Wiki Techstorm


 * For the 2018 event, see Wiki Techstorm 2018

Techstorming is like brainstorming in a technical environment. The Wiki Techstorm 2019 will be held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on the 22nd & 23rd of November 2019.

To participate, you do not have to be some ICT genius. We are looking for women, men and gender-diverse people with an interest in ICT at all levels of experience. Are you interested in this work and can you work with spreadsheets (e.g. LibreOffice Calc), or do you learn and work in other areas with databases or software? Or do you work on or with the Wikimedia project professionally, for instance in a GLAM institute? Do not hesitate to register and indicate where your interest lies. Together we can work on the sum of all knowledge! Participation is free of charge and it includes entrance and meals.

Registration
Registrations will open after Wikimania, on August 26.

Registration does not guarantee a place at the Wiki Techstorm; a selection will be made from all submissions. After registration, 60 people will be selected to attend.

Location
Location is the StayOkay hostel in Amsterdam Zeeburg. This large hostel (600+ beds) offers us 2 meeting rooms and a communal space, of which we can make use 24 hours a day. The hostel lies within 15 minutes from the centre of Amsterdam: the Anne Frank House, Rijksmuseum, Van Goghmuseum, PC Hoofdstraat, Dam Square and the Leidseplein are at your doorstep. Trams stop in front of the hostel and there is a train station within 10 minutes walk. The hostel offers breakfast (vegetarian and vegan possible) and has a bar that serves a small lunch or diner. The hostel is wheelchair accessible.

We offer all attendees lunch on Friday and Saturday and dinner on Friday. We can not reimburse travel- or accommodation costs: Wikimedia UK, Wikimedia Sweden, Wikimedia Ukraine, Wikimedia Östenreich and Wikimedia Norway offer scholarships for travel. Please contact your chapter to apply.

Overnight stays
You are very welcome to stay at the StayOkay hostel, our venue for the event. We have a discount code for you, for sleeping in a 4-6 people dorm room with shared bathrooms and breakfast. If you prefere staying at a hotel, there are several hotels in the 15-20 minute walking range:
 * Lloyd hotel: Overlooking the IJ. 3 stars, Oostelijke Handelskade 34, 1019 BN Amsterdam.
 * The niu Fender: 4 stars, Cruquiusweg, Zeeburg, 1019 AJ Amsterdam, Nederland.
 * Q-Factory Hotel: The Amsterdam music hotel. 3 stars, 1 Atlantisplein, Amsterdam Oost, 1093 NE Amsterdam, Nederland.

Schedule
The Wiki Techstorm starts on Thursday afternoon, November 21 with a social event, to get to know each other and our location. On Friday, November 22 we will open with a general plenary session 'Introduction Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons'. The rest of the program of the Wiki Techstorm 2019 will be set up from three tracks: there is a track for Wikidata about modelling, cleaning and enriching data with Open Refine and uploading this data to Wikidata, and a track for Wikimedia Commons about preparing files (with associated data) from a (GLAM) collection and uploading multiple images or audio fragments to Wikimedia Commons using Pattypan. In these tracks, this first Wiki Techstorm day, several workshops will be given that relate to the knowledge and skills that the participants in that track need. In addition, there is a track in which experienced developers and Wikipedians work on creating tools and apps.

After the workshops in the morning there is a lot of time for practical training sessions. Until late in the evening, all participants can work in practice: uploading images or audio fragments to Wikimedia Commons, modelling, cleaning, enriching data and uploading this data to Wikidata. In addition, there will also be a number of expert do-it-yourself sessions where experienced developers will develop a tool or an app. Where possible, other participants can also take part in these expert sessions in certain cases.

On Saturday, a number of optional in-depth workshops are planned in the course of the day, such as Open Street Map, regular expressions in Open Refine, making maps in Wikidata, or Structured Data on Commons. This day also offers plenty of opportunities to get started during the do-it-yourself sessions. The Wiki Techstorm 2019 will be concluded with an inspiring showcase in which participants, alone or as a team, can show what they worked on during the Wiki Techstorm 2019.

About the organisers
Wikimedia Netherlands has a longstanding history organising hackathons and GLAM camps. Previous events were held in 2018, 2014, 2013, 2012 and 2011. We organised our first Women Techstorm in May 2018 in order to encourage women and people who identify as non-binary or gender diverse to take their first steps into the Wiki coding world and hopefully become Wikimedia volunteers. In October 2018 we organised a follow-up event - for a slightly bigger crowd - that was open to all genders: we aimed for an equal representation of all genders and backgrounds.

For 2019 we want to organise a hugely diverse conference again, open and inviting to everyone. This time we'll have three tracks: Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons and a tool & apps track. Apart from Wikimedians who want to learn to code, coders who want to learn about Wiki projects, we also invite Glam professionals who want to open up their collections to the world and expert developers who want to help us develop and renew apps and tools.

We hope to see you in Amsterdam!

User:DanielleJWiki, User:RonnieV, User:DDJJ and User:Ciell