Event:WMA Hackathon 2025

The Wiki Mentor Africa Hackathon 2025 will be a creative and welcoming event aimed at helping African developers, contributors, and enthusiasts engage deeply with Wikimedia Technical projects. This hackathon is unique in its focus on supporting bilingual participation, with a strong emphasis on French, while also ensuring that English-speaking participants are fully supported and engaged.

The event will be virtual, allowing for wide participation across Africa and beyond, making it accessible to anyone interested in contributing to the Wikimedia movement.

Goals and Objectives

The primary goal of the Wiki Mentor Africa Hackathon is to improve the representation of African languages, cultures, and knowledge within the Wikimedia ecosystem. By focusing on bilingual support, the hackathon aims to bridge the gap between French and English-speaking communities (Francophones and Anglophones), fostering collaboration and generating new ideas that will benefit both language groups.

Key objectives include:

Helping African developers and contributors build, improve, and localize Wikimedia tools and content.
Building a strong, supportive community of African Wikimedia contributors who can continue to collaborate beyond the event.
Promoting the use of African languages in Wikimedia projects, particularly through the development of tools and resources that support language diversity.
Ensuring the event is accessible, exciting, and rewarding for all participants, regardless of their linguistic background.

Event Details

Date: Friday 28th – Sunday 30th March 2025
Languages support: French and English
Participants: Open to African developers, Wikimedia contributors, and anyone interested in Wikimedia projects

Location

Location: Online - Zoom (Click here)

Satellite Locations

In addition to the online format, WMA Hackathon 2025 will feature satellite hosting sites in Benin, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, DRC, Ghana and Kenya. These locations are set up to support participants in these regions by providing stable internet and power. Participants from these areas can join from the satellite site nearest to them for a smoother hackathon experience. More details on specific venues and how to register for these sites will be added soon.

Program & Projects

[Join Via Zoom]


Time(UTC)	General Room	Room1 (Documentation hub)	Room2 (Code hub)	Room3 (Design hub)
Day 1 Friday 28th March 2025
14:00 - 14:30	Kickoff and Orientation By Benedict Udeh Watch the recording
14:30 - 15:00	Keynote address By Lydia Pintscher
15:00 - 15:20	Welcome to wikimedia - A quick overview of the Wikimedia projects By Benedict Udeh Catch up here
15:20 - 15:50		Intro to technical writing for wikimedia by Tricia Burmeister (slides)	Coding Basics for Wikimedia by Abel Lifaefi Mbula	Design 101 for Wikimedia by Joris Darlington Quarshie
15:50 - 16:00	Break
16:00 - 16:30		Hands-on Contributions: Write your first wiki tool guide	Hands-on Contributions: Run your first wiki script, test(report errors) or write script notes.	Hands-On Design: create your first wiki design.
16:30-17:10		Translatewiki 101	Hands-on (cont.)	Hands-on (cont.)
17:10 - 18:25	Project Pitches
18:25 - 18:30	Day1 Wrap-up
Day 2 Saturday 29th March 2025
10:00 - 10:30	Day1 recap & housekeeping
10:30 - 12:00	Team Formation & grouping
12:00 - 14:00	Hacking Marathon	Hacking Marathon	Hacking Marathon	Hacking Marathon
14:00 - 15:00	Mini-team Challenge
15:00 - 17:00	Hacking Marathon(cont.)	Hacking Marathon(cont.)	Hacking Marathon(cont.)	Hacking Marathon(cont.)
17:00 - 17:05	Day2 wrap-up
Day 3 Sunday 30th March 2025
14:00 - 14:20	Day 2 recap & Housekeeping
14:20 - 15:30		Teams showcase preparations and skill share	Teams showcase preparation and skill share	Teams showcase
15:30 - 16:00	Join the Fun - Wikimedia Foundation Technical Outreach Programs by Onifade Onyinyechi
16:00 - 17:00	Grand Showcase Watch the Presentations
17:00 - 18:00	Closing ceremony Watch the recording

Projects

The Call for Projects is now Closed!

Registration & Scholarship

The hackathon will happen online using Zoom. We will also be having some satellite spaces you can join from as well. The event is open to developers, designers, technical writers, and all Wikimedia community members. It is designed to be accommodate both new and experienced Wikimedians.

It's a great chance for people who are new or already familiar with Wikimedia technical spaces to work together and learn. We're excited to see what we can do together!

If this event interests you, feel free to register for this event by clicking on the register button above.

Scholarship Application

The scholarship application is now closed

The scholarship application is now open. You can apply using this Google Form.
Application open: 1st March 2025
Application close: 26th March 2025

We offer scholarships ranging from $20 to $50.
This scholarship is for those who need support to join the hackathon online.

As part of the Wiki Mentor Africa Hackathon 2025, we are offering internet reimbursement scholarships ranging from $20 to $50 to support the active participation of people during the Hackathon period.

Eligibility Criteria:

Be registered and confirm your participation in the event.
Commit to actively participating in at least 80% of online sessions.
Agree to provide feedback after the event.
Submit a complete application before the deadline.

Timeline:

Application Open: 1st March 2025.
Application Deadline Extended: Wednesday 26 March 2025.

NOTE: Final decision and Reimbursements will be made a few days after the Hackathon 2025.

Developer Pack

Participants Requirement And Setup

To participate for the the WMA Hackathon 2025 as a contributor, one needs to be in possession of the following and not limited to:

1. Pre-requisites

Make sure you have:

A laptop with microphone(preferably headsets), webcam
Good internet for video calls
A Wikimedia Global user account
Wikimedia Developer Account.
Google, Zoom, Telegram
Setup Git, Github/Gerrit
A quiet environment almost (if not) void of distraction

Don’t worry if you cannot handle anything above. Please check the next section

2. Hackathon resources

To be able to contribute fully, you need to:

Do the general setup and prep (You can also watch the videos here)

Note: If you’re watching the video, use the following order:

Check out the hackathon possible tasks and projects on the Hackathon workboard

Please be sure to review tasks carefully and ask questions about the tasks on our telegram channels before the event so that you can get more help around solving the tasks.

If you wish to add new tasks on any other issue you noticed while setting up a project, this video could be of great help.

Satelite Events

Rebase Code Camp (Montée Jouvence, Yaounde, Cameroon)
BloLab Bénin (Cotonou, Zogbohouè, von du collège Félix Houphouet Boigny derrière le stade de l'amitié).Event:Hackathon 2025 au Bénin: Appel à participation
Go Innovation (3è niveau Immeuble diplomatique, Goma, DRCongo)
Villa Zenman (Cocody, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire)
Wikimedia Ghana office (Accra, Ghana)
ALX The Piano, Westlands (Nairobi, Kenya)

Documentation

Reports

Technical documentation

Participants created draft technical documentation using the Tool Doc template. They learned to edit wiki pages, use Phabricator, and collaboratively edit drafts in a User space page. At the end of the Hackathon, they were given instructions for how to reach out to tool maintainers to start a discussion about integrating their draft content into existing tool pages.

Docs created by Technical Documentation teams:

Page Collection Report (T390354) - Team 10: