Socio-technical Constraints and Affordances of Virtual Collaboration - A Study of Four Online Hackathons

Hackathons and similar time-bounded events have become a popular form of collaboration in various domains. They are commonly organized as in-person during which teams engage intense over short period time to complete project that is interest them. Most research date has thus consequently focused on studying how collaborate co-located setting, pointing towards the advantages radical co-location. The global pandemic 2020, however, led many hackathons moving online, challenges our current understanding they function. In this paper, we address gap by presenting findings from multiple-case study 10 hackathon participated 4 across two continents. By analyzing collected data, found merged synchronous asynchronous means communication maintain common work progress well awareness each other's tasks. Task division was self-assigned based individual skills or interests, while leaders emerged different strategies (e.g., participant experience, responsibility registering team an event). Some affordances hackathons, such co-location members, could be partially reproduced kept open channels working (i.e., shared audio territories), sort "radical virtual co-location". However, others, interactions with other teams, easy access mentors, networking participants, decreased. addition, technical constraints tools platforms brought problems were overwhelming participants. Our contributes small context online technologies event structures proposed organizers imply collaboration.