If you are a newcomer at this hackathon, welcome! We are very happy to meet you!

At our hackathons, a "newcomer" can be defined in many way. Maybe this is your first time at a hackathon? Maybe you are new to Wikimedia? Maybe you have been around for a while but would just like some help connecting with people and projects. No mater which group you fit into, we are here to help you!

Make sure to join in on hackathon day 1 for sessions on the main hackathon program labeled "SESSION FOR NEWCOMERS" if you don't know where to start.

Our "Overview of Wikimedia Technology" and "Mentors and newcomers meet!" are important sessions for newcomers if you want to learn about our work and meet people to work with.

Meet your mentors!

Anyone who wants to mentor or who can offer help can add themselves to this table!

Photo / Avatar Name About me (incl. contact information & comments) During the hackathon, we could work on...
 
Aaron Halfaker

Halfak & EpochFail

I'm a research scientist who builds stuff and manages a small team at the Wikimedia Foundation. Specifically, I work on building machine learning models to help Wikipedians do their work -- and then run studies to see if they are helpful or not. I can help you with:
  • Finding sciency engineering projects to work on
  • Research and data analysis of wikis and tool usage
  • Setting up a python/flask tool
  • Learning SQL
  • Implementing a tool that uses ORES (our machine prediction service)
  • Getting ORES to make predictions for your wiki
 
Srishti Sethi I work in the Developer Advocacy team at the Wikimedia Foundation. I can help you:
 
Bryan Davis I manage the Cloud Services team at the Wikimedia Foundation. I can help you with:
 
Chris Koerner I'm a Community Relationship Specialist at the Wikimedia Foundation. Ask me anything. I can help you with:
  • Meeting people
  • Learning about Wikimedia history
  • Finding interesting projects at the hackathon (and beyond)
  • Strategies for using the Super Horn to block Blue shells
File:Tony Thomas (01tonythomas).jpg
Tony Thomas I contribute code to MediaWiki extensions in a volunteer capacity. I work as a research student working on distributed/P2P concepts (and in free time as a Python developer). My contributions to MediaWiki are mostly in PHP. I also work on unit testing, so this is something to meet and talk about!

IRC: tonythomas, or 01tonythomas[at]gmail.com. Also on telegram at tonythomas01

I can help you with:
  1. Some Python scripts (concurrency, threading etc).
  2. Setting up MediaWiki development environment.
  3. Writing unit tests for MediaWiki extensions.
  4. Maybe if you are interested - the Newsletter extension ?
  5. Thinking of running a hackathon in your place ? Lets talk.
 
Cindy Cicalese (WMF) and Cindy Cicalese (volunteer) I'm the Product Manager for the MediaWiki Platform. I'm also a volunteer MediaWiki extension developer. I can help you with:
  • Meeting people
  • Learning about the many uses of MediaWiki
  • Learning about developing extensions
  • Learning about installing and managing a MediaWiki instance or wiki farm
 
Spencer Graves selfie taken 2018-06-01
Spencer Graves (Wikimedia name:DavidMCEddy I have a few thousand edits in various Wikimedia projects, mostly Wikipedia, Wikiversity, Wikinews, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikiquotes, mostly in English but a few in Spanish, French and German. I can help you with a lot of the niggling details about how to do what you might want with the Mediawiki markup language as well as the rules and culture of the Wikimedia community. I'm no expert on any of this -- just a reasonable journeyman.
 
David Barratt I'm a Software Engineer on the Anti-Harassment Tools Team. I am new to MediaWiki (1 year), but I have a lot of open-source PHP, JavaScript, and Docker experience. I help maintain the MediaWiki Docker Image. I can help you with:
  • PHP
  • JavaScript
  • Docker
  • CSS/SCSS/Less
  • Action API usage
  • Blocking Tools
  • User Experience (UX)
 
Eranroz I'm contributing to Wikipedia and mediawiki for many years. I can help with:
  • Mediawiki and mediawiki extensions (Wikibase, Cite, VisualEditor)
  • Bots (pywikibot; python)
  • Gadgets/scripts (JS)
  • Lua (Scribuntu and Wikidata/Wikibase Client)

Stay connected with other participants

  • Mentoring Area and the Hackathon Help desk are in the main V.O.C. hackaing room during the hackathon/Pre conference. You will almost always be able to find other developers in Villa during the main Wikimania - everyone welcome! Stop by for help or to be social.
  • IRC on the frenode netword: #wmhack

This is the best place to ask for technical help and the best place to stay connected with the development community after the hackathon.

Sessions for newcomers

See the hackathon program and look for sessions with "SESSION FOR NEWCOMERS"

Other thinks and relevant details

Check here for mentoring tips and guide