Event:WMA Tamale Hackathon

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Overview

Program & Schedule

The Tamale Tech Hackathon 2025 will be a creative and welcoming event aimed at helping Northern Ghana developers, contributors, and enthusiasts engage deeply with Wikimedia Technical projects. This hackathon focuses on supporting bilingual participation, with emphasis on English and Dagbani, fostering local language representation in the digital space.

The event will be held in-person in Tamale, creating opportunities for direct collaboration and networking among participants from Northern Ghana and beyond.

Goals and Objectives

The primary goal of the Tamale Tech Hackathon is to improve the representation of Northern Ghana languages, cultures, and knowledge within the Wikimedia ecosystem. By focusing on local language support, the hackathon aims to bridge the digital divide and generate innovative solutions that will benefit local communities.

Key objectives include:

Helping Northern Ghana developers and contributors build, improve, and localize Wikimedia tools and content.

Building a strong, supportive community of local Wikimedia contributors who can continue to collaborate beyond the event.

Promoting the use of Dagbani and other Northern Ghana languages in Wikimedia projects, particularly through the development of tools and resources that support language diversity.

Ensuring the event is accessible, exciting, and rewarding for all participants, regardless of their technical background.

Event Details

Date: Saturday 25th – Sunday 26th October 2025

Languages support: English and Dagbani

Participants: Open to Northern Ghana developers, students, Wikimedia contributors, and anyone interested in Wikimedia projects

Tamale Hackathon Schedule

Day 1

Time	Session	Speaker
9:00 am – 9:15 am	Event Opening	Dnshitobu
9:15 am – 9:45 am	Introduction to TranslateWiki	Dnshitobu
9:45 am – 10:45 am	Introduction to the Wikimedia Technical Ecosystem	Joris
10:45 am – 11:45 am	Writing User Docs for Wikimedia Tools	Joris
11:45 am – 12:00 pm	Introduction to Userscripts and Gadgets	Joris
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm	Lunch Break
1:00 pm – 2:00 pm	Introduction to Wikimedia Codex	Joris
2:00 pm – 3:00 pm	Introduction to Pywikibot	Dnshitobu
3:00 pm – 3:15 pm	Team Formation and Task Assignment	Dnshitobu
3:15 pm – 3:30 pm	Closing Note	Dnshitobu

Day 2

Time	Session	Speaker
9:45 am – 10:00 am	Morning Standup	Dnshitobu
10:00 am – 12:00 pm	Hacking
12:00 pm – 12:30 pm	Keynote	Benedict
12:30 pm – 1:30 pm	Lunch Break
1:30 pm – 3:00 pm	Hacking
3:00 pm – 3:30 pm	Showcase	Dnshitobu
3:30 pm – 3:45 pm	Closing Note	Dnshitobu

Registration

The hackathon will take place at the Dagbani Wikimedians User Group's office space in Tamale with most participants drawn from the en:University for Development Studies (UDS) Tamale Campus, particularly the computer science students. The event is open to developers, designers, technical writers, students, and all community members interested in technology and local language development.

It's a great opportunity for people who are new to or already familiar with Wikimedia and open-source development to collaborate and learn together in a local setting.

To register for this event, please fill out our registration form: Registration Link

What to Bring

A laptop with charger

Notebook and pen for brainstorming

Create a Wikimedia Global user account beforehand if you do not have one

Sign into Wikimedia Phabricator and Wikimedia Gerrit

Install Git and create GitHub account

Bring your enthusiasm and ideas!

Event Location

Dagbani Wikimedians User Group Office Space, Tamale

Find Us on the Map

Google Maps: View on Google Maps
OpenStreetMap: View on OpenStreetMap
Coordinates: 9.445193541282112°N, 0.8560667545679044°W

Getting There

The venue is accessible by public transport from Tamale Central Market
Parking is available at the forecourt
Local taxis (tricycles) and ride-sharing services serve the area

Developer Pack

Participants Requirement And Setup

To participate for the the WMA Hackathon 2025 as a contributor, one needs to be in possession of the following and not limited to:

1. Pre-requisites

Make sure you have:

A laptop with microphone(preferably headsets), webcam
Good internet for video calls
A Wikimedia Global user account
Wikimedia Developer Account.
Google, Zoom, Telegram
Setup Git, Github/Gerrit
A quiet environment almost (if not) void of distraction

Don’t worry if you cannot handle anything above. Please check the next section

4. Gear Up for the Event

Explore phabricatorto familiarize yourself with Wikimedia’s task management and bug tracking platform before the program.
Follow the guide to set up MediaWiki locally on Windows, Mac, or Linux for hands-on practice.
Browse MediaWiki tutorials for step-by-step guides on common MediaWiki tasks, ideal for beginners and enthusiasts.
Learn about MediaWiki extensions to understand available MediaWiki functionalities and how to extend them.
Review MediaWiki configuration settings to customize your MediaWiki setup for optimal performance.
Check Some MediaWiki extensions for the source code of MediaWiki extensions to explore or contribute.
Read On how to resolve bugs in Phabricator as teams for a guide on resolving bugs in Phabricator collaboratively during team sessions.
Learn how to set up Git, Gerrit, and git-review for contributing code to Wikimedia projects.
Learn how to contribute to Wikimedia on covering code, documentation, and more.
Explore Technical help Contents for comprehensive help on using and editing MediaWiki wikis.
Understand extension development for creating custom MediaWiki features.
Learn how to install extensions enhance your MediaWiki setup.
Visit this page to access workshops on tools for small wiki communities, relevant for African projects.
Review the Wikimedia Tech Safari Program for additional technical training sessions to complement your learning.
Follow this guide to create clear, user-friendly documentation for Wikimedia tools.
Use the this template guide for documenting your tools or contributions.
Explore this page for examples of user scripts to enhance MediaWiki functionality.

3. Hackathon resources

To be able to contribute fully, you need to:

Do the general setup and prep (You can also watch the videos here)

Note: If you’re watching the video, use the following order:

Check out the hackathon possible tasks and projects on the Hackathon workboard

Please be sure to review tasks carefully and ask questions about the tasks on our telegram channels before the event so that you can get more help around solving the tasks.