VOA慢速英語：硅谷有能耐 理念變商機(jī)

Almost anyone with a good idea and the ability to write directions for a computer software program can make products that were not possible before the internet.

幾乎每個(gè)有好想法，能制作電腦命令程序的人，都能制造出一種產(chǎn)品，這種產(chǎn)品在因特網(wǎng)出現(xiàn)之前難以想象。

But it is not enough to just have an idea. A team of people with different skills is necessary to turn that idea into reality.

僅僅有個(gè)好想法是不夠得。一隊(duì)擁有不同技能的人才能將想法變成現(xiàn)實(shí)。

Teams like this are often formed at an event called a hackathon.

像這樣的團(tuán)隊(duì)往往被稱為黑客馬拉松

Sabeen Ali is the founder and leader of a California company called AngelHack. It organizes hackathons around the world.

Sabeen Ali是加州一家公司名為AngelHack的創(chuàng)始人和領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人。該公司在全世界范圍內(nèi)都有這樣的黑客馬拉松團(tuán)隊(duì)。

At a hackathon, she says, people with creative ideas can join with others to develop and write computer programs.

她表示，在黑客馬拉松團(tuán)隊(duì)中，每個(gè)有創(chuàng)新想法的人都可以和其他人交流，共同研發(fā)電腦程序。

“A hacker is anyone that can take limited resources or be in any type of constraint -- time constraint, resource constraint, knowledge constraint -- and create something from nothing or something from very little.”

一個(gè)電腦黑客總能利用有限資源，在時(shí)間、資源和知識(shí)都有限的情況下，從零做起，開發(fā)出電腦程序。

As a child, Sabeen Ali learned to live on very little money. Her parents were immigrants from Pakistan. Her father died when she was very young.

還是孩童時(shí)，阿里就已經(jīng)學(xué)會(huì)用較少的錢存活。她的父母是來自巴基斯坦的移民。在她很小的時(shí)候父親就去世了。

“I lived in a house with a single parent, three kids. And we had to figure out how to do a lot of things on our own.”

我和媽媽一起生活，還有三個(gè)孩子。我們必須力所能及做很多的活。

Ali said she used her childhood experiences to create her company.

阿里說，她憑借幼時(shí)的經(jīng)驗(yàn)創(chuàng)辦了這家公司。

“Somebody who works in a larger organization 9-to-5, building the same app, day after day, can come and build that thing that’s been keeping them up at night. Or somebody like me, who’s an entrepreneur, who has this amazing idea -- I know how to make money from it, I know all the customers and the clients, but I don’t have the tech resources to be able to put it together -- I needed this type of outlet and support and forum.”

有些人在大公司里工作，過著朝九晚五的生活，每天構(gòu)建著同一個(gè)程序，日復(fù)一日，有時(shí)候還要加班到深夜?；蛘呦裎疫@樣的企業(yè)家，會(huì)具有驚人的想法，我知道如何才能掙錢，知道消費(fèi)者和客戶需要什么，但是我不知道如何將這些資源整合起來，我需要這個(gè)團(tuán)隊(duì)平臺(tái)，需要支持和幫助。

Her business has organized hackathons in more than 90 cities throughout the world. Hackers form teams, and compete to win awards for the best idea and best product.

她的公司在世界上90多個(gè)國(guó)家都有黑客馬拉松團(tuán)隊(duì)。電腦黑客們組建成這個(gè)團(tuán)隊(duì)，競(jìng)爭(zhēng)最好的主意和最棒的產(chǎn)品。

AngelHack works with a winner from each event for 12 weeks, helping them form companies and persuade people to invest money in their idea.

AngelHack和一個(gè)各項(xiàng)都突出的優(yōu)勝者一起工作12周了，幫助他們組建公司，說服投資商為他們進(jìn)行投資。

The top teams are brought to Silicon Valley, near San Francisco, where they present their idea to hundreds of possible investors.

最頂尖的團(tuán)隊(duì)將會(huì)去舊金山的硅谷，他們可以在那里將自己的觀點(diǎn)展示給潛在的百余位投資商。

Some teams helped by AngelHack have had great success. Investors gave one team $10 million. Two others were bought by Google, the technology company.

AngelHack旗下的好多團(tuán)隊(duì)獲得了巨大成功。投資商們對(duì)團(tuán)隊(duì)的投資多達(dá)一千萬。其中有兩個(gè)團(tuán)隊(duì)為技術(shù)公司GOOGLE購得。