Hac Boston

The Haskell Hackathon is an international, grassroots collaborative coding festival with a simple focus: build and improve Haskell libraries, tools, and infrastructure.

Hac Boston will be held January 20 to 22, 2012 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, rooms 4-159 and 4-261. It is open to all — you do not have to be a Haskell guru to attend. All you need is a basic knowledge of Haskell, a willingness to learn, and a project you're excited to help with (or a project of your own to work on).

There will be lots of hacking, some talks, good food, and, of course, fun!

Not to be confused with HAC Boston.

Registration

We have room for approximately 80 people, and have just under 50 people registered so far. If you plan to be in the area and are thinking about attending, please register. Registration is free, and open to everyone. If you like, you can also list yourself as an attendee. Then you might want to visit

• the projects page.

• the IRC channel: #haskell-hacboston (freenode)

• the mailing list: hackathon@haskell.org

Sponsors

Hac Boston 2012 is sponsored by Capital IQ and Now Business Intelligence.

Dates and Times

The hackathon will run from January 20 to 22, 2012, at the following times:

Date	Day	Times
Jan 20	Friday	14:30 to 22:00
Jan 21	Saturday	09:00 to 22:00
Jan 22	Sunday	09:00 to 17:00

There will probably be some talks Saturday afternoon.

Although the hackathon won't officially kick off until 2:30pm on Friday, you are welcome to arrive Thursday evening or Friday morning if it makes for easier travel.

Food

Day	Time	Food
Friday	06:30	Pizza and Salad
Saturday	09:30	Breakfast (Bacon, Eggs, Veggie option)
Saturday	12:30	Lunch (Sandwiches, chips, salad)
Saturday	16:00	Presentations and talks (no dinner)
Sunday	10:30	Brunch

Before you arrive

• Pick out a couple of projects to work on and familiarise yourself with them, or bring your own project(s) to work on. See the projects page for a list of projects people plan to work on. If you plan to work on your own project, be sure to list it on the projects page and set up a public repository if you don't already have one, so that other people can help hack on your project.
• Install an up to date Haskell toolchain: at least ghc and cabal-install. If you don't already have these installed (or need to install from scratch on the laptop you're bringing), the easiest way is probably to install the Haskell Platform.

Talks

If you'd be interested in giving a short (15-20 minute) talk, put your name and the subject of your talk on the talks page. There will be a projector and whiteboard available.

Maps

We have a Google map regarding transportation and places to stay, and another with points of interest around Cambridge.

The hackathon itself is in Building 4 spread between rooms 159 and 261.

Getting to the Boston area

See also Wikitravel.

By air

Logan International Airport (BOS) is the closest major airport. From BOS you can take the Silver Line SL1 bus to Boston South Station.

T. F. Green Airport (PVD) in Providence is another option, with a (infrequent) rail connection to Boston South Station.

By train

Amtrak serves Boston South Station, station code BOS. Service from cities in the Northeast is available on both the Northeast Regional train and the marginally faster Acela Express. These trains also stop at Boston Back Bay (BBY). South Station is the better choice if taking transit to MIT, but Back Bay is closer for walking.

From certain points in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, you can take MBTA commuter rail, which arrives at South Station or North Station.

By bus

Boston is served by many bus companies. From New York City, reasonable and cheap options include Megabus, BoltBus, Fung Wah, and Lucky Star.

Getting to MIT

By human power

Cambridge is a very walkable city. It is feasible to walk to MIT from many points in Cambridge, Boston, and Brookline. Cambridge is also very bikeable, but maybe not in January.

By public transit

MIT is close to Kendall Station on the Red Line subway. The Red Line connects to Boston South Station (and its rail and bus terminals) and the rest of the MBTA rapid transit network. MIT is also served by MBTA buses. Google Maps can plan rail and bus trips.

From the Kendall stop on the Red Line, you will need to make your way to building 4. You'll exit on Main St, and you want to go south. For reference, the Marriott and other large buildings are arranged around a courtyard north of Main St.

Next to the subway exit and the MIT Press Bookstore, there is a path which quickly becomes Carleton St. Follow Carleton south past MIT Medical (and maybe some tasty food trucks) until you're forced to veer right onto Amherst St. Continue straight off the end of Amherst, passing the tall Green Building and the pointy metal sculpture. Eventually your path will be obstructed by the interconnected complex of buildings 2, 4, and 6. Go inside and make your way to 4-159. The local inhabitants are friendly and will be happy to point you in the right direction if you get lost.

See also the line drawn on the transportation map.

You could instead cut through MIT Medical and cross Ames St. to enter building 66 (the triangular one). From there you can get to building 4 following interior hallways only. This could be a better option if the weather is terrible.

By car

Parking possibilities include:

• The Marriott
• Parking of Vassar-Mass Ave

If it's after 5PM on Friday, you might try the Hayward lot.

Accommodation

We're still actively investigating what kinds of bulk deals we can get on hotels in the area.

There are a number of nearby hotels suggested on the MIT web site. Boston has several hostels as well.

There may also be some local residents willing to accommodate a few attendees. See the attendees page for more info.

Organizers

The organizers of Hac Boston are:

• Edward Kmett (ekmett)
• Edward Yang (ezyang)

For any questions or emergencies, you can always call Edward Kmett at +1 857 244 1001 or Edward Yang at +1 732 947 6971.