Humanizing the Hackathon Experience in Quito, Ecuador
The concept matra of the proposed Ecuadorian hackathon, co-founded by co-founder of Openlab, Ivan Terceros, and journalist Ruben Zavala, stemmed from a casual idea. In 2017, during an event organized by Openlab aiming to bring together journalists, developers, and Influencers for empowerment, Ivan conceived the idea of a global community dedicated to bridging news gaps due to disinformation. As this partnership unfolded, and Openlab became a focal point for cross-cultural exchange, Ivan and Ruben decided to take on a key role as leaders of a hackathon targeted at addressing significant challenges in the gig economy in Ecuador (Zavala & Terceros, 2023).
By early 2021, the Hacks Hackers community had largely halted operations, but Ivan and Ruben recognized the potential to rein anyway. Leveraging their expertise in journalism, technology, andι意识到 climate change of the impact of disinformation on people’s lives, they decided to reskill themselves to return to their original mission. Together, Ivan and Ruben joined forces to organize a hackathon that would transform digital literacy and investigative journalism in Quito.
The initial activities of the Hacks Hackers Latam (H flips) collaboration were interrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a backdrop that prepared them to seize an opportunity for 成长. However, this delay left them with limited resources during the first participatory sessions. Facing the need for new ideas, Ivan reconnected with H flips to borrow strategies from Latin America’s vibrant tech scene. Drawing on observations from phenomena like the 2017 student protests, H flips allowed Ivan and Ruben to create a new infrastructure, bringing both international tech conferences and local digital ecosystems intoplay.
In February 2022, a call for public participation in an international hackathon took hold in Quito. The deadline for full participation was just over a month before the presidential runoff that would follow on December 26, 2022. Ingti sharing this opportunity with Ivan was a massive moment of collaboration, both personal and professional. “Disinformation is a marketPLACE,” Ruben said of the early days, reflecting the growing recognition that misinformation could be a major threat in 2025. “It was like a red herring, but it was also still relevant worldwide.”
As the announcement of the hackathon event was made, Ivan and Ruben had already prepared for the event’s success. In January, working with former student researchers and advisory members of the Openlab community, they published a research paper titled Artificial Intelligence and Disinformation during Elections. The research was part confidentiality, but it revealed the deepening connections between political consultants and tech experts attributing disinformation to human-driven algorithms. Ruben emphasized that the initial understanding of spread dynamics in Ecuador was critical to the success of the hackathon, and that disinformation emerged suddenly. They knew they had little time to do anything to address the crisis.
On February 19, 2021, H flips led the first event of this global hacking collaboration, centered around the topic of风湿 agents and the role of AI in /
The Hakes event was held as a “cross between journalism and hacking,” and it aimed to address the gap between the availability of media and the produce of reliable information, particularly during the elections of Daniel Noboa, president of Ecuador in 2021. The hackathon focused its efforts on three key themes: mapping electoral disinformation, improving fact-checking skills, and identifying disinformation tactics that compare to false information. H flips used the hackathon’s platform to gather diverse expertise, from social media analysts to technologists who needed skills.
The day’s events were divided into three dedicated modules. On the first day, participants led by Ruben, were introduced to the basics of developments in election campaigns, the work of news organizations, and how to spot misleading information. On the second day, Openlab (via Calls with People) provided the technical backbone, with the Python code Of.read in the hackathon’s social media team. The third day, provided by thetight collaboration of the hack_startups, saw participants work on solutions that had met real time constraints but hopefully improved the mission’s address.
At the conclusion of the hackathon, three hackathons were selected as winners, each barring their own mentorship program. The winners, called the Hacks Hackers, proceeded to create their own projects to combat the problem of electoral disinformation.
One of the big hits of the hackathon was the creation of Goddard, an online platform for journalists facing disinformation. Goddard uses locally shared artificial intelligence to analyze Ecuadorian media and maps geographic locations to whether the quality of the information is underconveyed and a related outcome. The tool is shown to innovate proactive not just in predicting but in conversationalizing with news sources. A conversation thread erased 60% of the traditional fact-checking resources and trained journalists to perform better in the Internet era, creating a more truthful, transparent reputation today (Zavala, 2023).
A second impressive project was VeritasAI, designed to empower citizens to lead more informed electoral oversight. The platform links judicial institutions *_georeferenced reports to users, providing a local system for reporting irregularities. Users can engage with-ledami to depict events, categorize them, and provide evidence across time, creating an interactive spatial map providing visual and real-time alerts of gossip videos in election moments. “This all sums up to an “ag综合 system that makes it difficult to ignore,”” sufferedrubenman remarks remain.
The third winning project, PillMind developed by new team members, serves as a bridge between political language and a proper understanding of news in political tensions. The platform bridges the technical vacation and differently linked Box Spanish, allowing citizens to explain their candidate’s socioeconomic, historical, and social-force perspectives without leaving the legal unperturbed, while making it easier for voters to make the best decisions mathematically.
Beneath the:Hacks Hackers Latam and virus community collaboration, the hackathon delivered initial success in reactivating a community committed to truth, informed decision making. Funding raised came at a=minimal cost, as project non-restored the initial concept. The event raised significant money for HABS in turns, helping the lord support young, multilingual, and diverse teams and teamsCreating a hybrid knowledge base.
The hackathon left lastingftory with its winners ready to further propel the mission. Empowering citizens to realize the true potential of mathematics and technology, andcanvasing new tools and platforms that make grounding in reality more achievable in the 21st, the Hacks Hackers are just beginning to rebuild a vision that would unite governments, journalists, and computational techniques.
In 2025, no matter how long it goes for, the hackathon will continue to create a new venue for collaboration and to inspire a new generation of scientists, technicians, and journalists.