Grants talk:IdeaLab/Hackerspace

Thoughts[edit]

So glad you wrote this idea up! It feels like we often have trouble getting technical volunteers involved in projects where just a bit of code is needed to move a community organizing initiative forward, and there has to be a better way to think about this setup that the current options.

Some first thoughts:

I expect a space would be most valuable spanning across projects, so although I see your point about EN:WP's inhabited-ness, I expect we'd be missing some really valuable folks by confining ourselves to a single language wiki. IdeaLab Hackerspace on Meta? Or something on MediaWiki, perhaps? Once global Echo and Flow exist (which could be a while), the choice of wiki might be less crucial.
Could be fun to play with what motivates technical folks to contribute - glory? bounties? linked-in recommendations?
Seems like simple input mechanisms for those looking for technical help to define requests, and for tech folks to define what they can offer might be the key...we're sort of talking about matchmaking between ideas and people, which is where I think we're also going with IdeaLab.

Also, did you want other participants to join your idea, in case you can't do it all by yourself? If so, try adding YES after "more participants=" in your idea's infobox - it will make a shiny button asking people to join this idea :-) (a somewhat wiki-centric hacky solution, I know, but it is getting closer to the dream! Gee, if only there was a Hackerspace I could go ask for help from someone to make a gadget for submitting ideas w/o wikimarkup!). Siko (WMF) (talk) 16:14, 11 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

hackerspaces.org[edit]

Consider reaching out hackerspaces.org and the wider hackerspace community including those on this map. Maybe there is some potential in partnership? I believe most hackerspaces would be happy to host wikimedians/wikipedians, and there is already tons of overlap with F/LOSS and Free/Libre Culture, including Wiki(m|p)edians.

Also, it's my perspective that hackers would love to take gigs with good causes, so any funding that can go to that would be duly appreciated and deepen community connections.