I had been waiting for an thread which discusses more upon the wider topic of the 30d format, mainly comments on the various clubs or localhost who have decided to organize this. (there is no other thread which discusses on this format specifically).
Another thing which I expected was that, there would be an RFC or public forum poll or some other way to collect the wider community feedback. This wasn’t done which is a shock, maybe its fine cause i trust the board and foundation. (micro-rant)
Since its now “decided”… to the organizers, what are the different guidelines we should keep in place to ensure smooth running for the 30d format. There was no detailed information on this as well, so simply discussing this prior “might” help.
I absolutely agree your point. Whilst coordinating/discussing with other club heads, it was highlighted that half of them had no clue on how the 30day format works; and also its feels that the work distribution between the local host and FOSS United was misinterpreted that the local host would work only in the last 2 days. So, I kindly request the committee and the board to address this query as soon as possible as there are many other delivarables which need prior attention if a club takes up the responsibility.
+1. While I had some idea this was supposed to happen, I think this was officially confirmed just a few weeks ago. Lack of documentation is indeed problematic. My best guess is this is happening because of staffing changes and since the format change may have added additional workload on the team. We still don’t have chairs for the hackathon, for example.
In regards to the decision, this has been in discussion for a very long time. I was able to find some references here -
From FOSS Hack 2026, we intend to change FOSS Hack from being a weekend-long hackathon, to being a month-long hackathon. (Internal) Annual Report 2024-2025
We are working on revamping FOSS Hack 2026, to ensure that the hackathon is able to meaningfully improve participation in the FOSS ecosystem. We are considering changing the hackathon duration from a weekend to a month, and we hope to restrict College Localhosts to existing FOSS Clubs. We will be putting out an RFC with this revamp in Q3 2025 for comments Quarterly Report - Q2 2025
I don’t know if the team just missed posting an RFC or this was skipped because this has been discussed with the governing board. At least one mention here -
Swastik asked if FOSS Hack was being planned for 2026, and I replied that yes, FOSS Hack 2026 was indeed being planned, but that it was going to be a significant departure from FOSS Hack 2025. Based on our previous experience, we intend to make changes to the duration of the hackathon, criteria regarding which localhosts could host the hackathon in-person, and shifting the focus towards more contributions to partner projects. Notes from the October 2025 Governing Board meeting
I can confirm that documentation work is ongoing and relevant organiser guidelines etc. are being prepared (saw some drafts just yesterday).
We’ve shared a WIP planning thread now, would love everyone to add their thoughts there, especially around making the month-long format smoother in practice. Planning FOSS Hack 2026