This morning, we received a notice from our friends over at TruMedia. If you watch sports on TV, you’re likely aware of TruMedia’s products even if you’re not aware of them as a company — they produce data visualizations for sports broadcasts. They do more than that, of course, including data warehousing. Back to the notice we received — they have organized a MLB Hackathon, and it is happening right now!

You might not be familiar with the term Hackathon. If you’re not, here’s the Wikipedia definition:

A hackathon (also known as a hack day, hackfest or codefest) is an event in which computer programmers and others involved in software development and hardware development, including graphic designers, interface designers and project managers, collaborate intensively on software projects.

The idea is simple enough, and the allure of this particular hackathon is that its judges come entirely from the front offices of Major League Baseball teams — including Cleveland Indians’ general manager Mike Chernoff. Here’s the full list:

• Mike Chernoff, Cleveland Indians (GM)
• Dan Fox, Pittsburgh Pirates (Director of Baseball Informatics)
• TJ Barra, New York Mets (Manager of Baseball Research and Development)
• Sam Menzin, Detroit Tigers (Director Baseball Operations)
• Jack Goin, Minnesota Twins (Manager, Major League Administration and Baseball Research)
• Joe Sheehan, Toronto Blue Jays (Director of Analytics)
• Tod Johnson, Milwaukee Brewers (Asst. Director of Amateur Scouting Baseball Research)
• Trevor Patch, Colorado Rockies (Coordinator, Baseball Analytics)

The Hackathon runs from today through Jan. 3 (spanning two years!) The breakdown of the guidelines and rules is pretty comprehensive, so I won’t break them all down, but it sounds like an exciting event, if you’re into this sort of thing. And certainly, taking part in a project like this over the holidays is a great way to show the assembled front office execs just how committed you are to baseball analytics.

If you’re interested, head over to TruMedia’s website for the full details, which include rules, guidelines and example topics.