What is a hackathon

[Mark Saad]

All
 I know this may sound like a silly question but I wanted to get a broad opinion on this.
My "friends" job announced then would be having a company hackathon, where groups would be
formed and each group would be given 16 hrs to design and build a project to do stuff.
There would be winners and looser and prizes given out.  Is this a hackathon or
something else ?


His initial reaction when he was told about this was; "This isn't a hackathon, I am not sure what this is ?"
The organizer said "what do you think a hackathon is?"  He said ... its a collaborative effort, with a common goal 
designed quickly help a project as needed; usually short and rapidly paced. 


So anyway what do you all think, is this a hackathon or something else. 

--
Mark Saad
mark.saad at ymail.com