Wikimedia Hackathon 2017/Lessons Learned

THIS PAGE IS A WORK IN PROGRESS

There are lessons learned from the Wikimedia Hackathon 2017 which took place in Vienna, Austria. This page is a combination of feedback from a survey sent to participants and ideas from the organizers.

This page will focus heavily on improvements for next time and things that went poorly. However remember that 98% of the participants that responded to the feedback survey stated that their overall experience with the hackathon was either "Positive" or "Very Positive."

Suggested changes for the next Wikimedia Hackathon
 * Collect interests and information from newcomers to distribute to mentors in advance. Newcomers don't need to by the only ones approaching, mentors can approach newcomers in advance too!

The best!:
 * This evolution of the mentoring program shows that we are heading in the right direction with newcomer support

The worst!:

Feedback survey background

 * rfarrand created the feedback survey using google forms based on feedback survey questions from past events.
 * The Feedback Survey was sent out to participants on May 23rd, 2017
 * The Feedback Survey closed on June 27, 2017
 * The survey received 99 responses (41% response rate)

Considerations for next year
This section is based on the fill-in-the-blank/comment sections of the feedback form. Some of these comments will be contradictory. We are mostly trying to include common themes and issues that were felt by groups of people. This section is a bit more subjective than the  section below and suggestions may be paraphrased and combined with each other.

Mentoring Program and Newcomers
What worked well with the mentoring program? What should be improved about the mentoring program?
 * Dedicated / competent / friendly mentors who helped to form meaningful connections with newcomers
 * Mentors who could not help easily redirected newcomers to other mentors / mentors worked well together to get the newcomers the best match
 * Newcomers completed projects / work got done
 * Good mentor to newcomer ratio
 * Mentor expectations were clear
 * Fewer meetings and check-ins, time at the hackathon is valuable
 * More support for people arriving late (both mentors and newcomers). Somewhere for newcomers to go who are looking for a new project mid-event. Stress that newcomers can change projects / don't have to commit to one project for the entire event.
 * More support for introverts / people who are not outgoing.
 * Better ways to identify by mentors and newcomers
 * Get newcomers on IRC (this is how Wikimedia technical communities communicate) / don't use telegram to coordinate because it is proprietary and some people don't want to download things onto their phones
 * More / different advanced communications and expectations for mentors: Mentoring mailing list to get mentors familiar with each-other and each-others skill sets. Mentors should meet up the day in advance of the hackathon in person. Mentors should know more about the needs of the newcomers in advance of the hackathon.
 * Keeping mentors / newcomers in a room separated from others did not encourage mixing with other contributors, find ways to engage other event participants to help newcomers even if they are not committing to being a mentor
 * Don't spend so much time in the newcomers session having everyone talk to the group, writing what you are working on and then having 1:1 conversations is a better use of time
 * Re-do poster session each morning / make newcomer & mentoring work visible to the rest of the event

Questions for Newcomers
How did you hear about and become interested in attending the Wikimedia Hackathon 2017. How did you experience the amount of new information you got? (e.g. I wanted more, I felt overwhelmed, I followed along well)
 * mailing list (wikitech-l)
 * New WMF staff
 * Wikimedia Austria
 * pre-hackathon
 * WMDE
 * Wikipedia, meta, a wiki
 * through my work
 * Through Wikicite
 * phabricator
 * Wikimedia Ukraine
 * Wikimania
 * I don't know

How did you experience the social atmosphere? After attending the hackathon, would you feel prepared enough to keep working on MediaWiki projects? Did you feel accomplished at the hackathon? If so, why and If not, what might have helped?
 * Very good / or other very positive words (25+)
 * Fine
 * sometimes difficult to make contact with people, as if not interested +
 * people were nice, but the event was not integrative to non-programmers
 * Yes (9)
 * I get paid to do this
 * Not my intention
 * I was already prepared but now I have new tasks
 * Not yet
 * Somewhat more than before

What did you find most confusing about the existing Wikimedia technical documentation?

This answer is a copy paste of all answers without grouping them in order of most mentioned because they were all pretty different Which Wikimedia technical documentation pages were the most useful for you? What was the most interesting conversation which you had with other community members?
 * There is too much.
 * where to find things (as usual)
 * Tons of Wiki-pages, phabricator-tickets....
 * Nothing
 * not for beginners
 * Landing pages/entry funnels. we put too many things in giant list form with too little differentiation.
 * Still pretty scattered. Few, and "bad" examples.
 * it is hard to find the bit of information you are looking for. sometimes it is on your wiki, sometimes on Meta, sometimes on MediaWiki.org etc.
 * There is no single point of truth.
 * no coherence
 * How complicated it is to fetch image + thumbnail + coordinates via Commons API
 * I didn't look at that documentation
 * Lots of old documentation exists and doesn't not that it's wrong; the process to change things (e.g. merge code) doesn't automatically change the documentation on-wiki.
 * if I look for an short answer - I get also a lot background infos on the actual topic
 * That I have to dive into the source way too often.
 * Almost everything :) In particular, Lab tools docs.
 * That people seem to expect that it exists at all. No really. This is a bazaar space -- not a cathedral. User documentation is essential, but technical documentation is a high price. It's good that we cut paths through the forest, but I don't see why we need to build freeways of documentation for developers who are working to build new and different things anyway. I think we should focus on *literacy* for our newcomers. They should know how to *find out* about anything. We shouldn't be setting the bar at "wheres the docs". Instead it should be "do you know who to ask and how to find them?"
 * OOjs UI is still hard to understand and write
 * I did not touch any technical documentation during the hackathon at all
 * That I did not quickly find a good general intro/overview into what there is available and where to start and where to go from that
 * Missing OOUI tutorials
 * There is no clear hierarchical structure for navigation/links to sub-topics or technical aspects of an extension or a module; at least, it's not easy to find. Some standardization of what must be included (templates with pre-defined fields or something) and of the overall content structure should be strictly enforced. It might be helpful to have for documentation something similar to OOjs or UI standards/guidlines?
 * The layout is not very engaging. Tasks often felt like a very long list and main topics / focus areas were not very clear.
 * What Wikimedia technical documentation did you want to find, but couldn't find?
 * Start to finish tutorials on (things) is most missed. The sort of docs that a developer advocate would write.
 * details on videos for commons
 * Lab tools—logging, package installation, etc.
 * OOUI tutorials
 * The documentation for AbuseFilter is in place but it's not well structured; the info for FlaggedRevs documentation is spread out between three links that do not refer to each other in a clear way.

Pre Event Hackathons
Any comments about the pre-hackathons or suggestions for pre-hackathons during future years?
 * Many people did not hear about the pre-hackathons until the event itself. They would have liked to get involved.
 * Connect the work done at pre-hackathons more closely with the work to be done at the main hackathon

Programs and Collaboration
How could we improve the volunteering program?
 * Existing working groups before event from WMF / WMDE
 * Don't use so many Phab sub-tasks
 * Explain the volunteering roles more during registration including an expected time commitment

Opening / Closing Sessions

 * Cluster people who need browsers with links, people who don't need computers at all (encourage this) and people who need to connect their laptops, no live demos
 * Opening is to long / boring (more info on wiki, less talked at people) / keep it interactive and energetic
 * Showcase to long. Reduce applause time, concentration is hard for that long
 * Showcase template, mentor people in advance for how the showcase should work, 1) What was the problem you were solving (from a user perspective)? 2) How did you solve it.
 * Beamer switch / way for next presenter to connect before their turn
 * Add a break to the showcase / closing
 * Mentoring intro in the same room as the opening
 * Restrict time per person during open mic
 * How can participants ask questions to showcase presenters?
 * More prep and intro for the structure of the showcase
 * Showcase before closing

Sessions/Schedule
Are there any changes to the sessions that you would recommend for next year?

Logistics
Comments on event logistics

Accomplishments
What, if any, coding activity/activities were you able to finish during the hackathon?

What other coding activity/activities did you begin during the hackathon?

What was your biggest accomplishment during the hackathon?

What is the project that impressed you the most?

Anything else?
What did you like most about the hackathon?

What did you like least about the hackathon?

Anything else you would like to tell the organizers about the hackathon?

Data
How would you describe your experience as a developer? Including this event, how many Wikimedia hackathons have you attended? This can be any Wikimedia Hackathon of any size. How would you describe your overall experience at the Hackathon?

Mentoring Program and Newcomers
Did you participate in the mentoring and newcomers program If you participated please rate your overall experience with the mentoring program How useful did you find the sessions for newcomers? (a question for newcomers)

Pre Event Hackathons
Did you attend one of the pre-hackathons? If you attended, has the pre-hackathon fulfilled your expectations? If you attended, did the pre-hackathon lead to improved results of your Wikimedia Hacakthon 2017 experience?

Programs and Collaboration
How useful did you find the skill share board? How was it to find people to work with?

Opening / Closing Sessions
Hackathon Opening Session [How useful were each of the following sessions? ] Hackathon Closing/Showcase Session [How useful were each of the following sessions? ]

Sessions/Schedule
How satisfied were you with the selection of breakout sessions?

Logistics
The food at JUFA [How would you rate:] Wifi quality at JUFA [How would you rate:] Breakout room equipment  [How would you rate:] This event overall [Ratings of the Hackathon Logistics] Overall organization of the hackathon [Ratings of the Hackathon Logistics]

Organized social activities [Ratings of the Hackathon Logistics]

Availability of space for informal discussions  [Ratings of the Hackathon Logistics]

Accomplishments
What different tasks did you accomplish during your hackathon time?

Anything else?
Attending this event was worth my time [Please tell us how much you agree or disagree with the following statements.] The opportunity to meet fellow developers and Wikimedians was valuable to me [Please tell us how much you agree or disagree with the following statements.] I would like to attend this event again next year. [Please tell us how much you agree or disagree with the following statements.]