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 arrive in the room early. If you are doign the talk over video, make sure to have yourself and speakers arrive at the meeting at least 10 minutes early to test that A/V.
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 #wikimedia-office ^connect IRC channel for questions.
8. Add the tech talk to the WMF Engineering and Staff calendars. Include IRC details and YouTube link.
9. Email product-all and tech-all, wmfsf and wikitech-l with details about the tech talk. Post the details of the talk ti #Wikimediatech and #MediaWiki Twitter accounts. 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. Add the talk and details to the Tech talks page.
14. 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 minutes 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. Explain logistics with the presenter before you go live. As the moderator you should introduce the tech talk and monitor IRC and the Youtube stream for questions to share with them at the end of the talk. It is also helpful to have a few questions prepared in advance to ask at the end of the talk.
6. Change topic in IRC channel and announce meeting in IRC channel at least 5 min in advance. Let folks in IRC know the talk will be taking place and to share questions there or on the Youtube livestream.

After the Tech Talk

1. move the Tech talk in m: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.