BALTIMORE, MD – December 7, 2010 –R2integrated (R2i), a leading digital marketing and technology agency, is pleased to announce that software engineer, Peter Bessman, won the first-ever Baltimore Hackathon.
Held at Beehive Baltimore in the Emerging Technology Center at Canton, the Baltimore Hackathon was an event whereby participants were tasked to build a hardware or software project from idea to prototype in 72 hours. More than 75 engineers, designers, and digital marketers teamed up to compete for various cash and prizes.
Working with Brent Halliburton, CEO of Cogmap and Deconstruct Media, Peter earned “Best Group Software Prototype” by producing an open source Wordpress plug-in that automates the process of headline split testing. This plug-in allows users to enter an alternate headline for every post on a blog. The headlines are then randomly alternated on the website until a certain number of "headline views" has been reached. At that point, a "winning" headline (as determined by the number of people that have clicked on each headline to date) is selected and is shown going forward.
“We’re extremely proud of Peter for not only participating in this competition, but for taking home winning honors that align closely with our work here at R2i,” said Chris Chodnicki, CTO. “Peter’s performance is a testament to the overall talent, ingenuity and technology mind power of the company.”
The headline split tester is an open-source product and available for download.
About R2integrated
R2integrated (R2i) is a leading Internet marketing and technology agency that helps companies distribute and manage content across online communities (publish), create rich, sharable experiences (engage), build and foster social customer relationships (connect), and analyze buying behavior and optimize accordingly (understand). R2i clients range from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies from various industry verticals. Privately-owned, R2i is headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland with offices in New York City, Northern Virginia, Seattle, and St. Louis.