Wikimedia Technical Talks/Scheduling a Technical Talk

This page provides specific instructions for scheduling a Wikimedia Technical Talk as a facilitator or organizer.

If you are a speaker or presenter, please see How to give a Technical Talk instead.

Checklist for organizers

 * 1) Confirm the title and description / summary (about a paragraph explaining what the talk is about) is appropriate. Tech talk organizers will use this when publicizing the tech talk.
 * 2) Reserve a meeting time at least 15 minutes before the tech talk starts through the end of the tech talk. If you are in a physical location like an event venue or office, make sure to
 * 3) Organizers should file a ticket with the WMF A/V group to  create a Hangouts On Air with YouTube Live  on the MediaWiki channel for broadcast for the date and time of the tech talk.
 * 4) Invite speakers to the Hangouts On Air broadcast.
 * 5) Create a named event on TimeAndDate with the correct time in UTC to distribute internationally
 * 6) Add the tech talk to Project:Calendar and include a links to the Google Hangouts On Air broadcast and the TimeAndDate event.
 * 7)  Reserve the  IRC channel for questions.
 * 8)  Add the tech talk to the WMF engineering calendar. Include IRC details and YouTube link.
 * 9) Email product-all and tech-all, wmfsf and wikitech-l with details about the tech talk. This should include your TimeAndDate link, a link to follow along on YouTube, a link to join the live hangout, a description of the tech talk/presenters, the meeting room. If the tech talk will be taking place in one of the collab spaces, also send a heads up to wmfsf@.
 * 10) Tweet from the MediaWiki twitter account about the tech talk
 * 11) Create a Facebook post about the tech talk on MediaWiki's Facebook page
 * 12) Add speakers, project members & IT support to to calendar invite
 * 13) Reply to your previous email on product-all, tech-all, wikitech-l and wmfsf and send reminders out about the tech talk: 1 week in advance, 1 day in advance and 15 min in advance or whatever you think makes the most sense for your tech talk.

Day-of instructions

 * 1) Arrive to the meeting room and/or hangout 15 minuets before the tech talk starts. Ask the presenter to do the same.
 * 2) Double check that your google Youtube and hangout links are working properly.
 * 3) If you are screen sharing, test to make sure this works ahead of time
 * 4) Double check that your microphone and speakers are working properly
 * 5) Make a plan with the presenter before you go live. Who will watch IRC and the Youtube stream for questions? Who will introduce the tech talk?
 * 6) Change topic in IRC channel and announce meeting in IRC channel at least 5 min in advance.

After the Tech Talk

 * 1) move the Tech talk in IRC office hours, add a link to the meeting log (example, scroll down)
 * 2) put the IRC log in the linked wiki page
 * 3) check that the presentation video appears in MediaWiki's YouTube channel.
 * 4) upload any slides or supporting materials to commons: Category:MediaWiki_tech_talks
 * 5) update Tech talks with a link to the presentation video on YouTube and slides on commons
 * 6) move information about tech talk from upcoming to past
 * 7) send out thank you to speakers and a reminder about the next month's talk

IRC office hours
To schedule time in the #wikimedia-office channel for an IRC meeting, please see IRC office hours on Meta.