Chennai Hackathon March 2012

This is a Wikipedia/Wikimedia hackathon, where developers are invited to come write cool hacks on top of the amazingly large amount of data that the wikimedia projects (Wikipedia, Commons, Wiktionary, Wikiquotes, Wikisource, etc.) expose in a huge variety of languages.

Hacks can be anything, from an Android app that gives you 'situation' quotes from Wikiquote based on sentiment analysis of your text messages, to an app that gives you wonderful images of the places you are at using Commons, to beautiful visualizations with Wikipedia edit histories, to automatic song/album information gathering from Wikipedia, to amazing dictionary interfaces across languages using Wiktionary, to anything else that you can dream up. We'll have a few people who have experience with the various APIs/data available.

Note: This is not a MediaWiki hackathon - Patches/Extensions to MediaWiki are most welcome, but you are by no means restricted to that.

Topics, Goals, & Outcomes
A bunch of cool hacks that make people go 'woah, that's awesome!', using the Wikimedia projects' APIs and Data.

What you need to know

 * You need to have some sort of prior experience developing stuff (web apps, mobile apps, data mungers, anything at all!). There are a variety of things you can do (CSS/JS hacks, webapps that use the API, Mobile apps, data mining) that pretty much anyone with some developer experience is bound to find something fun to do. This is a hackathon, and not a workshop.
 * Knowledge of Free Software License, comfortable using any Online Project hosting websites (like Github) since we would want you make the code you write for the hack freely available, online.

What language can I use

 * Any programming language you are comfortable with and can make sense of JSON / XML if you are planning to hack with the web API.
 * Any language/framework which will help you build mobile apps (Android SDK, Objective-C, Windows Phone SDK, etc.)
 * HTML(5) / CSS / JS for web mashups, browser addon SDKs, etc.

How can I prepare for the hackathon

 * Read through links in Resources, check out the Examples.
 * Learn more about the web API and run through the tutorial.
 * Give a thought about some idea / hack you may want to build.
 * Feel free to ask questions! Contact us.

What qualifies me to come

 * Show us some code you have written, tell us what you know, tell us why you love hacking (and Wikipedia) in general, and you'll get the pass :)
 * Sign up form

How to spread the word

 * Pass on the word to your fellow geek friends.
 * Use #wikihackchennai on Twitter.

Resources

 * Tutorials
 * Links on API page.
 * The web API sandbox - a GUI interface to try out the API.
 * Database dumps, Data dumps.
 * Statistics.
 * Tools on Wikipedia.
 * Some ideas for Mobile, API hacks,  Slideshow from October 2011 Coding Challenge.

Examples

 * Wikipedia's Global Reach - Code - Winner of WikiViz2011.
 * Stats Viewer - Code.
 * Controversy viewer - Code.
 * WikiTrust - Code.
 * WikiAnalysis - Code.

Past Hacks by ChennaiGeeks

 * Did you know API - Chrome Extension Code - TxtWeb plugin Code.
 * yenWikipedia - FF Ext Code Chrome Ext Code.
 * Commons Uploader - Code.
 * Short URL based on pageid and Interwiki links - Powers Tamil Wikipedia URL shortner.
 * DYK Tweeter - Code.
 * Tamil Wiktionary Offline - Code.

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Contact

 * Mail: yuvipanda@undefinedgmail.org
 * Panic Phone for emergencies: 09176315499 (YuviPanda)