Grants talk:Project/Rapid/Bhuvana Meenakshi/Wikimedia Hackathon @CityJS India2022

Feedback from the SAARC Regional Grants Committee

Hello @Bhuvana Meenakshi:

This Wikimedia Hackathon does seem like an important avenue for reaching out to entirely new groups of potential developers, given the need in some respects to diversify Wikimedia projects’ developer base. Those Wikimedians named as organizers are clearly experienced in their respective roles; presumably this will serve the hackathon participants well as it has those of previous events they've organized.

These being said, the Committee would like to draw your attention to the following:

• We recommend that this event be announced on multiple on-wiki forums; if it has already been announced on those forums, links should be provided. It is important that on-wiki communities be made aware of the likelihood, however large or small, of a new cohort of developers among themselves.
• It is understandable that a hackathon has some flexibility within its event structure—given that participants ought to have the option to work on their projects among themselves—but since this is being held as part of a larger series of events, it will be useful to have a finer breakdown of how the three days of this hackathon would proceed (in other words, map the activities described for each day to time periods thereof).
• Any financial support from the partner open-source communities mentioned in the proposal, if applicable, should be declared in full.

For the Committee, Mahir256 (talk) 04:38, 3 February 2022 (UTC)

Hi @Mahir256:

Thanks for the questions. I am adding the answers inline.

• We recommend that this event be announced on multiple on-wiki forums; if it has already been announced on those forums, links should be provided. It is important that on-wiki communities be made aware of the likelihood, however large or small, of a new cohort of developers among themselves.

- Sure thing, I agree on this. We have sent it to all relevant mailing lists where many Wikimedians from India are active and also since it is more focussed on student developers we have circulated on groups like Facebook, WhatsApp and other informal chat groups where most of them are present. I will also consider publising on Village pumps the coming week. We are seeking all ways to promote about the event in Twitter, LinkedIn and other socials tagging the Wikimedia communities too. https://twitter.com/cityjsconf/status/1486753362532085760

• It is understandable that a hackathon has some flexibility within its event structure—given that participants ought to have the option to work on their projects among themselves—but since this is being held as part of a larger series of events, it will be useful to have a finer breakdown of how the three days of this hackathon would proceed (in other words, map the activities described for each day to time periods thereof).

March 11

• 10am - 11 am: Workshop by User:SSethi (WMF) - https://india.cityjsconf.org/speaker/76jBBHhojictOuuTw0Y74D
• 11am - 11: 15 am : high tea
• 11:15am - 12:30pm: QA + tasks allocation (these tasks to include any small bug fixes, user scripts and other snippets to get an understanding to the Wikimedia environment)(the student will form a team of their choice with 2 min and 5 max groups and choose a task of their choice, we will ensure that one task is not allocated to more than one team)
• 12:30pm - 1 pm: Lunch
• 1pm - 2pm: Students brainstorm on how to approach the problem/tasks with mentors supervision
• 2pm - 6pm : Students to work on the methodology of the task chosen.
• 6pm: Jury members will evaluate the methodology of task and provide suggestions if improvements needed.
• 7pm onwards: Student to resume their tasks with needed amount of breaks

March 12:

• 10am -11am : Mentors to do a checking on the status of the projects and provide inputs
• 12 - 1pm: lunch
• 1pm - 3pm: Students to complete all the final pending works needed for task completion and prepare a small slide deck about their works.
• 3pm - 5pm: Jury to evaluate the projects/tasks
• 5pm -6pm Jury panel to have a discussion and provide feedback
• 6pm - 7pm: Prize winners declaration and felicitation

March 13:
It is more of a retrospective and casual event.
Timings: 11am - 3pm

• Discussions to include feedback from partipants(only those interested), organisers and volunteers about the event impact.
• Plans for the forthcoming events and promote the developer Wikimedia groups in all participatory instititions.
• Follow up with the participants to engage their contributions on long term wide participation in Wikimedia projects.

* Any financial support from the partner open-source communities mentioned in the proposal, if applicable, should be declared in full.
- The Wikimedia Hackathon is a separate track on its own at the CityJS India Hackathon 2022. For the Wikimedia Hackthon track there is not particular financial support from any other participating Open Source communities. The Google Developers community and GitHub communities are providing swags (tees, caps, stickers, coffee mugs) for the participants from their own tracks at the CityJS India hackathon.
Please let me know if there are any queries or any other information needed in particular.
Thanks,
Bhuvana Meenakshi (talk) 20:36, 6 February 2022 (UTC)

Final Feedback from the SAARC Regional Grants Committee

Hi @Bhuvana Meenakshi:,

Thank you for the details you have provided. We are happy to recommend that this grant be fully funded. This being said, however, we again ask that you notify on-wiki communities about this event (on village pumps, scriptoriums, tea rooms, or other on-wiki forums) and provide us links showing that this has been done. These communities may be interested in the hackathon participants and the projects they come up with.

For the Committee, Mahir256 (talk) 03:46, 9 February 2022 (UTC)

Sure will share the Hackathon in the forums you suggested. Thanks a lot for the support!

Regards, Bhuvana Meenakshi (talk) 11:14, 9 February 2022 (UTC)