User:Sonkiki/Handbook Project

This is my working page for a 3-week project as a contractor for WMF, with the goal of creating a hackathon/ event handbook.

Etherpads / Meeting Notes
Etherpads: Rachel Meeting Notes: https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/TC_Doc_Project

Now an archive: Collection of first thoughts/ ressources here: https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/Sonja

Journal
disclaimer: this journal may not be complete

Week 1
Mon, 12 June: First day, trying to get into it, clicking my way through various wiki pages, made a timeline, currently collecting everything here: https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/Sonja. Kick-off call with Rachel Farrand in the evening.

Tue, 13 June: encountering some issues with creating wiki pages, troubleshooting by Raimund Liebert (WMAT). Found out that Jean-Frédéric has started a handbook in 2014: User:Jean-Frédéric/Hackathon handbook and that Wenke from WMDE is working on an event guidebook in German as well.

Wed 14 June: got a lot of good suggestions for what it should look like, and what not, from WMF, Quim Gil, as well as community engagement team (Sherry Synyder, Chris Koerner, Nick Wilson, Benoit Evellin, ...).

Tips I got / what everyone wants: Thu 15 June: trying to incorporate everyone's suggestions into a structure. Will have to prioritize today, because it's a lot :). defined target audiences. testing to work with timeline templates. sorting through content-resources for handbook and giving them a score according to relevance.
 * + include glossary
 * + timeline with very specific instructions (e.g. NO:  "Think about branding", YES: "Four weeks before wedding:  Tell future mother-in-law how chic she will look in solid black mourning clothes." OR "Six months before hackathon: Assign one person to be in charge of encouraging participation by different kinds of people")
 * + clear page with comprehensive view. good examples: Help:Flow, https://www.ted.com/participate/organize-a-local-tedx-event, WordCamp Organizer https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/wordcamp-organizer/
 * + modular structure (example of Asian restaurant menus to build-your-own meal)
 * + keep it KISS (avoid hard to collaborate on formatting like on Help:VisualEditor/User guide)

Fri 16 June: wrote project description for phabricator task. felt a little under the weather after getting a flu shot in the morning, so had a slower day.

Sat 17 June: Rachel and I consulted Nick for the final location of the handbook and merging questions. Here's the outcome:

we will

1. publish the handbook on https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Hackathons/Hackathon_tips_for_organizers because this page is already well linked and has many views, i.e. people use it already.

2. add a top banner to it, telling people about the talk page, how it works, and to use it if they have questions for Wikimedia Foundation technical event organizers.

3. follow Merging etiquette (as Nick described it to us): I plan to not merge pages, but use content for the handbook and remix it. of course I want to credit the original source. Asked Nick on his expertise of how to handle that, giving specific examples. (User:Sonkiki/Handbook)
 * Mediawiki: = be bold. But leave either link-pointers (if just extracting part of the page) or redirects (if merging the entire page).
 * Meta: Consult Nick for specific examples. General rule; merging pages *within metawiki* is okay, but do not move pages over to mediawiki.
 * Outreach wiki: do neither merge nor move. just add links to them.

Potential future hosts: Think about hosting, still unsure if they should do it
chapters and people thinking about organising an event. they want to inform themselves about how this could even be done. they probably have already a little bit of experience with hosting a smaller event, and maybe they know someone in the WMF team, but they are unsure what would be coming their way if they applied for a hackathon.

e.g.: a local community expresses interest in being hosts for a hackathon. the executive director of that chapter thinks: could this be even possible? what would be coming our way? let's check; she visits this page to gather info.

They need

 * an overview of what's coming for them
 * comparisons to how others did it
 * a list of minimum requirements/ list to check themselves against ("you can hold an event if...")

Current Hosts: have won bid, will do event
chapters who have just applied for a bid, or have won the bid.

they may be up to 18 months away from their event.

They need

 * a resource to check wether they are still on track
 * a recipe
 * templates

Event participants / Interested readers
people who just want to read up on documentation. They may be organizers from other events (outside of the Wikimedia world) and/ or participants of hackathons/ events who are interested in getting meta-information about the event they'll be attending.

They need

 * a link to direct them to https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Hackathons/FAQ
 * we do not need a special section for them.

Content Resources: Existing pages with handbook-relevant content
main pages to draw from in this project:

Navigation for handbook
I like the menu from Help:Flow. Template is called "TNT|Flow Navigation" (in fancy brackets)

Chapters for handbook
I like this structure, use this as example: https://www.ted.com/participate/organize-a-local-tedx-event

Get Started (maybe use different title, see TEDx page as example)
place to go to when you first look for information, small bits,

Timeline
To-do lists sorted as a timeline, from early planning stages a year in advance, to execution during the months, weeks and days leading up to the event, the event itself as well as post-event tasks and long-term actions.

Examples of good timelines:
Timeline from WordCamp: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17eEp6kdRgA3Bu7WzrpVHvdTGXEAXPT_-gKj3knpOppA/edit#gid=0

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_Handbook/The_Ideal_Timeline >> this is outdated
 * https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_Handbook#Timeline_and_planning >> this is the new version


 * Sherry's take on the above timeline (with vegetables): https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Whatamidoing_(WMF)/Sandbox&diff=16880696&oldid=16880445
 * Here's how she improved the design:
 * 1) adding a few words to the section title,
 * 2) turning the sub-sections into section headings (instead of bold text)
 * 3) adding a colored box for an explanation at the top of the section, and
 * 4) adding a decorative image (I chose vegetables as my theme, but it could be anything, and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Evaluation/100_Words_Campaign could be a good starting point).
 * Hackathons/Hackathon tips for organizers

Team intern

 * Administrative Tasks/ Team Communication: Breakdown of internal team-tasks
 * Team Roles and Responsibilities
 * https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_Handbook/The_Ideal_Team

Event Setup
everything from badges to volunteer roles and engagement during the event

Logistics + Venue
rooms, badges, food etc.

CI and Design:
documentation of options, for informed strategic decisions

Outreach strategies: Diversity, Newcomers, like minded Communities
Strategies to further diversity and inclusivity in the community, with a focus on women* in tech and implementation as well as execution of the friendly space policy. strategies to engage newcomers / enlarge the community / bring more newcomers into the community, by means of pre-hackathons, outreach activities and the mentoring program on the hackathon itself.

Accessibility Event page on Meta from Benoit and Sherry: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Events/Accessibility

Promotion + Press (get better title or break into chapters)
How to reach out to Outreach strategies to sponsors, stakeholders and like-minded communities
 * Promotion within Wikimedia world
 * Stories for the press

Sponsor Relations/ Strategies
how to approach potential sponsors, identifying them etc.

Stakeholders: MediaWiki Stakeholder's group as well as local politicians etc.

Afterwards
how to wrap up, what to do after event

Templates
texts as well as graphics/ layout templates for various forms of communication, such as registration forms, emails and sponsoring materials https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/?tgif=d&q=hackathon
 * emails: see also Esino Lario Emails!
 * registration form
 * Feedback form
 * website text, maybe, too?

Optional for later: Interviews:
Brief interviews with previous hosts as well as WMF staff

List of Events
All MediaWiki related Events: Events on mediawiki.org

All Wikimedia events: Events

Hackathons
events pre-dating this table: Wikimania Haifa 2011 called "Developer Days": https://wikimania2011.wikimedia.org/wiki/Developer_Days, plus I think we could go further back even, with earlier wikimanias.

Glossary
type of events:
 * 1) # wmhack = annual Wikimedia Hackathon (usually in spring), where the software MediaWiki is further developed. (name #wmhack used in this column for better usability)
 * 2) Wikimania Hackathon = Hackathon (sometimes called Developer Meeting or DevCamp) at the annual Wikimania (usually spring/summer), normally held as a pre-conference in the 2-3 days before actual Wikimania starts.
 * 3) DevSum = Wikimedia Developer Summit, annual meeting (January, San Fransisco) to push the evolution of MediaWiki and other technologies supporting the Wikimedia movement.
 * 4) other = any other hackathon-like event

Hackathons/FAQ

Pictures to illustrate handbook

 * stock fotos from 100 words project: m:Grants:Evaluation/100_Words_Campaign
 * "stock" Fotos from Klaudia, wmhack Vienna 17: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:ListFiles?limit=150&user=WWWeb.pics&ilshowall=1
 * stock fotos from other previous hackathons: c:Category:Wikimedia_hackathons_by_year
 * any photos used in previous hackathon documentation pages.

(Incomplete) lists of links to other documentations, internal and external:
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Hackathons/Hackathon_tips_for_organizers#Other_Hackathon_Tips

Pages with lists of upcoming events
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project:Calendar list of upcoming events related to MediaWiki development. >> not up to date, e.g. Hackathon Vienna is missing

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Events/upcoming (not up to date)

Research on Events:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Events

Nothing there yet about hackathons, but the current reseach going on from Carnegie Mellon (contact Anna Filippova, via rachel Farrand) could be included here: Paper (PDF) on hackathon research: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0ba96_UwEK8N09zOFBTWEwtaU0/view workshop on hackathon organization: https://hackathon-workshop.github.io

plus also research going on atm from Cooperative State University Baden-Württemberg Germany to write an analysis of the current state of hackathons, contacts Alexander Finkbeiner, Sebastian Kezic und Ricco Schwarz who contacted hackathon Vienna mailingliste. The results of this survey are being collected in a IEEE whitepaper. they are currently not planning on publishing the results, but it is possible that they do so later on. Contact via Rachel Farrand, has put them in touch with Carnegie Mellon.

Testing to work with a graphic timeline template
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Mrguyguy226/sandbox_graphical_timeline

Also:
 * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Graphical_timeline
 * https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:EasyTimeline (generated the above example)
 * https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Graph/Demo#Timeline_.2F_lifeline (newer software, but even more complicated (imho))