And yet nobody objects when Facebook runs a hackathon like this? Or is the food industry magically held to different standards than the tech industry?

What hackathon? You can run your own business in FB APIs, not just hand them over to FB.

And if you have a better soda fountain and don't want to sell it you can sell your product directly to bars and restaurants to compete with Coca-Cola, or sell it to Pepsi?

Except it

    * Gives participants resume boosters
    * Gives people direction on what to build in their spare time
    * Gives a common goal for those that feel like it
    * Offers college students some money (because it's probably not a well-employed 
       industrial designer that's going to win, because they aren't the ones
       participating)
    * Gets new ideas on the table, because cross-discipline innovation is where some
       of the most novel innovation can be found
    * Gets community feedback in the form of tangible products
    * Can be used to scout new talent

1. How so? I participated and won this hackathon is a resume booster? How does that compare with actual paid work from a client?

2. Getting a client and working on a paid project gives me plenty of direction as to what to build in my spare time.

3. What?

4. You're only getting money if they think your idea is best. One person/group wins, not everyone. You could have been doing something with guaranteed pay, not spec work.

5. Sure, you get new ideas on the table, but that doesn't mean they're good ideas. Not to mention you're giving away free ideas.

6. You're not really getting feedback from the community. You're getting it from the corporate sponsor.

7. No. They'll simply award the winner(s) $10k for IP and off they go. A win for the company.

1. How does dropped out of college to start startup compare to completing college degree? From the mouths of corporate hiring managers, suprisingly well. Until we get someone who does these kinds of decisions to comment on this, both statements are moot. 2. *paid time. 3. 2+ guys get together and do something. Everyone feels the fuzzy feeling of doing something with other people covering their backs. It's the tech equivalent of jamming. 4. Yes. Money is the measuring standard in this thing. I'm a big fan of money, but it's a means, not the end. 5. Doesn't mean they're bad ideas either. Also, if out of fear of bad ideas, we stopped pursuing ideas all together, we would stand still exactly where we are. 6. Nor is solving crossword puzzles. It can still be fun and relaxing/agitating. 7. If your company doesn't take down the names of those people who completely reengineered one of your key products in 2 days, I'm very sorry for your company. 8. Hackathons are fun. I want to sit with a couple of friends and play with ideas. If you're doing it for the money or the resume building...you got different priorities.

I actually have called people because they won Yahoo! Hack Days and put it on their resume...

1. Because it shows you succeeded in a driven project; and, as bluehat said, bluehat's hired people based on that.

2. Participating in hackathons is an easy, passive way to participate. It also doesn't leave the opportunity to fail as easily. If you mess up or get bored of the hackathon, you just stop. You're not screwing over a client-base. If this is your first project like this, you can even use it as a litmus test of whether you want to keep doing this type of thing, or not.

3. A common goal. There's an idea that maybe you hadn't thought about before; and now you, and your friends, can focus on this goal. Also, you, your friends, and several other people who found an interest, can all work on developing a new thing. It'll probably be more innovators than a normal team that would be designing the new machine.

4. True, but it's still nice incentive. TopCoder contests have prizes for the best contestants, too; and some of those are especially sponsored in much the same way.

5. You never know a good idea until you see it executed; and... so? Some people are freely willing to do that.

6. You, the company, are getting feedback from the community by some of the people in the community making a version of the product that handles some of their problems with the current models

7. Maybe, maybe not. I'm not Coca Cola. They /could/ use it for scouting, even if they don't.

* Buys more than $10,000 worth of press.

The first half of those points is the same fuzzy horseshit rolled out to defend unpaid internships.

That new ideas, informed feedback, and talent are valuable assets is obvious, so why should you hand them over for (virtually) free? That only devalues the value of the skills, training, and experience required to arrive at those insights.

You know, if I was at Pepsi-Cola right now I'd be assembling a team of interns (or multiple teams) to join the competition and participate. Not for the purpose of winning, but watching all the other entries and taking notes.

Is there some cross-team protection or NDA taking place for all the contestants?

No NDAs.