UPDATE 2013-10-01: Nate Porter pointed out that the Hacker League page doesn’t let you sign up. For now, use this Google doc.

A lot of folks on Twitter during ASA this year were chatting about the possibility of a hackathon during ASA 2014 in San Francisco. The reasons for having a hackathon, I think, are myriad; here are some of the various “purposes” that myself and members of the computational sociology listserv have considered:

• Incorporate computational methods into social science through teh h4x
• Inspire participants to apply computational methods to common social science problems
• Create an organizational nexus for computational sociology which makes it a vibrant and visible part of the discipline
• Develop and foster social ties that strengthen the field and point to the value of non-traditional venues for collaboration
• Create useful and interesting research products.
• Solidify connections among sub-community of folks in/around sociology who have a set of skills/tools/interests in things computational
• Increase visibility of that sub-community, partly by showcasing what can be done
• To support claim that sociology has a role to play in computational social science and that computation has a role to play in sociology.
• Connect folks already immersed in these skill areas with folks who are around the edges, curious, etc.
• To actually impart some new skills/ideas to folks.
• To actually produce something collectively useful.
• To lay foundation for something that could grow in future years at ASA meetings or in ASA in general (e.g., a network of folks working with these tools).

I’m really excited about the prospect of this. Laura Norén, Christopher Weiss, and I have been plotting to make this thing a reality. Right now we’re trying to gauge how many people would come out to such an event.

If you have even a tiny inkling that you might come to the hackathon, sign up at the Hacker League page.