Wikimedia Hackathon 2025/Program

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Istanbul, Turkey - May 2-4, 2025

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The Hackathon is participant-driven and gets its life from the active participation of its attendees. Below you will find some information on how to contribute to the program as an attendee.

Local communities are also welcome to organize pre-hackathon events, watch-parties or meetups in their region. More information about organization and funding is available below in the satellite events section.

This year's hackathon will not use the unconference format. Because we have limited rooms for sessions and workshops, the Hackathon Organizing Team will schedule sessions in advance based on the needs and interests of potential attendees.

Add your proposed session or workshop to the backlog column on the Hackathon 2025 workboard with the #Wikimedia-Hackathon-2025 tag and the Organizing Team will review it. Be sure to follow the format listed in the [How to contribute] section of this page.

Schedule

More info coming soon!

Room descriptions and capacity

More info coming soon!

How to contribute

Wikimedia’s technical areas

You can use this pre-populated project task template to propose a session in Phabricator.

Propose a session, workshop, or project

• Proposed Sessions - Sessions or workshops covering any of the Wikimedia technical areas.
• Skill Share - Hands-on skill development workshops on topics around the technology stack of Wikimedia projects.
• Featured Tasks - List of projects that are suitable for volunteers proposed by the participants and curated by the organizers.
• Backlog - If you don't know where to list your task, add it to the backlog column and we will help you.

For any of the items listed above, create a task on Phabricator, add #Wikimedia-Hackathon-2025 tag, and import it to the backlog column on the workboard. Also, indicate in the task description if your proposed activity is newcomer-friendly.

Get the word out

• Add your name and interests - including things you can teach and things you want to learn about - to our participants page.
• Email the organizers with any questions, we can help!
• Come to the Hackathon Opening Ceremony on Friday, May 2nd, ready to talk about your idea for 30 seconds during our open mic time.

How to conduct your session and/or workshop

Here are some tips:

• We encourage you to propose sessions in a presentation, workshop, discussion, or any other format that suits your requirements.
  • Feel free to host language or community-specific sessions and/or meetups.
• Session focus should be less on beginner-level workshops (unlike in some previous Hackathons) as this event brings together individuals who have already contributed to technical aspects of the Wikimedia projects.
  • However, a few newcomers from the local community might join us who would benefit from technical areas and overview sessions (e.g., Phabricator, Gerrit, etc.).
• If there isn't a dedicated space for your session, be prepared to run your session without a projector at a specific hackathon table in a quiet corner of one of the bigger rooms, in the foyer, or outside.
• You are welcome to reach out to the event organizers to seek help to prepare, get feedback on your presentation, or any training support you might need a few weeks before the hackathon event.

Social gatherings and side events in Istanbul

Format to use for your event

• What:
• Meeting point:
• Meeting time:
• Duration:
• Itinerary:
• Register your interest, using your signature (4 tildes):

Thursday 01 May 2025

• What: Hackathon participants arrive

Friday 02 May 2025

• What: Hackathon kicks off - more details coming soon!

Sunday 04 May 2025

• Closing party - more details coming soon!

Monday 05 May 2025

• Participants head home

Satellite events - what are they and how to organize one?

A satellite event is an event organized autonomously by a group of people outside of the Wikimedia Hackathon 2025 main event. It shares the purpose of the Hackathon: to bring the global technical community together to connect, hack, run technical discussions, and explore new ideas.

Satellite events can take place at different moments in time:

• before the main event (typically, pre-hackathon events can be onboarding sessions, training and workshops for people who newly joined the Wikimedia projects or the technical community)
• during the main event (to encourage people to work on projects in parallel and to interact online with technical contributors who are attending the in-person event in Istanbul)
• after the main event (for example, folks who attended the event in Istanbul can share their experience with their local community, show what they did or learned. It can also be a follow-up event to keep working on projects initiated during the hackathon)

Satellite events can take place in any region of the world, but also online. Organizing a satellite event together with your local community or user group can support people who are new to the technical aspects of the Wikimedia movement and need onboarding, and offer an alternative to people who cannot join the in-person event in Istanbul.

If you are looking for ideas of event formats, or examples of events, you can look at the list of meetups organized during the Wikimedia Hackathon in 2024.

Checklist to organize a satellite event

Are you enthusiastic about organizing a satellite event? Here’s a list of things to keep in mind:

• Don’t do this all on your own! Reach out to your local chapter or user group, start discussions, create a group of people to work together on organizing the event
• Define the frame of the event: What are the main goals? What is the target audience? How is it related to the Wikimedia Hackathon’s purpose? How will your event connect with the main event or other satellite events?
• Define the logistics aspects of the event: Where will it take place? When, and for how long? How many people do you expect? What will they need to join and contribute? What would be the content of the event (program, activities)?
• Define and reach out to the people you will need to run the event: do you need people with specific skills? Speakers or facilitators? Helpers for the logistics aspects? We encourage you to look for these people within your local community and support people looking to gather some experience in facilitation, event organization, etc.
• We strongly encourage you to find a local partner to help you with the logistics of the event: depending on the context, you can reach out to a local university, library or hackerspace.
• Communicate about the event: create a section below to add the event to the list, create a sub-page if you need more space to add the schedule, participants list, etc. Reach out to your local tech communities on their favorite channels and the general hackathon channels, to let people know that the event will be happening.
• If you want to exchange ideas with people who are interested in the hackathon or other satellite events organizers, feel free to use the hackathon channels.
• Plan the expenses needed for the event and ask for funding if needed - apply for a Rapid Fund maintained by the Wikimedia Foundation.

If you have specific questions for the Hackathon Organizing Team, feel free to email at hackathon@wikimedia.org.

Code of Conduct

The Wikimedia Hackathon will enforce the Universal Code of Conduct, Code of Conduct for Wikimedia’s Technical Spaces, and the Friendly Space Policy across all facets of the event. This includes various platforms, discussion channels, and local meetups. Your adherence to these guidelines ensures a respectful and inclusive environment for all participants.

We recommend all participants review these Trust & Safety policies prior to your arrival at the venue.

Individuals not cooperating with these policies may be asked to leave the event. A dedicated team will be available on-site to help support a safer environment for all.

If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to use the talk page or to reach out to hackathon@wikimedia.org.