Steve Volan has owned indiana.com since 1995, but for years didn’t have the resources or knowledge to do anything with the domain space, so it remained empty.
However, after attending a startup weekend in Bloomington in 2008, Volan was motivated to so something with indiana.com. It was then that the Geodomain Hackathon was born.
A hackathon is an intense collaboration between computers programmers, graphic designers and others working in technology to solve real world problems.
The Geodomain Hackathon that took place over the weekend at the Thomas Gallery on the square was a three-day event organized by Volan, who is a city council and IU faculty member.
The hackathon started Friday at 5:30 p.m. The team worked about 35 hours over the three day period.
The goal of the hackathon is to offer scaleable tools for geodomain owners to showcase the individual character their state or city describes, Volan said.
There’s a lot that has to come together with a project that encompasses so much, Volan said.
The team could have just made a tourism site on Wordpress, but that’s not enough.
He said the hackathon team wants to serve people who already live in Indiana as well as tourists.
“We want to create a framework for all of the things that should be at indiana.com,” Volan said. “We want to make the place better.”
Most state websites are generic, Volan said.
For example, arizona.com is mostly tourism, city names and no original content.
Volan organized the hackathon to take action and build indiana.com to be something special, he said.
One of his main goals with the geodomain is to have original content. He wants the website to include not only information about Indiana tourism but also how to start a business in the state.
“We want to show people that we care enough about Indiana to create original content,” Volan said. “This is the first hackathon with real tangible results.”
The team has started reaching out to local businesses about buying ad space on the website.
The hackathon was mainly advertised through social media and word of mouth, Volan said.
The team now has 20 members involved. Members can vary from IU students in their 20s to local Bloomington residents in their 60s.
Food from restaurants around the square, such as The Owlery, Grazie and Btown Diner, as well as a masseuse were brought in to keep team members motivated.
Lesli Sorensen, who graduated from the Maurer School of Law ten years ago, traveled from Phoenix, Arizona, to be involved with the Geodomain Hackathon.
Sorensen worked with Volan before on a different business and said she wanted to work with him again.
“We’re striving towards this community goal,” Sorensen said. “There are lots of interesting conversations taking place. We’ve made great contacts and friendships.”
What makes this hackathon different from others is everyone is working together towards one common goal, rather than breaking up into teams and competing against one another, Volan said.
Wes Wagner, a sophomore at IU studying entrepreneurship and international business, said he has enjoyed working with like-minded individuals through the Geodomain Hackathon.
“It’s a very close knit community I’d say,” Wagner said. “A lot of the people who are in it are very passionate go-getters who take initiative.”
The final version of indiana.com will be available by March 1.
