Skip to content

Day 1 — Question, Evidence, and Build

Tuesday, September 15, 2026 · full day

Day 1 turns a broad interest into a focused public-data question and one visible build. Update the Home page as you work so Day 2 is for interpretation and sharing, not reconstruction.

Edit your team page Open Home See the OLC example

Event rhythm

Time Event and team focus
8:30 a.m. Check-in
9:00 a.m. Opening
9:30–10:30 a.m. Hackathon introduction; form teams, choose a pathway, frame a question
10:30 a.m. Break
10:45 a.m.–noon Inspect evidence; record source, place, period, units, coverage, and meaning
Noon Lunch lecture, including CubeDynamics as an optional extension
1:00–3:00 p.m. Build the smallest useful artifact and document decisions
3:00 p.m. Break
3:15–4:15 p.m. Continue the build; produce a working visual, output, or useful obstacle
4:15–4:45 p.m. Peer evidence and stewardship review
4:45–5:00 p.m. Save work and write the first Day 2 task
Evening Supper and optional help

Times follow the source OLC event schedule; facilitators may announce local adjustments.

9:30–10:30 — Form, focus, and choose a pathway

Add team members, two or three norms, and one decision rule. Then choose a question that the available public evidence can meaningfully investigate during the event.

Select or combine a pathway:

  • Guided Explorer: inspect and explain a pattern.
  • Data Investigator: compare coverage or analytical choices.
  • Technical Extender: reproduce or extend a documented method.

Before moving on, complete sovereignty checkpoint 1 on Home: who framed the question, whose priorities it reflects, and whether the available data truly fit.

10:45–noon — Audit the evidence

For every important source, record:

  • Producer and stable source link
  • Place or geographic support
  • Observation period and completeness
  • Units and physical meaning
  • Transformations already applied
  • Important omissions and tempting overinterpretations

By lunch, write one scoped question and complete at least one row of the Data and Evidence table. Read Public Data and Stewardship before using public availability as a reason for reuse.

1:00–4:15 — Represent and build

Choose the smallest artifact that can teach the team something: a figure, comparison, map, notebook, workflow, model, prototype, educational resource, or documented failure.

As you work:

  • Keep the question ahead of the software.
  • Save a working figure or screenshot early.
  • Record methods and decisions in plain language.
  • Keep failed attempts if they reveal a limit or save future effort.
  • Revise the question if evidence coverage does not match it.
  • Link directly to code, notebooks, data provenance, and outputs.

CubeDynamics is optional. Use it only through a facilitator-provided verified environment; see the optional guide.

4:15–4:45 — Peer evidence and stewardship review

Trade pages with another team. Reviewers should ask, not certify:

  • Can I tell what one data value means, where it represents, and when it was observed?
  • Does the artifact support the written observation?
  • Is interpretation clearly separated from observation?
  • What is missing or represented poorly?
  • Could any public wording imply authority, consultation, or approval that has not occurred?
  • What is the smallest useful task for tomorrow morning?

Day 1 finish line

Before leaving, Home should contain:

  • A team, simple working norms, and one decision rule
  • One focused question and a selected pathway
  • Source, place, period, and meaning for the main evidence
  • One visible artifact, early result, or well-documented obstacle
  • Notes on what happened and what remains uncertain
  • One named Day 2 finish task with an owner

Save the work where it will persist. Do not add restricted or sensitive material to public GitHub.