<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"Rule number one of Facebook's Hackathon: If you're new, you must hack! \nFacebook in Menlo Park, Calif. staged a Hackathon on Tuesday evening, kicking off at around 7 p.m. at Facebook's massive headquarters. During the course of the night, engineers and communications specialists alike coded and created new ideas that could one day be integrated into the Facebook you know and love. \nIf anything, the ideas could at least turn out to be entertaining. \nPast hackathons have resulted in some of the most well-known Facebook features \u2014 such as chat and Timeline, for example. Mike Vernal, director of engineering, said one idea that sprang from past hackathons was something the team called \"friendship pages.\" \nThe pages would house all activity between the user and one friend \u2014 things they have in common, photos they're both in and more \u2014 essentially telling the story of their friendship. From that idea another team created a project called, \"memories.\" \n\"Memories\" pulled together a summary of each year, highlighting updates and photos that had the most likes. Sound familiar? This idea was the early version of Timeline. \nA crowd gathered in a quad to commence the all-night event. In the center of the outdoor space was a yellow construction crane that seemed out-of-place at the crisp, new college-like campus. There's a story behind the crane, said Michael Kirkland, communications manager at Facebook. The crane was in the lobby of their former office and it was somewhat of a go-to meeting spot since it was so easily identifiable. \nWhen they began creating the new campus a little more than one year ago, they also brought the yellow crane, and now it's a fixture in the quad. That's just one of the quirky details on Facebook's very large yet cozy campus. \nIn total, there have been about 30 hackathons at Facebook. The idea behind them, says Vernal, is to give engineers time to take a break from their daily jobs to work on passion projects. Now, he says, when someone comes up with a new idea, they will wait until the next hackathon to hash-it-out on a team. Since hackathons happen every six-eight weeks, they don't have to wait long to brush-out those ideas. \nAnyone is welcome on a team, but everyone must code (see rule no. 1). Another advantage to the hackathon idea, Vernal said, is that people who don't usually work together get a chance to collaborate. \nAs of late, Facebook is being a bit hush with the media and outsiders \u2014 avoiding any chance of tarnishing its impending IPO. And even though there was a keg and plenty of food to keep people awake all night long, unsurprisingly, most were using the fuel to stay glued to their laptop screens, preparing to code the night away. \nCheck out our gallery of pics from the event, and let us know in the comments: if you could participate in a Facebook hackathon, what would you build?\n\n\nFacebook Hackathon\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFacebook Hackathon\nFacebook's held about 30 hackathons to allow engineers to work on passion projects that might lead to big breakthroughs, or maybe just massive QR codes on the rooftop. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFacebook Hackathon\nThe crowd consisted of people from various departments in the company. Teams were chosen prior to the all-night-event. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFacebook Hackathon\nImmediately after the hackers and teams of hackers dispersed, these two set-up in front of this colorful graffiti art wall. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFacebook Hackathon\nPedram Keyani rests in a beanbag as he settles-in for the night and begins hacking. Mike Vernal, director of engineering said most people will stay until 2 or 3 a.m. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFacebook Hackathon\nA team huddles around their laptops to work on their ideas to transform Facebook. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFacebook Hackathon\nThe quad where the kick-off was held has the word \"Hack\" spelled-out in dark concrete. Supposedly, you can see it from space.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2012/04/18/facebook-hackathon-2/>