MediaWiki Developer Meet-Up 2009

tinyurl: mwmeet09 The MediaWiki Developer Meet-Up will take place April 3.-5. in Berlin, at the c-base. The event is for everyone who works on MediaWiki, writes extensions, builds bots, writes scripts for the toolserver, or is otherwise interested in the technical aspects of Wikimedia. We are happy that we can now have the meet-up after our plans for 25C3 and FOSDEM failed. If you want to come to the Developer Meetup, please sign up below, and also tell us what you want to talk about.

The event will take place in parallel to the Wikimedia Foundation's board meeting and chapter meeting, so there will be a lot of Wikimedians in Berlin at the time. We plan to have a party to bring everyone together and give an opportunity for developers, board members and chapter people to mingle.

The meet-up will be a loose BarCamp-like event so topics and schedule are largely up to you. The goal is to get to know new aspects of MediaWiki and Wikimedia and to develop ideas on how we can make things even better. And of course to have a lot of fun with wiki hackers from around the world!

Outline
A rough outline of what is going to happen

Yes, I want to come

 * 1) I might come, Multichill 15:08, 29 November 2008 (UTC) (nl:User:Multichill / commons:User:Multichill / http://toolserver.org/~multichill/)
 * 2) I'll probably come, depending on costs Interests: bot API --Catrope 17:20, 1 December 2008 (UTC)
 * 3) I would come if I get the visa. --Rainman 16:20, 19 January 2009 (UTC)
 * 4) I might come, depending on location and time. --Inez 16:31, 19 January 2009 (UTC)
 * 5) Maybe. Depends if I can make my parents allow me to go :D HardDisk 16:55, 19 January 2009 (UTC)
 * 6) would be nice, but depends on things Kate
 * 7) Raymond 18:06, 19 January 2009 (UTC)
 * 8) Prolineserver 18:22, 19 January 2009 (UTC)
 * 9) Wikinaut 19:36, 19 January 2009 (UTC) (interested; blocked my agenda for the event. Issues to discuss or to work on are perhaps e-mail notification improvements; implementation of global user preferences for those having unified accounts, WYSIWYG editor issues, DumpHTML issues for wikis with non-ASCII filenames)
 * 10) MattisManzel 21:50, 19 January 2009 (UTC) If in Berlin for sure, dunno yet. Interested in  a wikilandiawide, cross-engine wiki-net.
 * 11) Kolossos 22:38, 19 January 2009 (UTC) Interests: Tools, Integration of OSM and high resolution images into wikimedia
 * 12) Siebrand 23:12, 19 January 2009 (UTC) Interests: i18n, L10n, usability
 * drh08 23:13, 19 January 2009 maybe, but need travel help. interested in geotagging and cross-language data anlaysis on toolserver.
 * Elvis untot i am not a developer, but i am interested in MW and would like to sit around and hear what the plans are. interested in MW for use in companys. (~50% chance of attending)Elvis 11:01, 20 January 2009 (UTC)
 * 1) Steffen Blaschke 12:58, 20 January 2009 (UTC) Yeah, I'll be there. Though I'm not a developer, I know my fair share about MW from my current research on Wikis in Organizations. My primary interest is with network analysis, but I also got some ideas on general statistical reports.
 * 2) Klaus Stein 15:51, 23 January 2009. I will join, as Steffen and I work on the same project (WiO), and I developed a MediaWiki statistics, network and visualization library, which will be released open source soon.
 * 3) Mark Bergsma Maybe. Berlin during a weekend certainly sounds doable. ;)
 * 4) Tim Starling
 * 5) Purodha,  quite likely. Junior mw/pywikipedia developer, localizer/translator, bot and toolserver account owner; interested in i18n/L10n, accessability/usability, "small" languages, European chapter, raising funds for better language+translation support, present/discuss various ideas of networked wikis (i.e. start building Web 3.0). Like to spend travel time with others.
 * 6) LA2 Meet people. General interest in Wikipedia and scalability. Most recently in bots and interwiki linking. Probably also geo/OpenStreetMap.
 * 7) -- Bryan ( talk|commons ) 13:25, 22 January 2009 (UTC) Maybe. I would like to but I will be just returning from another trip shortly before that and have to see how to sort that out with money/time.
 * Thomas7 hope to come incognito due to some difficulties in der german chapter.
 * 1) Benjamin Garn Maybe. I'm interested in Extension + Bot development. I'm working on MediaWikis in enterprise environments (security, usermanagement, workflows, ...).
 * 2) PDD 20:09, 22 January 2009 (UTC)
 * 3) brion ... will check budget if I can bring some other WMF devs out with me from SF. :)
 * 4) Leafnode - probably, if I'll find sponsor for my trip :) Confirmed, I'm going :) Interests: extensibility in general - extendind possibilities of what can be achieved by extensions; preparing static versions of Wikipedia; also API and external applications for MW
 * 5) Danny B. - I'd love to come, but it will depend on costs
 * 6) ThomasV - I might come, depends on time & money
 * 7) Codeispoetry
 * 8) Henna 14:06, 28 January 2009 (UTC) provided work works out
 * 9) DaB. - I hope so.
 * 10) There will be about 8 developers coming from the Polish Wikia office. --Emil Wikia 11:37, 2 February 2009 (UTC)
 * 11) j - interested in video integration in MediaWiki and Wikipedia, working on Firefogg which should make uploads easier.
 * 12) Mdale also interested...need to think about the details.
 * 13) GerardM 11:21, 9 February 2009 (UTC)
 * 14) Bovelett 22:05, 12 February 2009 (UTC) Purodha attended me on this meeting. I would like to come and share my ideas about a DialectWikiif there is interest
 * 15) pfctdayelise 01:02, 17 February 2009 (UTC) I will be mainly/wholly at the chapters meeting, but I hope we can meet up a bit. Interests: API, Wikimedia Commons/media/multilingual development, chapter involvement in development (eg. toolserver, sponsored development)
 * 16) DerHexer 20:59, 28 February 2009 (UTC)
 * 17) Tgr Interests: user scripts, javascript libraries, usability, verifiability-related metadata

please sign up above and also tell us what you are particularly interested in.

Please sign up even if you are not sure if you can come, we want to know if you are interested. If you need help with travel cost, please talk to the organizers.

Organizers

 * Duesentrieb
 * Henriette Fiebig

If you want to help too, talk to us.

Venue
Wikipedia says about the c-base:
 * c-base e. V. is a non-profit association of about 300 members located in Berlin, Germany. The purpose of this association is to increase knowledge and skills pertaining to computer software, hardware and data networks. The association is engaged in numerous related activities. For example the society has had stands at large festivals, such as Children's Day, where they introduce young people to topics like robotics and Computer-aided design.
 * The association's headquarters, c-base station, is also used by other initiatives and groups in and around Berlin as an event location or as function rooms, for example the wireless community network freifunk.net, the Chaos Computer Club and the Berlin Wikipedia group. Any group that identifies themselves with the purpose of the c-base are also welcome to use the premises for meetings and events. Wireless LAN is available for all guests.

In short: it's a great place to work, to party, and to geek out.

The c-base is located at ''[http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=rungestr+20,+berlin&ie=UTF8&z=16&iwloc=addr Rungestr. 20] in Berlin Mitte'', at the very back of the block, towards the river. The next Subway (U-Bahn) and City-Rail (S-Bahn) station is Jannowitzbrücke. See the BVG website for transportation: http://www.bvg.de/ (click "English" at the top for english version).

Travel possibilities
There is a free lift/ride switchboard service available. Though the service (and the number/email of the driver) is free, the lift is usually not.

Netherlands
An overview of cost and travel times for traveling by train from The Netherlands to Berlin and back is here (in Dutch). Only really useful to Dutchies. People who travel by car and are willing to carpool could probably announce that here as well.

As for non-Europeans: sorry, but you're just gonna have to fly :)

Wanted

 * Elvis & me from Munich... anyone from Switzerland or Austria, maybe? HardDisk 15:57, 25 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Catrope from Harlingen, NL; prepared to travel pretty much any place in NL that has a train station --Catrope 14:22, 26 January 2009 (UTC)
 * going with Siebrand
 * I'd come if someone picked me up from Dresden. :-) -- leon

Offers

 * I may be able to accommodate two people from my home in Utrecht *in case I go*. Not for the faint of heart, as I'll drive as fast as the car will go where allowed. siebrand 14:06, 26 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Car full (GerardM, Roan) siebrand 19:07, 3 February 2009 (UTC)


 * If I go I can pick up 2/3 people. I'm living in Zaandam. Bovelett 22:09, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

Apartmenthaus am Potsdamer Platz
This is the default location. We recommend it for anyone who wants affordable accommodation and contact to other Wikimedians. We have reserved a bunch of rooms there for Developers as well as people comming for the board and chapter meetings. Some details:


 * 60 EUR for 3 nights (arrive Thursday, depart Sunnday)
 * Multi-bed rooms, bath en-suit (slides)
 * Location: Schöneberger Ufer 75-77, close to Potsdamer Platz and the Zoo
 * 25 minutes ride from the c-base (take bus M29 to Moritzplatz, change to U8 to Jannowitzbrücke)
 * Home page

A&O Mitte Ostbahnhof
A&O Mitte Ostbahnhof is a quite affordable hostel (3 nights in a 4-bed dorm for &euro;48 total, bed linen available for &euro;3) just one block away from the c-base.

Pegasus Hostel
Pegasus Hostel is another affordable hostel (3 nights in a 8- to 10-bed dorm for &euro;39 total, bed linen included) located near the Ostbahnhof station, a 20-minute walk from the c-base.

More

 * http://wikitravel.org/en/Berlin/Mitte Information about Berlin Mitte at Wikitravel, including accomodation (english)
 * http://wikitravel.org/de/Berlin/Mitte Information about Berlin Mitte at Wikitravel, including accomodation (german)
 * http://www.couchsurfing.com/ Couch Surfing (search form)
 * hostelbookers.com page for Berlin
 * hostels.com search for Berlin
 * http://www.hotel.de/ Hotel search & reservation (german)
 * http://www.hrs.com/ Hotel search & reservation (multilingual)
 * See also Chapters meeting 2009/Pre- and post-meeting accommodation - maybe a chapters person can help you out.

Visa
If you need a visa to visit Germany, it may be helpful to you to have a letter of invitation. Wikimedia Germany is happy to issue such letters on request, please contact the organizers.

Here's a list that tells you if you need a visa and an overview of the rules for visa to enter Germany.

Links
Calendar Entry on the Wiki Matrix