Q. Who can participate in the MACHathon?

A. Anyone can. Anyone can sign up with friends or colleagues as a team. We require teams of minimum 3 people. 

We especially invite:

* Staff and partners from MACH Alliance members

* Companies who consider going composable and want to try out a proof of concept

* Anyone with a passion for getting their hands on this tech

Q. What skills do people need to sign up?

A. We're excited to see your wildest ideas become reality. Since diverse teams create the best outcomes, we encourage you to get diverse skills on board. So, if you can, team up with product thinkers and business thinkers develop your idea from global relevance to actual product development.

However, don't worry if your team doesn't have the diversity yet. Just join us to see your grand idea come to life!"

Q. What components can participants work with?

A. MACH Alliance members are making their products and knowledge available and you’ll find your way through a properly stocked sandbox, relevant demo’s and webinars to help you create what you need. 

Q. How concrete does my idea have to be to sign up?

A. To sign up, all you need is some free time between the 22nd and 29th of January.

Q. How much time should participants be available?

A. We suggest that every participant has at least 15 hours available throughout the week to be productive enough.

The more time participants can spare, the more advanced the proof of concept will probably be. 

Q. What are some examples of projects?

A. Apart from the general topic and our wish to have project ideas that can make an impact in people's lives, we have mainly drawn inspiration from these sources:

* Number of people with disabilities working at Japanese firms tops 500,000 for first time

* Japan Cafe Uses Robots Controlled by Disabled People

* Be My Eyes - See the world together

* How artificial intelligence is creating jobs in India, not just stealing them

* How fast can you move with MACH? A 4-week augmented reality experiment

Q. What are some examples of prizes?

A. There is the overall opportunity to show what you can do with hyper modern and composable tech - we’ll help you promote your proof of concept and create a stage to show the examples of possibility.

Additionally MACH Alliance members are sponsoring cash prices for awards in various categories. 

MACH Alliance Members will decide which key components of a solution will be awarded prizes - based for example on the social impact relevance or the specific type of tech used.

Q.  Do you have to use MACH Alliance vendor products? If so, how many?

A. We expect that the teams want to use products or components from MACH Alliance members in their projects and we will make those available. This is not an obligation but will be part of the judging framework. 

Teams using their own API first, Cloud native, Microservice components are absolutely free to do so.

MACHathon teams are required to submit a 3-min video of their solution by Thursday, 28th of January, EOD. It is up to them to decide how simple or elaborate they want their video to be. 

As the main cornerstone of the jury’s decision, however, the video should give all judges a good understanding of the team’s project, where they are coming from and why they chose this specific project, how they set up their project, which technologies they used, what their team results of the MACHathon are and if and how they expect to take their project forward after the MACHathon. 

In addition to the video, teams should submit architecture diagrams of their solution as well as a few slides or a document explaining why they chose the tech stack they used. 

Lastly, teams should submit a live URL, or any other way in which their project can be accessed. 

Teams can also decide to add more material, however, it’ll be up to the judges to decide if they want to take those additional materials into consideration or not.