Typically a pack of night owls, some of Boston’s most talented developers showed up bright and early last Sunday to the first ever Health Graph API Hackathon, hosted by Terrible Labs. With a breakfast of champions and plenty of coffee lined up, they were ready to rock out with the Health Graph API.
RunKeeper CEO, Jason Jacobs, kicked things off with an overview of the Health Graph API, describing how it enables developers to tap into RunKeeper’s base of over 6MM users to build apps that complement RunKeeper. Jacobs pointed out some of the apps the RunKeeper community has been asking for, highlighting the potential for nutrition trackers, strength training apps and charitable giving apps to quickly gain traction with existing users.
With pizzas on the way and a fridge stocked with beers to keep ‘em crankin’, the Ruby developers decided to band together tackle a few different areas of the RunKeeper ecosystem.
Joe Lind and Will Mernagh spent a majority of their efforts building RunKeeper’s Ruby Wrapper, Baby Tooth. This is an awesome new addition to the Health Graph API, enabling other Ruby developers to quickly get their own apps up and running.
Jeremy Weiskotten’s team focused on building an app that leverages the game layer to help RunKeeper users raise money for charities by completing fitness challenges. The app still needs a name–any ideas for what they should name it? Leave your feedback in the comments!
Finally, Jeffrey Chupp led a team working on an app that uses RunKeeper to track a user’s sleep. Overall, it was an exciting to see devs jump into the Health Graph API and wrap their heads (and code!) around how to build features to enhance the RunKeeper experience.
Check out the video below (from Arestia Rosenberg), featuring event footage including Jeffrey, Joe and Jeremy’s presentations:
Thanks to Terrible Labs for hosting this killer event, to Winter Wyman and Silicon Valley Bank for sponsoring the day, and to Gemvara for letting us use their beautiful new office space to host the event!
The fun doesn’t stop there! A few follow up Health Graph API and IPA events are planned to continue building on the projects that were started. Join the next APIs & IPAs hack session on Wednesday September 21 at 7pm. Sign up here!