will have the time and the inclination to learn.
You are welcome to customize the template from University of Queensland Hacky Hour logo found here.
You can use the following avenues to advertise
- Library
- Newsletters to researchers
- HDR conveners
- At your R/Python classes
- To your HPC users
- Attend research groups morning teas
You can see your research areas to target here: Areas of Research to target
Get your name on the Mozilla Study group page too (Also an excellent resource) https://science.mozilla.org/programs/studygroups
You find that you will get three types of researchers.
- Your regulars that come most weeks
- A researcher with a specific issue or question
- Researchers who are just generally interested to see what you have to offer
For your first group, its good to have a topic of the week. We often use a paper sign with a "Ask us about ...." and a topic of the week, whether this be information to highlight, an upcoming class or a new tool or resource. This can be a great conversation starter without being too 'in their face' if the topic isn't relevant for them. They're often pretty happy to listen to what's going on around them too and are knowledgeable to help out a newbie with code if you're overrun.
We tried having brief tutorials during hacky hour but was met with poor response. Some groups have classes that finish with hacky hours so that researchers can use their new found knowledge on their own data.
The second group of people are pretty easy - just jump straight into their problem.
A lot of people, when using new technology will be alarmed by errors at first and not realise that they contain information on how to debug them. We often do an overview on how to use technical forums such as stack exchange or how to google their error messages with proper keywords. For programming debugging, we also go into how do dig into functions and pull apart code or how you can take each line and run it sequencially until you get an error.
We also use this opportunity to discuss proper data storage and if they are releasing software, licencing.
The third group of people will often be a bit uncertain on what's available for them. I'll usually do up an email to them while discussing resources with a small explanation of each one as you are usually throwing a lot of information at them and that way you know they'll have the correct URLs etc. This also acts as a great reference later for when you are logging the week's inquiries.
- Multicoloured pens (for diagrams)
- Big notepad
- Relevant brochures (such as your research data storage)
- Your own brochure (most new people will be working with other researchers in similar work)
- A power board
- A poster or flag to highlight your hacky hour
- A laptop
- A sign for your regulars - an 'Ask us about...'
When starting a Hacky Hour, there are a number of people in your institute that you should contact/invite
| People | Why |
|---|---|
| HPC team | Many of your inquiries are going to be people trying to use HPC the first time, getting needed libraries on the HPC or not understanding the errors |
| Someone who can program in R or Python | Most researchers who are learning to code will be using these two. |
| Your Librarians /Data librarians/Digital Capability officers | The library is the first point of contact for people looking for help. Plus they're a wealth of knowledge when it comes to your research institutes and who has a lot of data |
| HDR coordinators | Most of your audience will be HDR and Early Career Researchers. Let these people know about your hacky hours, they can refer students to you and advertise. |
| IP or Copyright specialist | For when you are discussing the software or scripts that your researchers are writing, you can refer them to your IP/Copyright expert to get the correct licences |
| Statistics team | Bribe your statisticians with everything you have. You'll need them, everyone struggles with stats. |
| Local Meetup/Community groups | Useful for networking, general help. Search for tech meetups in your area like Django girls, Girls in Tech, Hacker spaces etc |
| Local Software Carpentry instructors | Many people are going to come look for Python and R training. If you aren't holding it, check out who in the local neighbourhood that is. Some state libraries do programming classes too. Offer to help out their graduates in return |
Please also feel free to use the list of Resources Available or HPC Resources Available