Hack Days, Hackathons...Are you up for it ?

Large companies are now pushing themselves hard to keep pace with innovation and are experimenting with new ways to unleash the creative talent their employees hold.

It is largely beleived that getting the most out of the knowledge workers will be the key to business success in future.

Google encourages their engineers to spend up to 20 percent of their time on a project of their choice.

Jotspot organises hackathons , they define hackathons as
a day-long event where their engineers each crank on something:
* valuable to the company
* but not what they’re “supposed” to be working on and
* that can be taken from idea to working prototype in one day

Yahoo recently had a hack day, the plan was simple: give people a whole day to hack on prototypes, pet projects, ideas, learning a new tool, etc. The detailed report of their hack day can be read over here.

So startups and established companies are doing a lot to encourage employeees to participate in creating the next Killer app.

What about companies here in India ? Should we not encourage the same or are companies just worried too much of losing the billable hours ?

What about the employees themselves ? Don't you want to pursue your pet project or do you just want to do what you are told to do ?

Regards
Ajay Sanghani,
CEO
ITVidya ( http://www.itvidya.com )
MY IT Blog @ http://ajaysanghani.itvidya.com
Cell : 09820020753 Yahoo IM and Skype : ajaysanghani