Facebook will go public hacker style with an all-night software bending bash to culminate with co-founder Mark Zuckerberg remotely ringing the Nasdaq opening bell on Friday, reports said.
Employees were signing up for a "hackathon" to start late Thursday at Facebook's offices in the Silicon Valley city of Menlo Park and continued until the social network's initial public offering of stock (IPO), according to tech news websites TechCrunch and All Things Digital.
"Hackathons are a big tradition at Facebook," the company explained on a Facebook page devoted to the events.
"They serve as the foundation for some great (and not so great) ideas," the message at facebook.com/hackathon continued.
"It gives our employees the opportunity to try out new ideas and collaborate with other people in a fun environment."
Despite the negative image given to hacking by cyber criminals and spies, software savants defend the term as coming from the innocent practice of using computer codes in creative new ways.
Facebook's campus, which was formerly home to Sun Microsystems, even has a street named "Hacker Way" and a building bearing the sign "The Hacker Company," where Zuckerberg gives talks about being innovative with software.
Zuckerberg even explained the company's devotion to "the hacker way" in paperwork filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in preparation for the IPO.
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