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Welcome to the SPIE 2014 Hack Day Wiki!

What?

A Hack Day hosted by SPIE at the bi-annual Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation conference. The 2014 conference is held at the Palais des Congrès in Montreal, Canada, from 22 to 27 June.

What's a Hack Day?

Hack Days are open, informal and freeform events where anyone can come along for a day to create, or help create, something new: a webpage, an application, a widget, a visualisation, or even a song or a video if you're artistically inclined. You can come to share your ideas, show something you've been working on, or learn new skills from others.

What would I do there?

The idea is not simply to continue working on whatever you do in your day job: it's a chance to try something new, play with your code or data, pick up some tips or skills from others. There is no Statement of Work, no Collaboration Agreement, no Deliverables, no Design Reviews.

If you want you can of course work with your existing collaborators on an existing project. All we ask is that you show what you're working on, show what you've done at the end, and are open to work with other participants.

I'm not a software developer!

Even if your job title doesn't mention "software", if you work in astronomy and/or instrumentation chances are you've written a few lines of code at some point. The Hack Day is not about delivering a finished software product, it's a chance to experiment or learn something new.

And Hack Days don't just need people who code: if you're good with design, visualization, or you simply have a great idea but not the technical skills, come along!