Browsing through ‘collectables/weird stuff’section of ebay, Axegrinder today came across something very curious – nine IT journalists are being ‘auctioned off”.
Closer examination reveals that this Adopt-a-Hack scheme is a way of ensuring journalists attend this year’s Flackenhacks, an alternative awards ceremony for PRs and journalists working in the IT industry.
The Flackenhacks blog reveals that the organisers are hoping ‘the great and the good of the UK tech PR agency world’will bid for the hacks. Half of the money raised through the auctions will go to the Byte Night charity.
The ebay site offers this guidance to anyone considering bidding for a hack: ‘Effectively, you’re bidding for the right to invite him along to The Flackenhacks. If you win the auction, you might also consider that you’ve got the right to pester him all night. But we leave a decision on that to your better judgement.”
Up for grabs are the following:
Mark Samuels, editor of CIO Connect; Andy McCue, former deputy editor of Silicon, not freelance; Mark Dye, freelance; Bryan Glick, editor of Computing; Michael Dempsey, freelance; Jeremy Kirk, London correspondent of the IDG News Service; Rob Kerr, tight head prop for London Scottish and presumably an IT journalist; Eric Doyle, freelance; and David Meyer, senior reporter for ZDNet.
At the time of writing, seven of the hacks have each attracted single bids of £19.99 but three bids for Kerr have lifted him to £26 while Dye now stands at £36 after attracting seven bids.
The Flackenhack Awards 2008 are on the evening of October 29 at the The Village Underground,
 54 Holywell Lane, Shoreditch, 
London EC2A 3PQ. Full information at the Flackenhacks blog.
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