[Wikimediaindia-l] Pune hackathon scheduled 10-12 February 2012

[Sumana Harihareswara]

On 12/28/2011 05:30 AM, wikimediaindia-l-request at lists.wikimedia.org wrote:
> Date: Wed, 28 Dec 2011 11:02:13 +0530
> From: Srikanth Lakshmanan <srik.lak at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Pune hackathon scheduled 10-12
> 	February 2012
> To: Wikimedia India Community list
> 	<wikimediaindia-l at lists.wikimedia.org>
> Message-ID:
> 	<CA+30aUPJjZG6Uzak-5wgZyVoV=w6vgfkepi5wG5wB3JPH+VEVA at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
> 
> On Wed, Dec 28, 2011 at 01:12, Srikanth Ramakrishnan <
> parakara.ghoda at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> > If you look at it that way, Coimbatore deserves one too. Best, we
>> > contact the foundation and suggest this.
>> >
> Coimbatore just had one. Yuvipanda was there for 1 day mediawiki workshop.
> Read the below, also applies to you and anyone who feels the same.
> 
> 
>> > On 12/28/11, ansuman <ansumang at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> > > No such events in Bangaluuruu :(
>> >
> Well, I have to agree,it was pointed out and something may happen soon. But
> then there was a track at FOSS.IN 2010 (a year back). But wait, did you
> wait Wikimania at come to your hometown for you to start Wikipedia editing?
> No no? So go and get started[1], stay at IRC #mediawiki, *work on
> something* be it small or big, know how mediawiki (or other technology
> infra beyond it) works, ask for help and people are more than willing to
> help and keep doing it. If you feel you could help on organizing one, get
> enough "seeds" (Mediawiki seasoned folks) and be bold and do it, even if
> its on a smaller scale.
> 
> /me holds the temptation to announce something related.
> 
> Sumana/Santhosh/Yuvi,
> 
> You may want to add more?
> 
> [1] http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/How_to_become_a_MediaWiki_hacker
> 
> -- Regards Srikanth.L

Thank you, Srikanth L.  I very much appreciate your note here.

Who can speak for the chapter in terms of what plans Wikimedia India has
for organizing technical events?  I do not want to step on any toes! :-)

In the fiscal year 2011-2012, the Wikimedia Foundation engineering
department has budgeted for 6 hackathons -- some we directly organize,
some we don't (but we still send several engineers).  I believe these
are those events:

* Developer days alongside Wikimania
* New Orleans hackathon
* Mumbai hackathon
* San Francisco hackathon
* Pune hackathon
* Wikimedia Germany developers' meeting

So I do not think Wikimedia Foundation will organize any additional
technical events before the end of June 2012.

As you can see at
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_developer_meetings there are
other events where people can learn together and work together on
Wikimedia technical topics.

I hope and expect that, as time goes on, there will be many local and
regional MediaWiki user groups and trainings and workshops and
hackathons, organized by local developers.  I'd like more face-to-face
opportunities for interested developers in many areas, and I can provide
advice, training materials, pins and stickers, and publicity.  I've also
reached out to the Wiki Academy organizers in India to ask them to
provide participants with information about MediaWiki.

Any volunteer can put on a hackathon.  Lewis Cawte, a teenager,
organized his first event ever in November (the Brighton hackathon in
the UK).  So be bold and organize an event in Bengaluru!  And thanks to
Yuvi for heading an event in Coimbatore.

But more important than in-person events is followup.  Many interested
volunteers need mentorship -- code review, troubleshooting, feedback,
and encouragement -- as they grow into contributors.  I don't think our
mentorship pipeline is very strong right now.  Patches from new
contributors languish for months before experienced MediaWiki developers
review them.  Inexperienced developers write to me and I don't have many
candidates to delegate them to.  If you are willing to volunteer as a
mentor for a new Wikimedia technologist, please let me know.  Right now,
Yuvi and Srikanth Logic are the Indian mentors I know of.  Are there others?

-- 
Sumana Harihareswara
Volunteer Development Coordinator
Wikimedia Foundation