Grants:Project/Rapid/Hackathon 2022 Ammarpad
A pre-hackathon workshop would be held first for orientation and to introduce developers to MediaWiki core, extension system and Wikimedia technical space; and then followed by second day event which will build upon the first one and also give participants opportunity to meet and engage with the wider technical community at the main Wikimedia Hackathon holding at the time. This event will take place on from 19 to 22 May, 2022, in Katsina, Nigeria.
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Project Goal[edit]
Briefly explain what are you trying to accomplish with this project, or what do you expect will change as a result of this grant. Example goals include, "recruit new editors", "add high quality content", or "train existing editors on a specific skill".
People with technical background are abound in the region and most of them find it difficult, are unable or are not willing to contribute to Wikimedia projects in terms of lengthy prose writing or copy-editing routines. But very few know about the other side of Wikimedia, the technical space where their ability to contribute would be equally appreciated.
There are many article editing/writing focused events and interest groups in the region, but virtually none for technical development. There were efforts to change that some four years back in 2018, although some few events were organized at the time, the project failed to sustain the momentum after the end of the project and virtually is dormant now, and there has not been active developer engagement since then. Naija Hackathon 2022 aims to bridge that gap, lower the entry barrier to Wikimedia technical space through a full day training and post-event support strategy, endeavor to increase technical volunteer engagement in Wikimedia Hackathons as well as lay foundation for building and sustaining local technical community. Therefore main goals of the project are, among others, to:
- Provide an opportunity and avenue for participants to learn something new about development of MediaWiki directly from its active developers.
- Pull new technical contributors to MediaWiki development and to Wikimedia technical space in general.
- Provide on-hand guide and assist participants to setup development environment and fix real bugs in MediaWiki core or extensions and gadgets.
- Create enabling environment to court experienced developers who work with different technologies/projects who are willing to volunteer for ideal open source projects to volunteer for Wikimedia technical projects.
- Improve awareness for Wikimedia technical open source projects, especially MediaWiki itself, as well as Wikimedia's participation in Outreachy, Google Summer of Code and other similar outreach programs.
- Lay foundation and brainstorm strategies to ensure some kind of continued technical contributions of participants to MediaWiki ecosystem after the project.
Project Plan[edit]
Activities[edit]
Tell us how you'll carry out your project. What will you and other organizers spend your time doing?
- The project is broadly divided into main events, which additional post-event segment plans to study the overall impact of the project.
- Pre-Hackathon Workshop day.
- Main Hackathon day.
- Post Hackathon
How will you let others in your community know about your project (please provide links to where relevant communities have been notified of your proposal, and to any other relevant community discussions)? Why are you targeting a specific audience? As this is a developer event, we are mostly targeting computing or software engineering students as well as those already in programming.
- Africa-Wikimedia Developers,
- MediaWiki Village pump,
- Social media campaign as well as posters and flyers to share in local developer groups and meetings.
What will you have done at the end of your project? How will you follow-up with people that are involved with your project?
- Two-day event would be organized that will greatly improve awareness about MediaWiki and Wikimedia technical projects. Additionally, we would expect to get at least 20 volunteer developers who signed-up for Wikimedia developer account, setup MediaWiki development environment and show interest for continued participation in Wikimedia technical projects development as well as participation in outreach programs such as Outreachy and GSOC.
- We will design and analyze pre-event and post-event surveys to gauge participants' Wikimedia technical knowledge and awareness, as wells the impact the event have on them before and after they participate in the program as well as the skills they learn. All participants would have gained new or improve their technical skills with regard to MediaWiki as well as their understanding and awareness of Wikimedia technical projects.
Are you running any in-person events or activities? If so, you will need to complete the steps outlined on the Risk Assessment protocol related to COVID-19. When you have completed these steps, please provide a link to your completed copy of the risk assessment tool below:
Impact[edit]
How will you know if the project is successful and you've met your goals? Please include the following targets and feel free to add more specific to your project:
- Number of total participants: 30 (for each day)
- Number of articles created or improved (if applicable) n/a
- Number of photos uploaded to Wikimedia Commons (if applicable) n/a
- Number of photos used on Wikimedia projects (if applicable) n/a
- Number of events organized: 2
- Have at least 20 developers signed-p for Wikimedia developer account and get familiarity with developing MediaWiki
- Have at least 5 active developers to sustain technical contribution after the end of the project
- Have newcomer developers fix some real bugs in MediaWiki core or extension during the Hackathon. This item will mostly focus on the quality and technical complexity of the work rather than sheer quantity.
Resources[edit]
What resources do you have? Include information on who is the organizing the project, what they will do, and if you will receive support from anywhere else (in-kind donations or additional funding).
- We have experienced and active Wikimedia developers to facilitate the event and both have provided technical trainings or organized developer events before. There are no expectation of additional funding in any form from elsewhere.
- Organizer
- Ammarpad - is project lead and facilitator. He's an experienced MediaWiki developer, member of MediaWiki core development team and former Outreachy Intern with Wikimedia.
- Logistics and local planning
- Wizkid49 - is an experienced Wikipedia editor and Java developer. Has plenty logistics experience in planning and organizing successful local developer events.
- Resources person (remote)
- X-Savitar - has vast experience with MediaWiki development and tooling, is a member of MediaWiki core development team and a Technical Analyst at Wikimedia Foundation.
What resources do you need? For your funding request, list bullet points for each expense:
- Space rent for two days: $250 x 2 = $500
- Breakfast: $5 x 30 x (2 days) = $300
- Lunch and beverages: $10 x 30 x (2 days) = $600
- Internet (for event and event planning management): $100 x 2 = $200
- Roll-up banner: $100
- Operational costs for programs organization, disbursing data/hardware support and organizers communication = $250
- Name tags, pens and posters swag, print/design services and promotion = $250
- Local travel support (for participants that need it): $20 x 30 = $600
- Data package support and hardware (headphones/mic/webcam) for participants: $50 x 30 = $1500
- Projector and camera rental services: $75 x (2 days) = $150
- Covid-19 safety supplies (sanitizers, masks) = $100
- Bank charges and contingency: $100
- TOTAL: $4,650 (Oanda; 1USD/415NGN, March 18, 2022 )
Endorsements[edit]
Support Ammarpad is an experienced Wikimedian with technical capacity to effectively implement this kind of project. He helps out a Phab and provides other technical assistance to editors. T CellsTalk 11:05, 27 March 2022 (UTC)- Support Ammarpad is a vital asset to the Wikimedia community in Nigeria. I believe his capacity to deliver. SuperSwift (talk) 18:30, 4 April 2022 (UTC)
