SAPO Codebits

Last updated
Codebits logo in 2009. SAPO Codebits logo.jpg
Codebits logo in 2009.

SAPO Codebits, also known simply as Codebits, was a conference held in Lisbon from 2007 to 2014, focused on computing and light-hearted geek culture content for a highly technical audience. It was organized by SAPO which, besides a news media brand, was also an internet-focused R&D division of Portugal Telecom at the time.

Contents

Codebits logo in 2014, when SAPO's "frog" logo got replaced by the event's mascot. Codebits Logo 2014.png
Codebits logo in 2014, when SAPO's "frog" logo got replaced by the event's mascot.

Codebits had a 48-hour hackathon at its core, but the number of talks and entertainment activities increased steadily over the years, along with the number of seats, attracting an increasing number of international attendees and speakers. At this point it was as much of a festival as it was a conference.

In 2016, Codebits was rebooted outside SAPO under the name Pixels Camp. Pixels Camp logo.jpeg
In 2016, Codebits was rebooted outside SAPO under the name Pixels Camp.

In 2015, Portugal Telecom was acquired by Altice, [1] SAPO's mission changed, and Codebits was discontinued after seven editions. In 2016, the Codebits format was revived outside SAPO under the name Pixels Camp. Pixels Camp ran for three more editions until the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Format

Initially inspired by Yahoo! Hack Day, [2] Codebits lasted for three non-stop days and nights, with many participants choosing to eat and sleep on site. Its core was a 48-hour hackathon but also included dozens of talks during the day, as well as several entertainment activities in the evenings.

Codebits was free for all participants, including plenty of food and drinks. Active recruiting inside the premises was disallowed, and there were little commercial undertones apart from a few product announcements during the opening keynotes.

The number of seats was limited and potential attendees had to undergo a short screening process in order to secure a ticket. The screening was meant to ensure that most, if not all, attendees had a suitable technical background or creative skills related to the event's theme. Applicants such as those in marketing and recruiting were usually rejected.

Codebits always opened on a Thursday and had its first morning composed of general keynotes from the organizing company and its partners/sponsors, plus general information about the hackathon and satellite activities. The hackathon began in that same afternoon and ended on Saturday morning, with that day's afternoon reserved for project presentations, voting, and the event's closing ceremony.

48-hour Hackathon

The hackathon hall at Codebits VII (final edition, 2014), with the teams' tables and the secondary stages (the cylindrical structures). SAPO Codebits 2014 hackathon hall.jpg
The hackathon hall at Codebits VII (final edition, 2014), with the teams' tables and the secondary stages (the cylindrical structures).

In the hackathon, teams were free to propose whatever project they wanted, software or hardware, with no suggested themes or subject restrictions.

On Saturday, teams were required to present their projects on stage. They had 90 seconds to do it and the audience voted (thumbs up/down) between each presentation. The selection of winning teams was a combination of the audience votes and the votes of a jury panel. The weighting between the audience and jury votes varied from edition to edition.

The audience voting for hackathon projects at Codebits VII (final edition, 2014). That year's voting system used computer vision to detect red/green cards. SAPO Codebits 2014 hackathon voting.jpg
The audience voting for hackathon projects at Codebits VII (final edition, 2014). That year's voting system used computer vision to detect red/green cards.

Talks

Talks were mostly self-proposed by participants, but there were also a number of talks from invited speakers. Self-proposed talks followed a public process where all proposals were visible to everyone for comments and suggestions, but the final selection was made by the organizers.

Evening Activities

Satellite activities were usually held in the evenings. These activities usually combined entertainment with some element of geek culture. They were initially meant to relieve some pressure from the hackathon, but gained a life of their own over time. Some of the most prominent activities were:

Quiz Show

Since 2008, [3] in the four weeks before the event, participants had to solve about one challenge per-week to qualify for the quiz show. The challenges included image enigmas, treasure hunts, code golf contests, among others. They all shared a reasonably high level of difficulty and required a fair knowledge of tech-related culture and motivation. 32 qualified participants then went on stage on Friday after dinner time for a few rounds of questions, mostly about science, technology, and geek trivia. [4]

Security Competition

The security competition followed a capture-the-flag (CTF) model. Participants were asked to answer questions and solve challenges related to cybersecurity (such as identifying and exploiting vulnerable applications purposely built for the competition) in order to obtain tokens (flags) that translated into points. The competition took place on Thursday evening and lasted over three hours. Like the quiz show, participants had to qualify by solving a few challenges in the weeks before the event.

Nuclear Tacos

The "nuclear" tacos competition involved eating ultra-spicy tacos as fast as possible over a few rounds of increasing spiciness. It started in 2010 as just a dare to participants [5] but eventually evolved into a proper competition. It usually took place on Friday evening before the quiz show.

Other Activities

Other activities included a Presentation Karaoke, retro-gaming displays, and workshops on soldering, 3D printing, lockpicking, etc. Earlier editions also included music concerts (e.g. WrayGunn in 2007, Pornophonique in 2009).

Makers and Hardware

Codebits wasn't just about software and the Internet, the hardware and maker culture was also a significant part of it. There were workshops on electronics from the start and, starting in 2010, there was also significant space dedicated to hardware project showcases and workshops (the "Hardware Den").

Editions

In 2013, Codebits was planned to happen simultaneously in São Paulo and Lisbon [10] delaying both events due to logistics issues at the Brazilian venue. Meanwhile, the latter was hit by fire (unrelated to Codebits), which forced an out-of-season Lisbon-only event in April 2014.

Reboot as Pixels Camp

Participants presenting their projects on stage at the first Pixels Camp (2016) while others queue for their turn. Pixels Camp 2016 project presentations.jpg
Participants presenting their projects on stage at the first Pixels Camp (2016) while others queue for their turn.
The hackathon and main stage areas at the second Pixels Camp (2017). Pixels Camp 2017 (hackathon area).jpg
The hackathon and main stage areas at the second Pixels Camp (2017).

In 2016, a team composed mostly of SAPO ex-employees rebooted the event under the name Pixels Camp [11] while keeping the format virtually unchanged.

Pixels Camp had three editions. In March 2020, a fourth edition was already in the very last stages of preparation when the COVID-19 pandemic forced its postponement to later that year. The organization remained active and conducted several online activities over that period, but Pixels Camp v4.0 ended up being officially canceled in mid-September. [12]

Pixels Camp was organized by Bright Pixel (a startup incubator and accelerator part of Sonae group) and financed with the help of sponsorships. It has been informally reported that any future Pixels Camp editions, should they happen, would be organized independently with a financing model still to be defined. As of late 2023, no definite plans are known.

Differences to Codebits

In Pixels Camp, sponsor pitches replaced product announcements during the opening morning. On stage, sponsors suggested themes related to their own areas of activity for the hackathon. Participants were not required to cover any of the suggested themes in their projects, but often did.

Unlike Codebits, Pixels Camp had significant floor area dedicated to sponsors. Active recruiting was still disallowed, but there was an implicit understanding that participants could approach sponsor at their booths to ask about available job offerings.

The increased reliance on sponsorships and the organizing company's incubator business moved the Pixels Camp hackathon closer to the startup ecosystem. Even though its rules were unchanged from Codebits, participants were more likely to present projects around business ideas rather than projects focused mostly on raw creativity and technical ability[ citation needed ].

Outside of the hackathon, Pixels Camp continued the trend of increased focus on self-proposed talks and entertainment content, and of attracting a wider community of technical and creative talent beyond programmers. The colorful choices for the rebooted brand reflected this trend, as did the name.

Pixels Camp Editions

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Expo '98</span> 1998 Worlds Fair in Lisbon, Portugal

Expo '98 was an official specialised World's Fair held in Lisbon, Portugal from Friday, 22 May to Wednesday, 30 September 1998. The theme of the fair was "The Oceans, a Heritage for the Future", chosen in part to commemorate 500 years of Portuguese discoveries. The Expo received over 10 million visitors in 132 days, while 143 countries and many organizations were represented.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pragyan (festival)</span>

Pragyan, NIT Trichy is the annual techno-managerial festival of the National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli. Since its inception in 2005, it has been held every year over a period of three and a half days during the months of January, February, or March. Every year, participants from a number of colleges across the country take part in various events conducted as a part of Pragyan, making it one of the largest techno-managerial fests in India. It is also the first student-run organisation in the world and the third overall, next only to the London Olympics and Manchester United to get an ISO 20121:2012 certification for Sustainable Event Management. It also holds the ISO 9001:2015 certification for Quality Management Systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hackathon</span> Event in which groups of software developers work at an accelerated pace

A hackathon is an event where people engage in rapid and collaborative engineering over a relatively short period of time such as 24 or 48 hours. They are often run using agile software development practices, such as sprint-like design wherein computer programmers and others involved in software development, including graphic designers, interface designers, product managers, project managers, domain experts, and others collaborate intensively on engineering projects, such as software engineering.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BarCamp</span> International network of user-generated conferences

BarCamp is an international network of user-generated conferences primarily focused on technology and the web. They are open, participatory workshop-events, the content of which is provided by participants. The first BarCamps focused on early stage web applications, and were related to open-source technologies, social software, and open data formats.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unconference</span> Participant-driven meeting

An unconference is a participant-driven meeting. The term "unconference" has been applied, or self-applied, to a wide range of gatherings that try to avoid hierarchical aspects of a conventional conference, such as sponsored presentations and top-down organization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MEO Arena</span> Multipurpose indoor arena in Lisbon, Portugal

MEO Arena is a multi-purpose indoor arena in Lisbon, Portugal. The arena is among the largest indoor arenas in Europe and the largest in Portugal with a capacity of 20,000 people and was built in 1998 for Expo '98.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Campus Party</span>

Campus Party (CP) is a conference and hackathon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Linux user group</span> Organization of computer users

A Linux User Group or Linux Users' Group (LUG) or GNU/Linux User Group (GLUG) is a private, generally non-profit or not-for-profit organization that provides support and/or education for Linux users, particularly for inexperienced users. The term commonly refers to local groups that meet in person but is also used to refer to online support groups that may have members spread over a very wide area and that do not organize, or are not dependent on, physical meetings. Many LUGs encompass FreeBSD and other free-software / open source Unix-based operating systems.

Random Hacks of Kindness (RHoK) is a global community of technologists dedicated to solving problems for charities, non-profits and social enterprises by organising recurring hackathons that has existed since 2009. The organisation currently has a presence in over 20 cities throughout 5 continents, and had 2000 participants in 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Web Summit</span> Annual technology conference in Lisbon, Portugal

Web Summit is an annual technology conference held in Lisbon, Portugal. Founded in 2009 by Paddy Cosgrave, David Kelly, and Daire Hickey, Web Summit was held in Dublin, Ireland until 2016, when it moved to Lisbon. The conference's topics center on internet technology, emerging technologies, marketing and venture capitalism. Web Summit's partners range from Fortune 500 companies to start-ups, with attendees representing all levels and sectors of the global high technology industry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Android Developer Day</span> Google event

Android Developer Days (ADD) is an open conference held at various locations worldwide each year. The Android Developer Days conference is a growing organization that allows developers of various software and applications to showcase, observe, and participate in Android Developing events, such as informational lectures, workshops, entertainment activities, panel discussions, and networking opportunities make up a majority of the Android Developer Days. As an international leader in mobile operating systems, ADD has become increasingly popular as the center for mobile device conventions. Unofficial participants may elect to observe different booths and displays. However, in order to partake in the festivities, one must apply to join the organization. There is an assortment of ways that one is able to join the conference including exhibiting your own presentation, showcasing posters featuring developing applications, or instructing hands-on, interactive coding tutorials. In 2014, the Android Developer Days conventions had been held in Ankara, Turkey, from May 16 to May 17.

HackTX is a 24-hour annual hackathon hosted by Freetail Hackers, a Computer Science student organization at The University of Texas at Austin.

Karavaan is the annual socio-cultural science fest of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune. The name stems from the notion of all IISERs moving forward as one. The fest attracts students from colleges all across Pune, as well as national institutes all over India. It is a 3-day fest, held either in October or November in the Fall semester every year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NASA International Space Apps Challenge</span> Annual NASA global hackathon

The NASA International Space Apps Challenge is the largest global annual hackathon. This two-day event provides an opportunity for participants to utilize NASA's free and open data and its Space Agency Partners' space-based data to address real-world problems on Earth and in space.

ATMOS is the annual techno-management festival of BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus, located in Hyderabad, India. It is known for a wide range of events, such as workshops, quizzes, lectures, technical exhibitions and competitions. Among the notable events conducted annually during it are the national level quiz Enigma and BITS MUN Hyderabad. Started in 2012, ATMOS aims at improving the technical culture among Indian colleges as well as providing a platform to showcase their abilities. In its sixth year now, ATMOS is growing rapidly with participation from students, academicians, entrepreneurs and speakers from all over India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HackMIT</span>

HackMIT is an annual student-run hackathon held in the fall at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pavilhão João Rocha</span> Sports pavilion in Lisbon, Portugal

Pavilhão João Rocha is a multi-sports pavilion located in Lisbon, next to the Estádio José Alvalade and it is the home of Sporting CP sports. The pavilion is named after João Rocha, a former club president who remained in office from September 1973 to October 1986. The inauguration took place on the day June 21, 2017.

João António dos Anjos Rocha was a Portuguese entrepreneur, investor and sports manager. He was president of Sporting Clube de Portugal between 7 September 1973 and 3 October 1986.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bruno de Carvalho</span> Portuguese sports commentator and DJ

Bruno Miguel de Azevedo Gaspar de Carvalho is a Portuguese businessman, sports commentator and DJ who was the 42nd president of sports club Sporting CP from 2013 to 2018. He became the first Sporting president to be dismissed by associates of the club, four months after being re-elected with 87% of votes.

The Marchas Populares are a Portuguese tradition that dates back to 1932, when the first event took place in the capital city of Lisbon, under the direction of Leitão de Barros. It is one of several events that take place in the month of June as a celebration of the Portuguese Midsummer.

References

  1. ↑ "Altice closes €5.8B PT Portugal deal". Mobile World Live. 2015-06-03. Retrieved 2021-10-20.
  2. ↑ "SAPO Codebits". Celso Martinho, 2007
  3. ↑ "Codebits Quizz Show". João Pedro Gonçalves, 2008
  4. ↑ "SAPO Codebits Quiz Show (2010)". YouTube . 18 April 2019. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21. Carlos Morgado, 2010
  5. ↑ "Project Apocalypse - How we made Nuclear Tacos at Codebits IV". Pedro Couto e Santos, 2010
  6. ↑ "Futuro Hoje - 16 de Novembro de 2008". SIC, 2008
  7. ↑ "SAPO Codebits 2010". YouTube . 13 November 2010. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21. Aberto até de Madrugada, 2012
  8. ↑ "SIC Futuro Hoje at SAPO Codebits". YouTube . 27 June 2013. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21. SIC, 2012
  9. ↑ "TVI Reportagem @ SAPO Codebits 2014". YouTube . 14 April 2014. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21. TVI, 2014
  10. ↑ "SAPO Codebits marcado para Abril em Portugal e no Brasil". 20 August 2013. Público, 2013
  11. ↑ "Das cinzas do Codebits, nasce o Pixels Camp. Estás preparado?". Shifter, 2016
  12. ↑ "About Pixels Camp v4.0". 14 September 2020. Pixels Camp Blog, 2020
  13. ↑ "Pixels Camp". YouTube . 16 October 2016. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21. RTP, 2016
  14. ↑ "Pixels Camp traz campismo, moedas digitais e mais de mil participantes a Lisboa". Observador, 2017
  15. ↑ "Chama-se Salazar e foi o projeto mais votado no Pixels Camp". Tek, 2019
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.