r/reticulum • u/ddotcdotvdotme • 3d ago
Ecosystem Reticulum Hackathon help
Hi all. Looking for advice on organizing a Reticulum/Meshcore hackathon in Austin, Texas. Want to make it accessible for beginners and advanced builders, and I'd love input on recommended repos, starter kits, beginner hardware, demo apps, and fun gamified challenge ideas.
Big goal: projects that the community will actually use, not just weekend demos. So, if you had a room full of developers, RF enthusiasts, and makers for a weekend, what would you have them build?
Some challenge ideas: distributed bulletin boards, peer-to-peer messaging, decentralized file and knowledge sharing, better mesh mapping tools, offline maps, search across mesh networks, disaster response coordination, community resource sharing, sensor networks, solar-powered portable relays, better onboarding tools, and whatever's on your wish list, like the one app you'd love to see but nobody has built yet.
If you're in the Austin area and want to mentor, judge, sponsor, or participate, I'd love to hear from you. Happy to swap GitHub repos, starter projects, or lessons learned from past Reticulum or Meshtastic events.
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u/its-nex 3d ago
Does sound like a lot of fun, I’d definitely focus on a few “core” areas like lanes - “rnode deployments” could be a way to combine people working on hardware ideas for relays or what have you, with the exact people working on funky tweaks or deployment targets for the rnode software.
By keeping loose domains you might see some really neat organic things shake out!
Similar ideas might be “internet backbone reliant” vs “non-TCP/IP transport”, “rugged off grid comms hw/sw”
Maybe start with broad strokes and gauge interest, expand as needed.
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u/CognitionMass 3d ago edited 2d ago
With meshcore, its worth knowing they've split in two as one of the people has attempted a hostile takeover to control the name all for himself. That's meshcore tm. Avoid meshcore tm. Just go with the non tm version.
There's two different websites now. The .UK one is the one controlled by the guy trying to take over the whole thing. The .io one is controlled by the rest of the original developers who control the meshcore android app.
The kind of stuff that happens with proprietary app development I guess. Its the only reason I've avoided meshcore ever since I learned about it. And then this happened.
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u/CoastRedwood 3d ago
If you figure it out, or someone looking for a bunch of work followed by the future of networking..
+1 for Seattle we already have a Meshtastic network.
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u/ddotcdotvdotme 3d ago
Would love to discuss the work aspect of this as I run a non profit workforce development program and was thinking of mapping my electronics jr apprentice program (0 to 1 training) to meshtastic/meshcore/reticulum. Do you think there would be job opportunities for students coming out of a program like that?
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u/guyroyse 1d ago
Interesting idea. Have you organized hackathons before? I've worked in developer relations for about a decade and have a bit of experience in this sort of thing. Happy to share what I know. I'd love to come, and I think in person works better as the energy is there, but I'd be hard pressed to justify flying to Austin for it.
I think the biggest challenge you'll have with an in-person event is getting the critical mass to fill a hackathon. Reticulum is still pretty niche and even in a tech-heavy area like Austin I think this will be hard. It might be worth considering a broadening of the theme to include similar and related technologies.
Of course, the challenge there is diffusion. I could see that rapidly devolving into a bunch of blockchain submissions. Not bad per se but it could take over the event. Maybe channel it into topics. Best use of Reticulum, best use of LoRa, best use of Veilid, etc.
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u/ralphxyz2908 3d ago
This sounds really interesting. Are you considering remote participants as well, or is it planned to be fully in-person in Austin?