Hackathons/Before you start planning
Organizing an event like the yearly large Wikimedia Hackathon, is a lot of work and requires substantial commitment but it is a great experience. You will be supported by the WMF team and enthusiastic collaborators from all over the world. A Wikimedia Hackathon is a team effort that will keep you, your team, and your community busy for more than a year.
If you are thinking about hosting a Wikimedia Hackathon in the future, here's how to get started:
Phase #1: Draft a vision
edit- Attend a Wikimedia Hackathon
- ... If you haven't already! Get inspired and pay special attention to the organizers' work.
- Talk about your thoughts with other organizers and hackathon-experienced Wikimedians
- All of this will give you a good idea of whether you are ready to host a hackathon.
- Ask yourself "Why do we even want to do all this work?"
- By asking yourself a couple of tough questions, you can get a clear vision of if – and if yes, why – you would want to plan an event: outreach:Event planning process (Related Learning Pattern: m:Learning patterns/Event planning process)
- Learn the definition of a Wikimedia Hackathon
- Understand what is required of every hackathon (and think about which special things you would want to do.)
Phase #2: Discuss with your team and community
edit- Get familiar with the timeline
- Make a rough plan: Would this work in the following year, or the one after? Check with your team and community if it would be possible.
- Flip through the handbook for organizers
- Skim the articles to get an idea of the individual tasks you have to organize.
- Check out how the organizers of previous hackathons did it
- Learn from previous events and build on previous organizer's lessons learned.
Phase #3: Propose!
edit- If you still want to do this, you are ready to propose a hackathon!