Research:Labs2/Hackathons/November 9th, 2013/Meetups/San Francisco, CA

Hosted by: DarTar

Location: San Francisco, CA

DarTar will host the Bay Area event on November 9 starting at 9am at the Wikimedia Foundation headquarters in downtown San Francisco. To sign up for this event, please add your name to this list or RSVP on meetup.com.

Need help or more information? Email the host.

Schedule

9 - 930am

Arrive: meet & greet (there will be coffee!)

930 - 10am

Introduce: who we are, why we're here, what we're interested in.

10am - 12pm

Plot and Plan: agenda-setting, technical tutorial, and cooperative brainstorming. Around 11am, we'll shoot the breeze for a while with some of the other sites in a big group Hangout. We will give short technical tutorials about the following data sources:

• Database replicas
• MediaWiki API
• RecentChanges feed
• Other data sources (XML dumps, page view API, geodata)

12 - 1245pm

Learn: presentation by Haitham Shammaa, (Global South Learning Strategist, Wikimedia Foundation) on a new Wikipedia network visualization tool

1245 - 130pm

Eat: Pizza and soft drinks (veggie options available).

130 - 330pm

Hack: continue group/individual work

330pm

Report out and round up: We'll talk about what we did, and what we want to do next.

4pm -5pm

Riff: groups can continue working in the collab space as long as they like, though the office will be closing at 5.

FAQ

How do I get there?

The Wikimedia Foundation HQ are located on New Montgomery Street in SoMA, just a few blocks away from New Montgomery BART/Muni station. The hackathon is hosted in the collab space on the 6th floor of the building. Between 9 and 9.30 someone from the local host team will be in the lobby to welcome participants. After 9:30 you'll be able to reach us by phone (instructions will be on the front door) and we'll send someone to pick you up in the lobby.

Wikimedia Foundation

149 New Montgomery Street

San Francisco, CA 94122

Map and directions

What do I need to bring?

Bring a laptop computer and a charger. And probably a pen and paper for note-taking. Wi-Fi access codes will be available for all participants. Other than that, bring questions and ideas!

What's the official hashtag of the event?

We'll be using #wikiresearch as the hashtag for the hackathon.

Do I need to do anything to prepare?

There are no necessary preparations, but here are a couple of recommendations.

• If you don't have a Wikipedia account, create one. The same account works across all Wikimedia sites.
• If you're interested in running MySQL queries against databases of Wikipedia, you should get a head start by creating a free Wikimedia Labs account. Some instructions to get you started are available here. mail us if you get stuck (I got stuck!).
• Communication/coordination will happen mostly via IRC and a Google Hangout. If you already have an IRC handle, please join the #wikimedia-labs2^connect channel. Otherwise, you can use this [web-based IRC client.

What if I can only be there in the [morning/afternoon]?

The research hackathon is a casual affair. It's fine if you can only make it for part of the day. The morning session is probably the most important. If you have to choose, attending the morning session will probably be more useful for understanding Wikipedia and wiki-research in general.

Will we talk about [insert topic here]?

If you want to talk about a topic, we can! That's what the agenda-setting session is for: we will figure out what we're interested in learning and doing, and then we do it.

A few of the many possible topics for conversation & hacking include:

• Wikipedia data (analysis, visualization, uses)
• history and culture
• qualitative research methods
• quantitative research methods
• designing tools to support the community and its mission
• previous research on Wikipedia
• the Wikipedia gender gap
• user experience
• research ethics
• starting a new research project
• getting involved in existing projects

Can I work with someone at one of the other hackathons?

There will be a Google Hangout and an open IRC channel for the Hackathon that will be open throughout the day. Because some of the hackathons are happening on the other side of the world, our day won't overlap completely with theirs. But you will be able to work and connect with anyone from the other sites (as well as virtual participants) at any time throughout the day, as long as you're both awake and online.

Is lunch provided?

Yes! Pizza, soda, and coffee are provided.