By Tim Ferguson
Monday, June 18 2007 11:47 AM
URL: http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/software/0,39044164,62022274,00.htm

The BBC and Yahoo have teamed up for Hack Day--a one-day event in which 500 Web developers from across Europe will battle it out at London's Alexandra Palace.

The developers--or 'hackers'--will spend 24 hours using existing Web apps to create completely new ones, in what is billed as a 'jam' session for techies.

Techies from the BBC developer community, Backstage, and Yahoo's own network will use their skills to modify existing apps from both organizations to create completely new products.

Each hacker will then show off their product in a 90 second presentation, after which the winner will be announced.

Matt Cashmore, development producer at the BBC, told ZDNet Asia's sister site Silicon.com: "We don't exactly know what will happen.

"It's just going to be mind-blowing being in the room with so many creative people."

Chad Dickerson, senior director for the Yahoo developer network, said the developers are the "canaries in the coalmine for us", adding: "Hack Day is more about the developers and less about us."

A BBC spokeswoman said the web is quickly transforming into a development platform and Hack Day will allow developers to make their ideas a reality using the enormous scale and infrastructure of the BBC and Yahoo!.

Cashmore said Hack Day is a slightly different approach to the recent Google developer day as it focuses on what developers can do rather than educating them.

Cashmore said the event demonstrates the BBC is open to having conversations outside its own four walls. "If we're not having conversations with these people [developers], we can't move forward," he said.

He added: "I think it's incredibly important."

Yahoo started running hack days in 2005 but this event is the first external Hack Day to be held in Europe following a successful event at Yahoo!'s Sunnyvale, California, HQ last September.

Tim Ferguson of Silicon.com reported from London.