Wikimedia Apps/Team/Philadelphia 2017 offsite

Location info:
Old City Collective, 222B Race St, Philadelphia, PA 19106

Hotel info:
Wyndham Philadelphia Historic District, 400 Arch St, Philadelphia, PA 19106

Travel info:
Please see Travel's offsite page for flight itinerary and hotel reservation details [Now updated].

Admin contact info:
Megan Neisler, mneisler@wikimedia.org

Lani Goto, lgoto@wikimedia.org

Goals

 * Introducing and getting to know each other, especially for new team members


 * Engage together in discussions and activities across functions and across apps


 * Make some medium term plans and commitments for the apps

Proposed Agenda
The first two days will take place in the shared event space. The last day will be out and about in Philadelphia

Tuesday, October 17
9:15 - Breakfast 

9:30 - Grace: Welcome, generate working agreement

10:15 - Josh: General agenda

10:30 - Grace: Get to know each other: 11:00 - Break
 * 1) Journey lines
 * 2) Working styles and giving good information

11:15 - Josh: App strategy overview and team product self-evaluation

12:00 - Lunch

1:00 - Cynefin team building activity

1:30 - Rita+Carolyn: Apps design vision

3:00 - Break

3:15 - Josh: Growing the app audience, a marketing/growth hack brainstorm

4:00 - Create-a-thon: Taking Wikimedia to a New Place Evening/Night - Hacking and creating!
 * 1) Grace: Create-a-thon intro and ground rules
 * 2) Long break and brainstorming mixer
 * 3) Grace: Commitment ceremony

Wednesday, October 18
Note that "divergent group work" is a fancy way to say brainstorming and ideation, "Convergent group work" is a fancy term for "planning and decision making" :P

9:15 - Breakfast

9:30 - Create-a-thon continues/hacking wraps up/finishing touches, work time for those who need to "catch up" with the outside world.

10:30 - Grace: Create-a-thon share out and lightning talks

11:00 - Josh/Chris K: Divergent group work on Editing and Community in apps

12:00 - Lunch

1:00 - Josh/Rita: Divergent group work on Explore and recommendations in apps

1:30ish - Break

2:00 - Josh: Convergent group work to define feature goals for next 3 - 4 Quarters

2:30ish - Break

3:00 - Corey: Convergent group work on technical roadmap

4:00 - Josh: Next steps and roadmap wrap-up

4:30 - Grace: Closing ceremony/retro

6:30 - Team Dinner: Mission Taqueria, 1516 Sansom St, 2nd Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19102

Night - Very optional Karaoke (we're looking at getting a private room)

Thursday, October 19 (Activity Day)
Morning - Free time: Historical tours, museum visits or just work time

12:00 - Lunch: Meet at the Reading Terminal Market, 51 North 12th St,  Philadelphia, PA 19107

2:00 - Mutter Museum guided tour, 19 S. 22nd St, Philadelphia, PA 19103. Note: No backpacks or photography are allowed on the tour.

4:00 - Free time. Axe throwing for some...

Create-a-thon
A create-a-thon is like a hack-a-thon, but open to any creative activity, rather than focusing on technical creativity only. Created things can be lightning talks, demos, drawings, stories, media, art, sites, or even an interpretive dance. The only 2 requirements are that you cannot work on what you are currently paid to work on (no work on existing apps) and that you fit in the "theme" of Bringing Wikimedia to a New Place. That can be bringing our tech or information to a new app, platform or medium in a new way, bringing our values or way of doing things to something not-Wikimedia, or even bringing one part of Wikimedia to a new venue within Wikimedia.

Our hope is that anyone can participate and all will feel welcome to add their creative ideas and work to the mix, even if thats not building an app. The format of the create-a-thon is as follows: Unlike some hack-a-thons there are no prizes, winners or losers.
 * 1) Introduction and kick-off: The MC will introduce the theme (Taking Wikimedia to a New Place) and review the ground rules
 * 2) Mixer and brainstorming: Some time, over a beverage, to think and talk with other about ideas you might create
 * 3) Commitment ceremony: participants decide if they want to "commit" to an idea. Committing to an idea means providing a brief description of the idea. People who don't want to commit to an idea can then sign up to "collaborate" on one or more ideas. Committing means you "own" the idea and will present it the next morning, collaborating means you want to help.
 * 4) Work time! Participants will have from 4 PM to 10:30 AM the next morning to work on their creation.
 * 5) Share-out: each committed participant shares their creation.

History & Culture
So this is the neighborhood where we are staying, it has like history and stuff:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_City,_Philadelphia

The Liberty Bell… duh. It is about 2 blocks away from the hotel. You can see it for free, there can be a line.

https://www.nps.gov/inde/planyourvisit/libertybellcenter.htm

Independence Hall - No the Liberty Bell isn’t here, it is across the street. This is free BUT you need a ticket/reservation. I would reserve soon if you really want to tour it:

https://www.nps.gov/inde/planyourvisit/independencehall.htm

If you like money, the US Mint is across the street from the hotel and has free self guided tours. It is actually fun, you see the process and history of coins being made… and a shop to buy copies of course.

https://www.usmint.gov/about/mint-tours-facilities/philadelphia/tour-information

You can send a post card from Ben Franklin’s Post Office, so why not? (Also there is a Ben Franklin museum and square next door):

http://www.philadelphiafaithandfreedom.com/franklinpostoffice

If you are morbid and want to see where Ben Franklin is buried ($3 to enter)…

http://www.christchurchphila.org/about-the-burial-grounds/

Less morbid… Christ’s Church is around the corner (on Church St 🙄).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_Church,_Philadelphia

Fun
Barcade

80's and 90's arcade games + beer

http://barcadephiladelphia.com

Terror Behind the Walls

Haunted house in the Eastern State Penitentiary! Pretty fun actually ($20):

https://www.easternstate.org/halloween/schedule

Yakatori Boy

karaoke!

http://yakitoriboy.com

Independence Beer Garden

A Beer Garden ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

http://www.phlbeergarden.com

Buffalo Billiards

Pool, Shuffleboard, Darts, Skeeball, Foosebal

http://www.buffalobilliards.com/philadelphia/

Brauhouse

German Beer Hall (Also a good restaurant):

https://www.brauhausschmitz.com

Frankford Hall

German Beer Garden, open air… next door to Fette Sau BBQ

https://fettesauphilly.com

SkyGarten

A middling beer garden, but it is on the 51st floor and you can go outside. Awesome views!

http://skygarten.com

Dinner
Ekta

One of the best Indian places in Philly, small BYOB: *Note: We have lunch catered from them as well for Wednesday.

http://www.ektaindianrestaurant.com/fishtown/

Brauhouse

German Restaurant / Beer Hall:

https://www.brauhausschmitz.com

Pho Ha

Best Pho in Philly, in the Vietnamese neighborhood:

https://goo.gl/maps/uhX2QoSbZrK2

Vedge

Amazing Vegan food

http://vedgerestaurant.com

Fett Sau

BBQ, open air

https://fettesauphilly.com

Charlie Was a Sinner

A vegan cocktail bar… great cocktails btw:

http://charliewasasinner.com

Getting Fancy
Abe Fisher

Jewish Diaspora Tapas (yes, and it is delicious)

http://www.abefisherphilly.com

Zahav

Israeli food… amazing, reservations are booked a month out… but they have a bar and chef's counter that you can walk in and get lucky during the week. Not for a large group:

http://zahavrestaurant.com

Cheesesteaks (Obligatory)
Jim's

My personal choice of best cheesesteak:

http://www.jimssouthstreet.com

Pat’s and Geno’s

The standard Philly steaks are conveniently located across the street from each other and open 24 hours:

http://www.patskingofsteaks.com

http://www.genosteaks.com

… And you can take your steak next door to The Garage, a bar with the largest selection of canned beer in the city (really a lot of beer)

https://www.garagephilly.com

Campo’s

The best cheesesteak close to the venue

http://camposdeli.com

Tony Luke’s

The best far cheesesteak (for a south Philly adventure)

http://www.tonylukes.com

PSA: Ordering a cheesesteak:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BXNnr-eqgY

(for the standard, just say “Whiz with”)

Sandwiches
John’s Roast Pork

If you haven’t had one of these, you should even though it is a trip:

http://www.johnsroastpork.com

Primo Hoagies

A very good Italian hoagie, very close by:

https://www.primohoagies.com

Pizza
(for the west coasters who don’t know what real pizza is…)

Santucci’s

it's not traditional Philly pizza, but it is an amazing square pie:

http://joesantuccisquarepizza.com

Pizza Brain

Literally a Pizza museum (also good pizza)…

https://www.pizzabrain.org

It’s also next door to some good ice-cream… http://www.littlebabysicecream.com

Other
Federal Donuts

The fry hot donuts while you wait. Also they make fried chicken. It's ridiculous and delicious:

http://www.federaldonuts.com/main/

Notes and Archive
Original etherpad for team input on agenda/activities/goals: https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/apps-offsite-ideas