Julian, Welcome. Here are my ideas:
1. "Tag along" - hold an event before or after a larger event, such as
OSCON. This event might even be a charity event. Semi-example:
http://railsconf.austinonrails.org/ignite
2. Create videos of ways to contribute.
3. Create a link/list of "small changes/bugs" - spelling errors, change
copyright everywhere, etc.
4. Use Google Hangouts to hold regular events. Use Skype/etc if video is
too much bandwidth.
5. Hold a contest. Here is one that just finished a month-long contest:
http://rubyosc.com/
6. Dual/joint hack event with other projects: Bugzilla, Mozilla, Mysql,
php, perl, ... By the way, here is my collection of hack days/etc that I have
been collecting for the 13 months: https://sites.google.com/site/patchworklabs/
Help this helps,Al Snow
> From: [email protected]
> Date: Thu, 2 Aug 2012 20:16:47 +0200
> To: [email protected]
> CC: [email protected]
> Subject: [Wikitech-l] About outreach and tech events (as suggested by Sumana!)
>
> Hi all,
>
> I'm Julien Dorra, I build creative communities using events. ex:
> http://museomix.com, http://artgameweekend.com, http://dorkbotparis.org,
> http://codinggouter.org.
>
> After a short discussion with Adrienne Alix from Wikimedia France, I took
> my chances and applied for the new role of Engineering Outreach Coordinator
> a few days ago!! Wish me luck!! (It's basically what I'm doing here in
> France with maybe the difference that we mix devs and non-devs, like
> designers and others professionals. We found that mixing is good for the
> cohesiveness of the communities built out of the events, because they are
> issue-oriented communities, mostly. Doing it for Wikimedia would be a dream
> job :)
>
> I also got a very nice answer from Sumana, encouraging me to "email this
> list with proposals/ideas of what the Wikimedia community ought to be
> doing" in term of engineering outreach.
>
> This application is a great occasion (excuse??) for me to divert some time
> and better understand the tech-side of the wikimedia community. I have
> collaborated with the non-tech side of the french community on issues like
> museum innovation and photography, but never directly with the tech-side of
> the community.
>
> I read with great interest the draft "Wikimedia Engineering/2012-13 Goals" (
> http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Engineering/2012-13_Goals). It's
> super-rich and very exciting in term of focus.
>
>
> - - So, I wanted to start with a couple of questions I was curious about:
>
> 1. In term of outreach to engineers, devs or other technical talents, in
> your experience is there a specific community that is harder to reach to
> than others for Wikimedia?
>
> 2. Also, would like to see even more effort toward the students? (as in
> "the future professionals"!). What about the web startuppers? (AFAISee in
> Paris, they don't really consider Wikimedia as a software project.)
>
> 3. Do you sometimes think there is not enough ux designers on this list?
> And during hackatons? What about other skills?
>
>
> - - Then, to engage the conversation further, I wanted to test on you some
> specific ideas around hackatons and technical events ;-)
>
> The wider issue of testing, of setting up a more robust test culture is one
> of the key goals for 2012-2013, if I understand well.
>
> I personally know at least 3 developers that are passionate about testing,
> love to evangelize Test Driven Dev, and that might attend a test-oriented,
> or TDD-oriented event – but they would probably *not* attend a Wikimedia or
> MediaWiki generalist event. They have so many event to attend! They even
> organize events themselves…
>
> These 3 devs I know personnaly are the kind of test-oriented mentors we
> want to be part of the wikimedia community, if for a weekend or a week,
> because they are good at mentoring and showing the path to others.
>
> So, how can we bring them in?
>
> That made me (re)think about the limits of generic events, and the
> importance of issue-oriented event.
>
> The idea I would like to put up to discussion would be to organize more
> fine grained events around specific issues:
>
> «Testing Wikipedia» could be a nice catchy name for a series for events in
> various cities around TDD, with experienced dev mentoring less experienced
> community members, etc. Even if the experts come and go, everybody learn,
> some test and process get done, and the community grow and learn.
>
> Another issue is engaging other orgs, so why not engage startups:
>
> «Wikimedia for fun and profit!» Ok, this title is a joke -- but we should
> do a series of events focused on encouraging startups to build products on
> top of MediaWiki, APIs and Wikipedia sites. The rationale here is that the
> more startups invest on the wikimedia tech, the more they contribute in
> return.
>
> The documentation of MediaWiki is also an issue. Let's not wait to have a
> big team to launch more sprints, let's the sprints build the team:
>
> «DocDocDooooc Sprints» Realspace events are a powerful way to focus people
> on a goal. So to build a stronger documentation team, we could start
> designing an engaging and inclusive event format, setting up dates and
> places for a series of events. That could boost interest, and gather people
> that wouldn't have think of helping on MediaWiki. Of course the challenge
> is to keep the momentum going in between realspace sprints. So that means
> building an strong doc community online too.
>
>
> Obviously, setting up events, even small ones, takes a lot of effort!
> Scaling them can seems too much to do, too, when resources are limited.
>
> The good news is that we have successful examples of worldwide scaled event
> formats, like Startup weekend, Dorkbot. It's doable. And the rewards can be
> huge.
>
> So the strategy here would be to kickstart local chapters with recipes for
> events and by connecting them with I call 'serial-collaborators', (people
> that love to attend hackatons and creative weekends - they know a lot about
> these events, and are precious resource for advice and support).
> Identifying and contacting partners and places usually helps a lot, too,
> for helping first-time event organizers.
> Having a regular schedule for the local, issue-driven events help the
> community stay focused on the goals in between events.
>
> - - -
>
> Of course if I post here it's because I need feedback, and I might be
> overly naive, overlooking many things. Does it makes sense to you? What's
> your own ideas about events as community catalyzers?
>
> Let's discuss here –– you can also reach me on twitter :
> http://twitter.com/juliendorra
>
> Julien
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