This is an awesome initiative, props to YC and Hack The North for arranging for all of this. About to submit my office hours app for http://www.startuptimelines.org/
Contrary to popular belief, not all of Canada is a frozen northern wasteland. Waterloo is further south than 11 US states. It's about as "north" as the south of France (Got to love google maps). Save the north talk and the arctic midnight motif for when you come to UNBC.
The term "hack the north" suggests some effort to deal with uniquely northern problems such as a lack of broadband and poor access to satellites.
Back in 2013, there was no big Canadian hackathons part of MLH. We were originally going to call it Hack Waterloo or Waterloo Hacks or something along those lines. But the issue we had back at the end of 2013 is that none of the other schools really knew where Waterloo was.
We wanted a name that people could identify with an area. And considering all of the biggest undergrad hackathons are in the USA, and completely without argument South of us... Identifying as the North isn't really off base.
I believe DubHacks (U of Washington) is the only major US hackathon that is North of us.
Also, who doesn't identify Canada as the North? We aren't just a hackathon at Waterloo. Hell, over half our attendees don't even attend UWaterloo. We're Canada's largest undergraduate hackathon. That's what matters. We're identifying as Canada at a hackathon that just happens to be in Waterloo. Basically, we wanted a name that we could use even if we changed the venue to be anywhere in Canada.
You got pretty bitter over the name of a hackathon. As I said, a lot of our attendees identify Waterloo as being North of them. Because it is. Its Canada.
As for your last sentence:
Does HackMIT sound like a hackathon in which you deal with problems faced only at MIT? Does Boilermake sound like a hackathon in which you make boilers? Does PennApps make it sound like its a hackathon in which you make apps for UPenn students?
Its a name that identifies us as Canadian without explicitly being called Hack Canada because we didn't want to be too overarching as to bother the other hackathons in our Country.
Hey, who knows, maybe we eventually will make a hackathon in the style of WHacks (our 2014 April Fools prank) and call it Hack the North:
http://whacks.info/
When I saw the HN headline I wondered what "Hack the North" was. As a Canadian I wondered if it was to tackle "uniquely northern" problems, then went down the pessimistic path if it was for northern problems, it would be pretty douchey & ignorant to pretend that a bunch of brogrammers in a southern city could use their laptops to solve the social problems of a place where many lack safe homes & potable water.
Luckily, "Hack the North" is branding, and it makes sense if you're trying to attract an American audience, although if most of your attendees are from Canada, having them fly south to "Hack the North" is kind of ironic.
For anyone thinking about organizing a hackathon to solve northern problems: Make sure your hackers are actually helping solve problems and not trivializing them.
Two points: 1) "The north" is an actual area, with unique technological problems, none of which involve southern Ontario. Canada has particular relationships with "the north" in areas from climate change to Native rights to arctic sovereignty. Canada even has a minister Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development. Waterloo is certainly not on his radar. "The true north" may be in the song, but you won't hear many Canadians refer to all of Canada as any north.
2) "Hack the north" suggests some sort of event dealing with northern problems. HackMIT is accurate because it involves MIT. It's not a call to hack (verb) MIT but MIT is a physical place an it is at least happening at that location. But MIT is not a region of the planet with unique circumstances. Would a HackAfrica or HackOceania event having nothing to do with African or pacific problems be appropriate?
Actually no. HackTheNorth is unique on that list. Every other one seems, to me, accurate in terms of geography. All but a couple are named after the unique place where they are being held. Those with regional descriptors (Desert Hacks) seem accurate. But only the waterloo event uses both "Hack" as a verb and addresses a region totally outside of its location. It is also the only one to include "the", suggesting that the thought process behind the name was slightly different.
"The North" = "Canada" now in terms of media. The Raptors have embraced it ("We the North"), and honestly I think most Canadians are perfectly fine with the name, even enjoy it. Anything even remotely related to social media now uses "The North" to refer to Canada.
The tourism people aren't so hyped on the dark-and-frozen imagery. Waterloo is currently 25* and sunny. I was talking to a real estate agent last week who had to reassure an overseas buyer that Canadian summers do exist, that a heated driveway was not a necessity in Vancouver.
My impression is that a heated driveway would actually make things worse because it'd melt the snow into ice, which is harder to drive on and get rid of and a general safety hazard.
Its a great name for a Hackathon, our country is north of the US, in the northern hemipshere, our national anthem states: "true north strong and free", deal with it.
I wholeheartedly agree. I'm western Canadian (Alberta), but I've lived in Waterloo previously (briefly).
What surprised me the most (from living there) is that most Ontarians believe Thunder Bay to be "North" (almost nobody in Ontario lives north of Thunder Bay), but to anybody from Western Canada, Thunder Bay is south of the border (Thunder Bay being between the 48th and 49th Parallel, while to any western canadian, the 49th parallel, for all intents and purposes, is the border).
For someone in Waterloo (A Canadian city) to brand themselves as "Northern" is a bit of a stretch, from my perspective, and I assume it's not just me. Portland and Seattle are both "north" of Waterloo.
We notice the same thing in the US. The "Northeast" is mostly south of Portland Oregon (the big, important Portland, not the tiny one in Maine). East coast folk don't realize how far south their coast is.
To say nothing of the fact that the southeast thinks it's "the south" which undoubtedly confuses all foreign visitors to Texas who are told "this isn't the South".
I wouldn't, but I expect many New Yorkers might take issue with being called southerners. And southerners might take issue with a "Hack the South" name on an event held in Vermont.
We offer Airbnbs and Hotels around the campus
For the organizers..if you want you can embed directly on the website to help other attendees: https://www.stay22.com/events/hack-the-north?promptembed=tru...