On the eve of the ACM Internet Measurement Conference 2023 (IMC 2023) , The Internet Society, M-Lab, OONI, Censored Planet and Jigsaw invite you to join the IMC Hackathon on Network Interference using Open Data in Montreal, on Monday, October 23, 2023. This event is focused on exploring, analyzing, and visualizing open network interference data related to censorship and Internet shutdown events. Participants and supporters of the hackathon include Internet measurement professionals, students, data scientists, and in general anybody passionate about Internet freedom. People from a diversity of backgrounds such as economists, social scientists, and others who may not work directly with network measurement data and still want to contribute are encouraged to apply.
The hackathon will include knowledge-sharing sessions, discussions, and hands-on coaching from experts. Teams will be able to form at the event though are encouraged to connect ahead of time to maximize the brief time we have together. Project development and submission will occur on the date of the same day (October 23) to ensure that participants can fully dedicate their attention to the IMC conference for the remainder of the week.
Prizes will be awarded based on sustainable contributions to the field of data to prevent and counter censorship. Additional prizes may be available based on audience consideration. Teams of any size are welcomed though we recommend no more than 10. In-person participation is limited to 35 participants.
Important Dates and Milestones
| Applications open | Monday August 28, 2023 |
| Application deadline/As soon as we reach capacity | September 08, 2023 AoE (UTC-12) |
| First round acceptance letters sent | September 15, 2023 |
| Introductory webinar for hackathon participants | September 30, 2023 |
| Teams formation and hackathon topics finalized | October 12, 2023 |
| Hackathon 2023 in Montreal | October 23, 2023 |
| ACM IMC 2023 in Montreal | October 24-26, 2023 |
Before the Event
We will provide access to a dedicated Slack channel to help coordinate and share resources. We will also organize a webinar close to the event to discuss the hackathon details. If you need any other information, or if you are struggling with ideas, don’t hesitate to contact the Programme Committee via: [email protected].
Venue and Logistics
Google’s Montreal Office: 425 Av. Viger O, Montréal, QC H2Z 1W5, Canada
Hackathon Social
On Monday, October 23, we will have a social event with dinner for all participants. More information will be provided to participants closer to the hackathon date.
Evaluation Criteria
- Novelty
- Potential impact
- Technical sophistication
- Quality of the implementation
- Utilization of the datasets
- Long term sustainability
- Wow factor
Awards
- Novel application
- Epic Data Viz
- People’s choice
Requested Skills
Depending on the project you pick, knowledge of different tools might be required:
- SQL/Google BigQuery
- Python/Golang
- Data visualization experience in the tool or library of your choice
- Jupyter notebook
- Pandas
Hackathon Ideas
Here are some of the ideas we would want to explore during the hackathon. Ideally, each team will work on one specific idea. If you are interested in other topics related to censorship and shutdowns, feel free to bring your ideas, concepts, or prototypes to the event as well! Explore the proposed ideas.
Program & Organizing Committee Members:
- Amreesh Phokeer (ISOC)
- Arturo Filastò (OONI)
- Katherine Townsend (M-Lab)
- Lai Yi Ohlsen (M-Lab)
- Roya Ensafi (UMich/Censored Planet)
Supporters
In addition to contributions from the organizers, we want to thank Google’s Open Internet Measurement team for contributing space for the convening, Google Jigsaw for the prizes, and to ISOC for hosting our hackathon reception.
Resources
Photo by Matthias Mullie on Unsplash