Cross-posting the announcement from the Wikimedia Blog. The details of the event are on
Meta and we're also creating
meetup.com pages for the local events. Check them out and
RSVP if you're planning to attend – it'd be awesome to have folks from the
wikidata community on-board. Looking forward to see you on November 9!
Dario, on behalf of the organizers
Join the inaugural Wiki Research Hackathon on November 9
Last summer at Wikimania in Hong Kong, the annual global Wikimedia conference, we (a group
of Wikipedia researchers) discussed how we could make wiki researchmore impactful. In our
work in academia and on Wikimedia projects, we saw a host of missed opportunities to share
ideas, hypotheses, code, and research methods. We set out to create a space to bring
researchers together with Wikipedians and facilitate problem solving, discovery and
innovation with the use of open data and open source tools. Labs2 (L2) aims to build this
space, by providing infrastructure and venues for collaborative wiki research.
Today we’re thrilled to announce the inaugural Wiki Research Hackathon – a global event
hosted by Wikimedia Foundation researchers, academic researchers and Wikipedians from
around the world on Saturday, November 9, 2013.
What
This hackathon is an opportunity for anyone interested in research on wikis, Wikipedia,
and open collaboration to meet, share ideas, and work together. It is targeted at
Wikipedia editors, students, researchers, coders and anyone interested in designing new
tools, statistics and data visualization, and producing new knowledge about Wikimedia
projects and their communities.
The goal of this event is to:
share knowledge about research tools and datasets (and how to use them)
ask burning research questions (and learn how to answer them)
get involved in ongoing research projects (or start new ones)
design new data-driven apps and tools (or hack existing ones)
Where
(Locations are approximate)
This hackathon will be held both as a series of local meetups (Perth, Mannheim, Oxford,Rio
de Janeiro, Chicago, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Seattle, etc.) and virtual meetups
(Asia/Oceania, Europe/Africa & The Americas) for those who can’t make it to the local
events. An IRC channel (#wikimedia-labsconnect) and a Google Hangout open throughout the
day will allow attendees to connect online.
How
Interested attendees can sign up for the event on Meta-wiki.
Local and virtual meetups are listed on theevent page. All you need to do is add your name
to the list of participants for the event that makes sense for you.
Who
For any question about the event (including volunteering for a local meetup), you can
reach us at wrh(a)wikimedia.org or leave a message on the hackathon’s talk page on
Meta-wiki. We look forward to seeing you on November 9.
Aaron Halfaker, Wikimedia Foundation
Jonathan Morgan, Wikimedia Foundation
Morten Warncke-Wang, University of Minnesota
Aaron Shaw, Northwestern University
Dario Taraborelli, Wikimedia Foundation
Taha Yasseri, Oxford University
Henrique Andrade, Wikimedia Foundation
