Berlin Hackathon 2011

The Berlin Hackathon 2011 is an opportunity for MediaWiki hackers to come together, squash bugs and write crazy new features. Like the last two years, it's going to be awesome. Unlike the last two years, there will be more hacking and less talking. Also, this time around, we will do this independently from the Wikimedia Conference.

Date
A weekend (Friday to Sunday) in May. We should have a final date by February 21.

Registration
Note: registration will be mandatory. Registration will be open as soon as we have a final date.

Straw Poll
Please tell us when on which weekends you can't come. If you like, let us also know why - we are especially interested in the dates for exams etc around Europe.
 * Chad - the only weekend in May I'm not free is the first weekend (6-8th) and my exams continue through the 11th. So the 13-15th is pushing it travel-wise, but I can make that work.
 * Roan - I'm good for all weekends in May. My exams are in mid-April and late June
 * Sam - Exam period starts for me 16th May, through 10th June. No idea when my exams actually are though. Will try and found out. Depending on exam dates, I might be able to do some weekends between...
 * Siebrand - I'm good for all weekends in May, provided it will not take until end of March to decide on a date.
 * Aude - Would prefer the weekend of 28 May, which is a holiday weekend in the US. More chance that I could come that weekend and since we're hacking on GLAM stuff, would really want to be there.
 * Multichill - If I'm in Berlin, I just have to miss something else. Please decide quickly.
 * Bryan - Any weekend is fine, but if it's on the 13th I'll arrive late in the evening and the 20th late in the afternoon, so in both cases a lost day.
 * Hashar - Any week end is fine. I would likely make it a 4 days trip.
 * Victor - I am certainly not going to attend on the first week (SAT); most probably will miss it on last weekend (Russian exams on 30th May). 14/15 and 21/22 are best variants.
 * Daniel Kinzler (WMDE) - 26.-28. would be bad for me, I'd miss my daughter's 4th birthday.
 * Kolossos - The first two weekends in may would be bad for me because I'm far away.
 * JanPaul123 - Can't be there the second weekend.
 * Manuel Schneider - May 11th to 14th is LinuxTag in Berlin, so 14th/15th is not going to work while 7th/8th would be perfect as it saves another trip to Berlin
 * Nikerabbit - Having another trip in first week of June, so preferably not just before it.

Location
In Berlin. We are looking at an awesome venue in Kreuzberg, but it's not final yet.

Schedule
The rough plan is to talk and coordinate in the mornings (that's engineer morning, before lunch at 2pm or so), hack all afternoon (until we are hungry again), then find food, then have some fun in Berlin (and/or do more hacking). We are looking to have the venue open around the clock, or at the very least until midnight.

Topics
Here are the things we want to focus on at the hackathon


 * Fixing the parser. Once and for all.
 * Improving usability/accessibility with little skin hacks
 * Wiki loves Monuments
 * Maps in Wikipedia
 * Bug squashing. Please make a list below, preferably of issues related to the topics above.

Feel free to comment on the above or add your own idea. Note however that we will try to keep the event focused on not too many different topics.

Note: the GLAM theme was dropped, because there is already going to be a GLAM hacking even in spring or summer on the US east coast (NY or DC, it seems).

bug list

 * Bugs with keyword need-parsertest
 * Bugs with keyword parser
 * define XML namespace for output of web API (trivial)
 * Repurpose the hackaton/add to it?

Contact
Please write to [mailto:conference@wikimedia.de conference@wikimedia.de]