On Thursday, May 15, 2014, sankarshan <foss.mailinglists(a)gmail.com> wrote: Sorry, we didn't take notes. I'm not aware of further discussion or action taken, though. The bottom line is clear: the Wikimedia technical community misses annual hackathons in Asia, and specifically in India. The (European) Wikimedia Hackathon is a successful model that could be followed: * Unconference model focused on hands-on work, training, and technical discussions. * Run in a different location every year, with different local organizers supported by the Wikimedia Foundation's Engineering Community team and other volunteers in volved in previous years' events. * Lightweight organization focused on simplicity and effectiveness, with almost no overhead. * Budget for the organization approved in advance (currently via FDC, we are discussing the possibility of a direct grant from the WMF) + support from the WMF and different chapters for travel sponsorship. * The amount of participants is secondary. A critical mass is needed (say 30-40 people?) but becoming a bug event is not a goal. The focus is productive collaboration and consolidation of the local technical community. We discussed that October-November could be a good time for this event. Pleasant weather in India and other popular Asian destinations, and good separation from EU Hackathon, Wikimania, and Architecture Summit in USA. I'm hoping to send a formal call for EU Hackathon venues later this week. I was thinking of reusing the call for Asia and other territories interested in organizing hackathons in the next 12 months. -- Quim Gil Engineering Community Manager @ Wikimedia Foundation http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Qgil