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SAPO Codebits

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Codebits logo in 2009.

SAPO Codebits, also known simply as Codebits, was a conference held in Lisbon from 2007 to 2014, focused on computing and light-hearted geek culture content for a highly technical audience. It was organized by SAPO which, besides a news media brand, was also an internet-focused R&D division of Portugal Telecom at the time.

Codebits had a 48-hour hackathon at its core, but the number of talks and entertainment activities increased steadily over the years, along with the number of seats, attracting an increasing number of international attendees and speakers. At this point is was as much of a festival as it was a conference.

SAPO Codebits logo in 2014
In 2014, the "bot" mascot replaced the organizing company's "frog" as the official Codebits logo.
Pixels Camp logo
In 2016, Codebits was rebooted with a new name: Pixels Camp.

In 2015, Portugal Telecom was acquired by Altice,[1] SAPO's mission changed, and Codebits was discontinued after seven editions. In 2016, the Codebits format was revived under the name Pixels Camp. Pixels Camp ran for three more editions until the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Format

File:SAPO Codebits project presentations.jpg
Participants preparing to present their projects at the very first Codebits (2007).

Initially inspired by Yahoo! Hack Day,[2] the event lasted for three non-stop days and nights, with many participants choosing to eat and sleep on site. Its core was a 48-hour hackathon but it also included dozens of talks during the day, as well as several entertainment activities in the evenings.

Codebits was free for all participants, including plenty of food and drinks. Active recruiting inside the premises was disallowed and there were little commercial undertones apart from a few product announcements during the opening keynotes.

The number of seats was limited and potential attendees had to undergo a short screening process in order to secure a ticket. The screening process was meant to ensure that most, if not all, attendees had a suitable technical background or creative skills related to the event's theme. Applicants such as those in marketing and recruiting were usually rejected.

Codebits always started on a Thursday and had its first morning composed of general keynotes from the organizing company and its partners/sponsors, plus general information about the hackathon and satellite activities. The hackathon started in the afternoon, along with multiple tracks of talks in parallel, and lasted until Saturday morning, with that day's afternoon reserved for project presentations, voting, and the closing ceremony.

48-hour Hackathon

SAPO Codebits 2014 hackathon hall
The hackathon hall at Codebits VII (final edition, 2014), with the teams' tables and the secondary stages (the cylindrical structures).

In the hackathon, teams were free to propose whatever project they wanted, software or hardware, with no themes or subject restrictions. On Saturday, teams were required to present their projects on stage. They had 90 seconds to do it and the audience voted (thumbs up/down) between each presentation. The selection of winning teams was a combination of the audience votes and the votes of a jury panel. The weighting between the audience and jury votes varied from edition to edition.

SAPO Codebits 2014 hackathon voting
The audience voting for hackathon projects at Codebits VII (final edition, 2014). That year's voting system used computer vision to detect red/green cards.

Talks

Talks were mostly self-proposed by participants, but there were also a number of talks from invited speakers. Self-proposed talks followed a public process where all proposals were visible to everyone for comments and suggestions, but the final selection was made by the organizers.

Evening Activities

Satellite activities were usually held in the evenings. These activities usually combined entertainment with some element of geek culture. They were initially meant to relief some pressure from the hackathon, but gained a life of their own over time. Some of the most prominent activities were:

Quiz Show

Since 2008,[3] in the four weeks before the event, participants had to solve about one challenge per-week to qualify for the quiz show. The challenges included image enigmas, treasure hunts, code golf contests, among others. They all shared a reasonably high level of difficulty and required a fair knowledge of tech-related culture and motivation. Qualified participants then went on stage on Friday after dinner time for a few rounds of questions, mostly about science, technology, and geek trivia.[4]

Security Competition

The security competition followed a capture-the-flag (CTF) model. Participants were asked to answer questions and solve challenges related to cybersecurity (such as identifying and exploiting vulnerable applications purposely built for the competition) in order to obtain a tokens (flags) that translated into points. The competition took place on Thursday evening and lasted over three hours. Like the quiz show, participants must first qualify by solving a few challenges in the weeks before the event.

Nuclear Tacos

The "nuclear" tacos competition involved eating ultra-spicy tacos as fast as possible over a few rounds of increasing spiciness. It started in 2010 as just a dare to participants[5] but eventually evolved into a proper competition. It usually took place on Friday evening before the quiz show.

Other activities included a Presentation Karaoke, retro-gaming displays, and workshops on soldering, 3D printing, lockpicking, etc. Earlier editions also included music concerts (e.g. WrayGunn in 2007, Pornophonique in 2009).

Makers and Hardware

Codebits wasn't just about software, the hardware and maker culture was also a significant part of it. There were workshops on electronics from the start and, starting in 2010, there was also significant space dedicated to hardware project showcases and workshops (the "Hardware Den").

Editions

In 2013, Codebits was planned to happen simultaneously in São Paulo and Lisbon[10] delaying both events due to logistics issues at the Brazilian venue. Meanwhile, the latter was hit by fire (unrelated to Codebits), which forced an out-of-season Lisbon-only event in April 2014.

Reboot as Pixels Camp

Pixels Camp project presentations in 2016
Participants presenting their projects on stage at the first Pixels Camp (2016) while others queue for their turn.

In 2016, a team composed mostly of SAPO ex-employees rebooted the event under the name Pixels Camp[11] while keeping the format more or less the same.

Pixels Camp had three editions. In March 2020, a fourth edition was already in the very last stages of preparation when the COVID-19 pandemic forced its postponement to later that year. The organization remained active and conducted several online activities, but Pixels Camp v4.0 ended up being officially canceled in mid-September[12].

Pixels Camp was organized by Bright Pixel (a startup incubator and accelerator) and financed with the help of sponsorships. It has been informally reported that any future Pixels Camp editions, should they happen, would be organized independently with a financing model still to be defined. As of late 2023, no definite plans are known.

Pixels Camp Editions

References

  1. ^ "Altice closes €5.8B PT Portugal deal". Mobile World Live. 2015-06-03. Retrieved 2021-10-20.
  2. ^ "SAPO Codebits". Celso Martinho, 2007
  3. ^ "Codebits Quizz Show". João Pedro Gonçalves, 2008
  4. ^ "SAPO Codebits Quiz Show (2010)". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21. Carlos Morgado, 2010
  5. ^ "Project Apocalypse - How we made Nuclear Tacos at Codebits IV". Pedro Couto e Santos, 2010
  6. ^ "Futuro Hoje - 16 de Novembro de 2008". SIC, 2008
  7. ^ "SAPO Codebits 2010". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21. Aberto até de Madrugada, 2012
  8. ^ "SIC Futuro Hoje at SAPO Codebits". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21. SIC, 2012
  9. ^ "TVI Reportagem @ SAPO Codebits 2014". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21. TVI, 2014
  10. ^ "SAPO Codebits marcado para Abril em Portugal e no Brasil". 20 August 2013. Público, 2013
  11. ^ "Das cinzas do Codebits, nasce o Pixels Camp. Estás preparado?". Shifter, 2016
  12. ^ "About Pixels Camp v4.0". 14 September 2020. Pixels Camp Blog, 2020
  13. ^ "Pixels Camp". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21. RTP, 2016
  14. ^ "Pixels Camp traz campismo, moedas digitais e mais de mil participantes a Lisboa". Observador, 2017
  15. ^ "Chama-se Salazar e foi o projeto mais votado no Pixels Camp". Tek, 2019