Research:Labs2/Hackathons/November 9th, 2013/Sandbox

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Inaugural L2 Research Hackathon
Saturday, November 9th, 2013
Share ideas, tools, analysis, and discussion...
You can join local meetups or participate 100% virtually.
That depends on your timezone.
...to improve collaboration, explore new ideas, and answer some pressing questions.
Organize local and virtual meetups and help others get set up in Wikimedia Labs.

The inaugural L2 research hackathon day is an opportunity for anyone interested in research on wikis, Wikipedia, and other open collaborations to meet, share ideas, and work together. It's being organized by researchers in academia and the Wikimedia Foundation, but we want anyone interested in research to participate. Whether or not you consider yourself a researcher, or would ever want to be one, come with questions, answers, data, code, crazy ideas... or just your insatiable curiosity.

We will meet both virtually via google hangout and locally for those who are able to attend local meetup groups. You can take part through a persistent google hangout and IRC channel (#wikimedia-labs2) throughout the day, even if there is no local meetup in your neck of the world.

Meetup groups[edit]

Local and virtual meetups will take place across the globe. To participate in the hackathon, choose the meetup group that suits you best and add your name to the list of attendees. Note the if none of the local meetups will work for you, consider join a virtual meetup group.

The meetup groups are split into groups based on common timezones. See global synchronization for more discussion about how this works.

Asia/Australia (0100-1000 UTC)[edit]

Virtual (Asia/Australia)   [ create info page ][edit]

If you can't make it to any of the locations, you can attend virtually. This group will meet online only. Note that this group is still in need of a host.

  • Your name here...


Europe/Africa (0900-1800 UTC)[edit]

Oxford, UK   [ create info page ][edit]

Taha Yasseri will host a space at the Oxford Internet Institute.


Virtual (Europe/Africa)   [ create info page ][edit]

If you can't make it to any of the locations, you can attend virtually. This group will meet online only.

  • Your name here...

Americas (1700-0200 UTC)[edit]

Minneapolis, MN[edit]

EpochFail and Nettrom will host a space in Keller Hall at the University of Minnesota.

San Francisco, CA   [ create info page ][edit]

DarTar will host a space at the Wikimedia Foundation headquarters.

Seattle, WA   [ create info page ][edit]

Jtmorgan will host a space in Sieg Hall on the University of Washington.

Evanston, IL   [ create info page ][edit]

Aaron Shaw will host a space on the Northwestern University campus (precise location TBA). Note that this hackathon will begin on November 8!

Virtual (Americas)   [ create info page ][edit]

If you can't make it to any of the locations, you can attend virtually. This group will meet online only.

Who can participate?[edit]

Everyone who is interested is welcome to participate. You don't have to be a research or a programmer to get involved. We need your ideas, your questions and your insights into how wikis work, where wiki-work breaks down and how things can be helped. Just find a meetup (local or virtual) to participate in and sign up!

What will we do?[edit]

Suggested meetup agenda[edit]

Below is a suggested agenda for meetup groups to work from. Times are based on a 9AM start time. Start times will depend on your timezone what your host has planned.

0900-0915 — Meetup begins
Introductions, ice-breakers, discussion of the event format, schedule and goals.
0915-1000 — Idea sharing (sync)
Participants review, share, and refine the project ideas in a lighting presentation format. Synchronization with the other meetups is optional.
1000-1200 — Morning Work Session
Project groups begin pursuing their projects for the remainder of the morning.
1200-1215 — Preliminary project reporting
Each project reports back to the group about what they've been doing.
1215-1400 — Lunch break
Eat and/or continue their work over lunch.
1400-1630 — Afternoon Work Session
Project groups re-convene to continue working.
1630-1715 — Final project reporting (sync)
Project groups report on their activities for the day. Synchronization with the other meetups is optional.
1715-1730 — Event closing
Coordinate project reporting, discuss ideas for subsequent meetups or events and reflect on what worked and what didn't.
1730-1900 — Socializing!
Participants are invited to join each other at a nearby cafe or restaurant for drinks, food, etc.

The Wiki Research Hackathon is an opportunity for anyone interested in research on wikis, Wikipedia, and open collaboration to meet, share ideas, and work together. It is targeted at Wikimedians, students, researchers, coders and anyone interested in crunching and visualizing data, designing new tools, and producing new knowledge about Wikimedia projects and their communities.

The goal of this event is to:

  • share knowledge about research tools and datasets (and how to use them)
  • ask burning research questions (and learn how to answer them)
  • get involved in ongoing research projects (or start new ones)
  • design new data-driven apps and tools (or hack existing ones)


When will it happen?[edit]

It turns out that "When will it happen?" is a complicated question. Since this hackathon is a global event, participants will be joining all over the world. However, due to the way that global time (and thus timezones) works, many of us will be awake while others are sleeping.

Synchronization groups & overlap[edit]

In order to deal with pain due to timezones, local and virtual meetups will be synchronized in sync groups based on similar timezones within the Americas, Europe/Africa and Asia/Australia. These groups share at least an hour of overlap with nearby group(s). Meetup hosts can take advantage of these overlapping periods to share ideas and results with neighboring sync groups. If you are participating virtually, you are welcome to join whichever local meetup(s) and synchronization groups fit your location/schedule best.

Research:Labs2/Hackathons/November 9th, 2013/Sandbox/Timetable

Why are we doing this?[edit]

The scholarly research community studying Wikimedia projects, the Wikimedia Foundation, and the Wikimedia community all have a shared interest in answering research questions about Wikimedia projects using public datasets, developing new tools and sharing their work with others. This hackathon is intended to kick start L2, a space for improved collaboration between Wiki editors, Researchers and Foundation staff.

We need your help![edit]

We need hosts for local events and help writing documentation about how to create a Wikimedia Labs account and getting access to datasets. If you'd like to get involved, feel free to be bold or contact the event organizers.

Event organizers[edit]

For any question about the event (including volunteering for a local meetup), you can reach us at labs2@wikimedia.org or leave a message on the talk page.

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