Everything You Need to Know About The Wikimedia Hackathon 2024
Over the weekend, I got the chance to attend my first Wikimedia Hackathon in Tallinn, Estonia. Estonia is a beautiful city, known to be very technologically advanced so it was a good experience at the first Estonian Wikimedia Hackathon.
What the Wikimedia Hackathon is about?
The Wikimedia Hackathon is when the global tech community convenes to interact, hack, engage in technical discussions, and brainstorm game-changing ideas. During this event, devs from all over meet to improve upon the technological backbone that drives and enriches the Wikimedia projects, including MediaWiki and various areas of Wikimedia code development, design and technical documentation.
Prep Before Hackathon / Pre-Hackathon
Months before the event, preparations were set in motion.
- Travel arrangements were made
- Program lineup/Session Proposals (Unconference mode - The sessions were proposed at (or just before) the hackathon event.
- Proposal of projects/tasks on Phabricator: Suggestions of issues/bugs you want to fix, features you want to develop or tools that you want to be documented.
- Volunteering slots: Choosing slots to volunteer in such as Help desk, Blogging, Note Taking, Photography and so on.
- Connecting with others via the MediaWiki Page and mini-meetings to make sure everyone was ready/to resolve any issues before the event.
Arrival in Tallinn
I arrived in Tallinn in the afternoon before the event where I got to register, pick up my swags and rest before the Welcome dinner.
I was a little bummed(immigration and airline issues; as a black person. this is a topic for another day) but my mood lightened as soon as I got with the group.
What happens during the Pre-Wikimedia Hackathon Welcome Dinner?
The day before the Hackathon was filled with many activities such as airport pickups, registration at the desk in the lobby, collection of event swags(Badge, T-shirt and Tote Bag), room check-ins and the official Welcome Dinner.
The Welcome Dinner was a great time to network and say hi to the Wikimedians who had travelled from all around the globe to Tallinn to hack away projects of interest. Also, it was great to see the faces behind the usernames and say hi :)
My Ghanaian Wikimedian friends (Joris, Sadiq and Dnshitobu) who weren’t in attendance connected me with friends they knew and all of a sudden, I didn’t feel alone. I missed them so much.
There were social & side activities to explore such as Kumu Art Museum, A Walk in the Old Town, A Visit to the Estonian Museum of Natural History, Põhjala Brewery tour and others.
In the end, everyone arrived and retired to their beds for the next day:
Day 1 of the Hackathon.
Kicking off Hackathon Day 1
Hackathon Day 1 began bright and early with breakfast, a welcome address by Deb, a little introduction by Ivo (about Wikimedia Estonia which started in 2010), logistics by Onyinyechi, safety tips and Project Pitches which was great. These Pitches revolved around bots, apps, SPARQL Queries, Translations, Wikibase REST API, Gitlab, user stories, metrics(observability and monitoring), extensions, designs, documentation, tech governance, testing and many more.
Once the hacking sessions began in the Ballroom, Las Vegas and Monte Carlo, there were sessions ongoing concurrently such as Introduction to Semantic MediaWiki, User Stories wanted: the GLAM CSI project, Anti-abuse work on the wikis, Wikimedia LEADS a Learning Ecosystem and Ameliorating Data Space, Introducing Codex: The Design System for Wikimedia and so much more through the day.
There was lunch and dinner available and hacking continued till 1 am.
NB: The References to the full program outline and activities will be below.
What happened on Hackathon Day 2
The second day kicked off in the same format but the only difference was we went straight into either sessions or hacking in groups in the respective rooms. Some sessions on Day 2 were Web-scraping, Making your extension community configurable, Inside Automoderator: Writing and deploying a new moderation extension, ML/AI models on LiftWing, Which moderator tools need developer attention?, Enterprise API Tool, Sustainability Through Mentorship: Engaging Wikimedia Tool Creators and many more.
The truth is there were some extensions or tools I didn’t understand. However, after attending the sessions, I understood why the community needs useful APIs, and seeing the Readability scoring model in action reinforced my understanding of particular keywords I had heard but didn’t get the docs.
After lunch, we took a group picture in Politseiaed Park to create memories and resumed working on tasks.
On the second day, hacking lasted longer than usual; there were lots of patches and PRs raised, improvements to documentation and tools, creation of new designs and improved functionality of existing tools.
As of 3:30 am, hacking was still going on; so much momentum which was great as we slipped into the final day of the event.
Rounding up on Hackathon Day 3
All too soon, it was the last day. It was time to wrap up hacking, merge patches/PRs and showcase the changes. It was nice seeing the changes/patches, discussions aimed at improving tools or libraries, and sessions that enhanced brainstorming and creative ways of implementing solutions.
Also, there were sessions on that day like the Toolforge & Cloud VPS demos, the Cuteness Association meetup, and a discussion on challenges and approaches towards improving women in technical spaces in local wiki communities(I loved this from Bhuvana :))
Right after, the Project Showcasing began. It was exciting because we saw improvements to tools, docs, extensions, processes, bots etc.
Each speaker had about 2 minutes to speak or present. It was like a sprint but very informative. After, the closing ceremony began where we reflected on the beginning of the event and appreciated how far we had come.
In the early part of the evening after the project showcase, we went out for dinner in the Telliskivi Creative City to connect outside the hacking space for the last time which imprinted good memories and we called it a day.
Departure
On Monday, I said my final goodbyes at dawn and left Tallinn with some of the participants :(
Final Words
It was great to meet diverse backgrounds and make long-lasting memories. Getting the chance to learn about new tools such as the moderator tools, Lift Wing, get inspiration from Massly to implement an on-screen keyboard script to help in translation into local languages with special characters, volunteer at the help desk and blogging, improve docs on Vera’s new tool (new Q5 ), learn about new tools, get new experiences (and so much more) was more than I expected.
I am happy I had an open mind and stopped being shy because I met awesome people. I learned from them and they also learned from me.
I got to meet other Africans especially, familiar usernames from my Wiki Mentor Africa experience(WMA had a Hackathon earlier this year that I participated in and led my team. This helped me understand the ISA tool used for Wiki Loves Africa campaigns).
I was also happy to see people enjoying the box of Ghanaian chocolates I sent to the sweets table :) I also enjoyed the different sweets from other countries.
A big shoutout to the Wikimedia Foundation, the hardworking organizers(they pulled together a great event) and all the participants for contributing in one way or the other.
You are all so super cool :)
To know more, kindly check the reference below.
Bye :)
References:
Event Link (tabs referencing Projects, Programs with Session Notes etc) :
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Hackathon_2024
Credit
Group Photo 1: By Fuzheado on Commons
Group Photo 2: By Robert Sim on Commons
