Hackathons/2020 Decision Process

This page is a work in progress --

Wikimedia Hackathon: History, Budget, Location Decision & Timeline

tl;dr: This page includes the history of the Wikimedia Hackathon, a description of the budget for the event and outlines a timeline and decision making process for the 2020 process. You should read this if you are considering submitting a bid to host the 2020 Wikimedia Hackathon.

History
The Wikimedia Hackathon was originally an annual European spring hackathon taking place in Germany. The idea originated with Wikimedia Deutschland (WMDE) and was originally funded by WMDE and the WMF.

After the 2012 Berlin Hackathon an informal decision was made via an in-person conversation between WMDE, the WMF hackathon team (Rachel F, Erik M, & Sumana H), and volunteers from WMNL to try to hold the event in Amsterdam in 2013. This plan was approved by the staff and board of WMNL.

After a successful hackathon in Amsterdam, WMF and WMCH decided to work together to host the 2014 hackathon. Just before Wikimania in 2014 the Engineering Community Team (first renamed the Developer Relations and now called Technical Collaboration the team) emailed chapters to see who was interested in hosting the 2015 hackathon - and there was an in-person meeting at Wikimania to discuss this. When more than one chapter came forward it was decided at the in-person meeting by those present that WMFR would be a good option. The meeting consisted of WMF Engineering Community Team and some past hackathon organizers, and was open to any interested host-chapters.

Before the 2015 Wikimedia Hackathon in Lyon an email was sent out to chapters looking for a 2016 host. For the first time there was a more formalized bidding process with documentation created by the Engineering Community Team, which funded a large portion of the event and also funded all WMF engineering staff travel costs for the event. Multiple chapters submitted proposals and all past hackathon organizers present in Lyon were called together to decide between the proposals. The proposal with the most votes, Jerusalem/WMIL, became the 2016 Wikimedia Hackathon Host. For the 2017 Hackathon, a much more formalized process was created mostly because we received feedback that the decision process was unclear. Details on the specific process for 2017 can be found here. Informally the Wikimedia Foundation chatted with a few interested chapters but WMAT was the only group who ended up submitting a proposal. WMAT was announced as the 2017 location on 14 March, 2016.

The only group to submit a bid for 2018 was Amical Wikimedia and the 2018 location was chosen to be the University of Barcelona just outside of the city of Barcelona. The only group to submit a bid in 2019 was WMCZ and the 2019 location was chosen to the the Czech National Library of Technology in Prague, Czech Republic.

This process has been kept flexible by choice. However, after experimenting with forming a committee of past hackathon organizers in 2017-2019 we will no longer follow this process. This was also stated in the 2019 decision process overview. We are changing the process for the following reasons:


 * We have never actually needed the committee to vote on locations.
 * Many past hackathon organizers are no longer involved in the Wikimedia Movement and/or interested in joining the committee.
 * Most of the past hackathon organizers remaining are not technical or heavily involved in the Wikimedia technical community.

After the 2020 selection process is complete, Technical Collaboration will review the process and determine if it was successful or if any changes are needed. Success is to be determined by the following criteria:


 * 1) We find a location for the Wikimedia Hackathon 2020.
 * 2) All bidding chapters and groups, even if they do not agree with the location decision, can see how the location decision was made.
 * 3) Technical Collabodation feels comfortable supporting the location decision.
 * 4) There is a good logistical framework in place to ensure that the Hackathon can run. Location and accommodation booked well in advance of the event. Registration and scholarships open.

The process for selecting a 2021 location (or other future hackathons) may be different than the 2020 process due to changes in budgets, success of previous events, changes in number of hackathons or target size of hackathons.

Considerations for 2020

 * We are open & encouraging to bids from anywhere in the world. Extra weight will be given to locations near a major airport hub in visa friendly countries that a place that is likely to be safe for attendees, e.g., according to the GPI or similar measurements rankings.
 * Focus areas important to the hosting group should be defined in advance, however participants can work on whatever they like related to Wikimedia Tech / Development.
 * This hackathon will be less heavily focused on newcomer onboarding, which is much more effectively done on a smaller local level. Instead, it  is meant to be a well-facilitated and organized meeting space for groups and most active volunteers in the developer community to collaborate face to face, with appropriate representation of Foundation, affiliates and volunteers to discuss the future of Wikimedia technologies in depth. We will still aim for newcomer support and onboarding for the local region where the event is held.
 * We are open to the idea of partnering with no only existing Wikimedia chapters and other organizations in the open source / free knowledge world. We are open to proposals with unique characteristics, such as partnerships (e.g., "Wikimedia Hackathon@NASA"), co-locating with relevant events, or mission-driven/focus-area-related decisions (e.g., Hackathon in Bangalore, with a tour of a mobile-phone manufacturing facility, if the focus area is readers and editors who use smartphones) as a few examples.

Wikimedia Hackathon Budget
Wikimedia Hackathons are funded by the WMF Technical Collaboration Team in partnership with the host chapter or organization that contributes money and staff resources from their own budget and from event specific fundraising. In addition to the event budget, the Technical Collaboration team will have a scholarship budget for flying volunteer engineers to the event and providing them with lodging. WMF team managers fund WMF engineers to travel to the event on a case by case basis. It is not mandatory that all these budgets are spent on one hackathon. Multiple smaller hackathons are also an option, however unless there is a good reason it is likely that 2020’s budget will go towards one large event.

The event budget and scholarship budget will be agreed upon between the hosting organization and WMF in advance of a bid being accepted. The hosting organization will be responsible for setting a timeline with the WMF Technical Collaboration and WMF Finance team, signing a contract with WMF, and submitting invoices as the payments are needed.

Process for Location Decision for Wikimedia Hackathon 2020

 * Technical Collaboration will put out a call asking for chapters or other affiliates and groups to indicate their interest in hosting the 2020 Wikimedia Hackathon.
 * There will be at least a month between the call for bids and committee’s final decision.
 * If there is a bid that is clearly strongest, that bid will be accepted.
 * If there is a clear tie between bids, Technical Collaboration will discuss with interested groups and attempt to come up with a solution working for everyone. Potentially we can approve the 2020 location and tentatively approve the 2021 location. There is also a possibility to split the event between two locations.
 * The Technical Collaboration team will announce the host of the Wikimedia Hackathon 2020.

The Technical Collaboration team will confirm the final decisions after doing their due diligence as they are ultimately responsible for the budget and the success of the event year to year. In the rare case that it is needed, Technical Collaboration will do their best to turn down bids as early in the process as possible while communicating reasoning clearly.

Timeline
December, 2018: This wiki page is published with information about the process

Everything below is from last year's timeline and will be edited later to be accurate for 2020.

2 March, 2019: Call for hosts

Decision Committee discusses & asks for more information if needed

30 March, 2019: Deadline for submissions

30 April, 2019 (at the latest): Decision Committee decides on a location

TBD: Location for Wikimedia Hackathon 2020 is announced

If we are not able to stick to this timeline the Technical Collabodation team may step in and make a decision instead of delaying the process. This is to enable the hosting team to have enough time to contract venues and accommodation with enough lead time in advance of the event.

Information about this page
This was originally written by Rachel Farrand from the WMF Technical Collaboration team. The intention was the clarify the process and inform chapters and groups who are interested in hosting how the decision will be made in advance of the call for hosts. The text (first up January 29, 2016 and edited for 2018's process in January 2017) was reviewed by the Technical Collabodation team, a few volunteers from the WMF Community Engagement Department, and the Past Hackathon Organizers email list. Suggestions and changes from those people and groups were incorporated. We also integrated feedback on the 2016 decision process summited by WMAT.

For more information on how to propose a hackathon, please check here.