Report on inaugural WikiIndaba hackathon

--Michaelgraaf (talk) 15:45, 10 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Summary: A collaboration between Wikimedia-ZA and WISCom, the hackathon had great potential for demystifying technology among Indaba delegates, as well as solving specific technical challenges. Unlike typical hackathons, it was not competitive but inclusive and awareness-building. While most of the event was occupied by troubleshooting the equipment setup that had been planned, in a wider sense, this hackathon itself played a troubleshooting role within WMZA and WISCom, which as a result, will be better positioned for future such events.

Background: About 5 years ago, having become acquainted with the use of Kiwix offline digital libraries (usually involving single-board computers such as Raspberry Pi), and being involved with activism around the digital migration of TV broadcasts, I proposed bringing these two areas of civil technology together in the form of a set-top box (STB) that could enable old (analogue) TV sets to receive the new digital signal, as well as turning the TV into a home (or classroom) computing & media centre.

While exploring this possibility, I encountered the concept of datacasting [[1]] and incorporated it into the proposed project as a means of modifying digital libraries remotely, given that Cape Town TV had already expressed interest in the project. However, generating digital radio signals was well outside of the ability of any of the people involved, so I proposed drawing on the expertise of UCT’s departments of Computer Science and/or Electrical Engineering. To this end I persuaded WMZA to budget R10 000 for a hackathon, of which half would be a donation to UCT’s community WiFi network project, which already involved suitable experts.

To cut the story short, nothing came of that and the project would have died except that Mike Aldridge of CTV entered it in a Sentech (the parastatal which operates all broadcast signals) hackathon, where it won a substantial prize, which he had to share with the team-mates allocated to him by the organisers. He and one of them ended up forming a company (Nokamaru Technologies) which offered me one-third ownership, and dribs & drabs from the prize money, to keep working on the project. I, in turn, kept persuading WMZA to roll over the hackathon budget until at last I discovered a repository of software which offered a solution.

I then had the idea of proposing that the hackathon be part of WikiIndaba, and the rest is history.

Timeline:

1 May 2023: Draft proposal [[2]] on Meta
23 May 2023: Submission [[3]] to WikiIndaba Steering Committee (WISCom)
Sept 8 2023: Hearing through the grapevine of the submission’s acceptance, I submit a budget for equipment to WMZA, containing links where items could be ordered. Because of the large number of potential participants, I budgeted for up to ten receiver devices.
Sept 17 2023: I receive official email confirming acceptance.
23 Oct 2023: WMZA transfers a lump sum to my account and I begin to place orders. Some prices have changed and the additional necessity to cover shipping (which I had thought WMZA would incur when ordering) leads me to downscale to eight receivers.
31 Oct 2023: I depart for Morocco before the ordered digital tuners (“TV Hats”) arrive; instead, I take two of my own and agree with fellow board member Coenraad, that he will participate online using a third tuner.
2 Nov 2023: I purchase a TV antenna in Agadir and request access to the hackathon venue to start setting up, only to find that it is only available after 2 more days
4 Nov 2023: I start setting up the hackathon equipment (transmitter & receivers) but am hampered by lack of a monitor (which had been part of the venue request). Instead, I use a projector, which complicates things. However, a steady stream of visitors is very encouraging
5 Nov 2023: First active demonstration of software-defined radio reception (ambient FM on a laptop screen; see Douglas's photos [[4]] and mine ). Once there was a cluster of male enthusiasts, though, female passers-by stopped popping in. Alas, the venue availability ended.

Learnings:

First & foremost, WikiIndaba organisers must understand that a hackathon isn’t part of their schedule of sessions; it must not compete for space or other resources (particularly if it involves remote participants, who are likely to be active at different times than those physically attending the Indaba). As a “service provider” I was only able to be active for a fraction of the Indaba period, since on the first of the two days when a venue was available, I had also to attend a Kiwix session, as well as a social outing which returned after midnight.

There was also a tension between my roles as technical arranger, and outreach person; during the early stages of setup I was alone, moving around doing this and that, and many passersby including non-techy people and women, felt free to visit, and I was happy to break from what I was doing and explain the project to them; everybody was able to relate to updating a Kiwix library via a radio or TV signal. However, the more things started to centre on the technology, and more technical and male geeks gathered, the less casual visitors came. This could be addressed by having more than one convener, preferably a multi-disciplinary, multi-gender team.

Secondly, WM-ZA needs to streamline its procurement procedures. With only a fortnight left before my departure, I was horrified to realise that no orders had been placed; the budget had been approved in principle, then put aside. Once I realised this, it still took another week for the money to enter my account so I could place orders. The result was that some of the devices never arrived at the hackathon. Given that limited progress was made, and that the project plan includes a pilot broadcast by CTV once proof-of-concept has been achieved, these devices will still be acquired.

Personally, I have realised how much admin there is, in terms of communicating with potential and actual participants, hosts, sponsors etc. I am still uploading photos to Commons, and compiling financial records.

Way Forward:

I propose that the hackathon be considered a work in progress, and (except in the unlikely event of breakthroughs rendering it obsolete before then) be planned as part of WikiIndaba 2024. These communication resources will be useful:

The original list of [participants] (almost all Wikimedians and/or Kiwix practitioners) on the project page in Meta
The project’s Telegram group, some of whose members (e.g. software developers on WMF staff) joined in advisory rather than participatory roles
The spreadsheet of actual participants, including Wiki user-names and other contact details