Second Screen, Social TV & Connected TV Apps Hackathon

TV Hackfest: San Fran 7-8 Feb

Two days of Hacking TV at TV Hackfest last week had over 100 developers battling to create new TV experiences as part of Apps World North America 2013 in San Francisco.

Apps World drew an estimated 8000 attendees, who feasted on a plethora of exhibits, workshops and presentations on the emerging trends in the world of mobile apps.

TV Hackfest had coders and creatives battling for $3,000 in prizes... and they took 24 hours to dream up new mobile apps that will help usher in the era of the second screen TV as well as create new TV Apps for the bigs screen in new development ecosystems from the likes of Samsung, LG and Google TV. Starring roles were being played by developers from Google, Facebook and Twitter who all supported the event.

"The goal here," said HackFest founder Richard Kastelein, "was to marry together the creatives with the technologists and see what they could come up with. And with such a vibrant transmedia community here in the Bay Area, where the storytellers and the coders work so well together, we feel we had to bring the HackFest here to the cutting edge. And we were extraordinarily pleased with the turnout and results."

The Winners were:

1. Best Hacker Team (Innovation Award) - ARG TV - Google TV Boxes, 500 Facebook Credits
2. Best Design - Movie Night - Google TV BoTV es, 500 Facebook Credits
3. Best Commercial Idea - Applause - Google TV Boxes, 500 Facebook Credits

API Vendor Winners

1. Tribune Media Services - MovieNight - $500
2. TVSync API - Applause - $1000
3. Moovweb - 1st Flixter $1000 - 2nd New York Times $500 - 3rd TravelociTV $500 - 4th (Most Technical Difficulty) MarketScope $500
4. Mashape - PlayAlong TV $500

More coverage online:

• Apps World's HackFest seeks the gold mine in TV (Contra Costa Times)
• Hackers search for new ways to experience TV (Silicon Valley Mercury News)