Wikimania's classic "Hacking Days" event is back this year! We're running a Wikimania Codeathon in parallel with the main conference.
Software developers working on MediaWiki, MediaWiki extensions, and Wikipedia client-side scripts, bot tools, and Toolserver awesomeness are welcome to come, brainstorm, and code the days and nights away.
The event will be run this year in an unconference style; rather than enforcing a predefined agenda or schedule, participants will form groups as the event based on common interests, then have the opportunity to develop their ideas throughout the duration of the conference.
The awesome basement room in the Centro Cultural is dedicated to us techies! There will be signs pointing there.
The main planning session will be start at 10am Tuesday, August 25(13:00 UTC). Don't miss it!
(If you're an early riser, we'll be there with coffee at 9. ;)
The room will be open through the rest of the conference; feel free to pop in and out to get some hacking done between sessions.
There'll be a wrap-up presentation in Room 3 at 14:00 Friday, August 28 to give folks a chance to do mini-talks on what they've been working on.
FAQ
When is the Codeathon? Do I need to arrive early?
The Codeathon will begin on the morning of Tuesday, August 25, 2009 -- this is the day before the main Wikimania conference starts. We'll get to know each other and break out into some working groups on topics of common interest. The coding room will remain open throughout the rest of the conference, and folks are welcome to come and go -- there'll be lots of other things to see!
There will be a wrap-up session on the last day of the conference, during which participants can run mini-presentations on what they've been working on.
Will separate registration be required to attend the Wikimania Codeathon?
No, but we'll want to know how many to expect for the opening day, so it'd be nice to know who's planning to attend! Since it starts a day ahead of the main conference, be sure your accommodation is booked appropriately.
Where is the coding room?
In the venue, at underground level, next to Sala F.
What hours is the room open?
We should have the room open circa 9am through somewhere 6-8pm each day.
I can't come to Buenos Aires; can I participate in the Wikimania Codeathon remotely?
We'll open a #wikimania-codeathon channel on irc.freenode.net for folks to hang out in, whether physically present or not. Of course we expect a lot of folks will be in the usual wiki and IRC channels too. :)
wm2006:Hacking Days were held at OLPC's offices in Cambridge, MA. Huge turnout!
wm2005:Hacking Days the first event was pretty low key, with some developers hanging out ahead of the start of the original Wikimania in Frankfurt. A good time was had by all!