COORDINATION OF COLLECTIVE EFFORTS TO TACKLE THE NEW CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC: A CASE STUDY ON THE HACKATHON HACK FOR BRAZIL | COVID-19

ABSTRACT

This article aligns with the academic community's efforts to deal with the consequences of Covid-19. The study addresses the Hack for Brazil initiative, a civic hackathon that brought together more than a thousand participants, to investigate how the coordination of collective efforts is carried out in contexts of large scale and intense dynamism. Based on the networks micro-coordination research, the article analyzed five constructs: roles, profiles, involvement, interaction and alignment. Evidence was collected through documents, individual interviews and a focus group with hackathon participants. Results showed that network micro-coordination has an adaptive and emerging characteristic in large hackathons. The intense dynamism refrains the strengthening of social bonds and hinders the interaction and involvement of the participants. The large scale increases the heterogeneity of profiles and allows coordinating roles to be evolved organically by the participants. Alignment occurs in the heat of decisions, requiring the formalization of rules to reinforce the decisiveness of the participants. The study brought contributions to the practices employed by hackathon promoters by highlighting the constructs that affect their implementation and replication. In the end, the study points out windows of opportunities for investigating network micro-coordination in dynamic contexts.

Keywords:
Covid-19; Hackathon; Networks; Coordination; Hack for Brazil