Congratulations yuvi, srikanth and others involved. The amount of productive work done is simply awesome.
A feature request for future hackathons: An online tool/gadget/extension for conversion of .wav/.mp3 to ,ogg files is required. This could be made part of the commons upload wizard itself (where people click an extra option while uploading a .mp3/.wav file and it gets saved as a .ogg file). - Bala On Tue, Mar 27, 2012 at 8:01 PM, Konarak Ratnakar <konarak...@live.com>wrote: > Hi guys, > Congratulations on the success of the Chennai Unofficial Wikimedia > Hackathon. > I have two requests. > > 1. Can Shrinivasan (or anyone else) provide us with english subtitles or > english audio of the video that you uploaded on Youtube? > 2. Can Shrinivasan update the Readme file on > voice-recorder-for-tawictionary / repo? > > Regards, > Konarak Ratnakar | kondi > > PS: Yuvi Panda that mail I accidently sent you was supposed to be sent on > this list. > > > From: yuvipa...@gmail.com > > Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2012 13:47:29 +0530 > > To: wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > > Subject: [Wikimediaindia-l] Chennai Unofficial Wikimedia Hackathon Report > > > > > The Chennai Unofficial Wikimedia Hackathon Report > > > > Apologies for the delayed email. Work ate me. > > > > > TL;DR: 13 completed hacks, including 2 core mediawiki patches, 3 > > tawiki userscript updates and 2 new deployed tools. It was super > > awesome and super productive! > > > > The 'Unofficial' Chennai Wikimedia > > Hackathon(http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Chennai_Hackathon_March_2012) > > happened on Saturday, March 17 2012 at the Thoughtworks office in > > Chennai. It was a one day, 8 hour event focusing on getting people > > together to hack on stuff related to all Wikimedia projects - not just > > Mediawiki patches. > > > > The event started with us sailing past security reasonably easily, and > > getting setup with internet without a glitch. People trickled in and > > soon enough we had 21 people in there. Since this was a pure > > hackathon, there were no explicit tutorials or presentations. As > > people came in, we asked them what technologies/fields they are > > familiar with, and picked out an idea for them to work on from the > > Ideas List ( > http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Chennai_Hackathon_March_2012/Ideas). > > This took care of the biggest problem with hackathons with new people > > - half the day spent on figuring out what to work on, and when found, > > it is completely outside the domain of expertise of the people hacking > > on the idea. Talking together with them fast to pick an idea within 5 > > minutes that they can complete in the day fixed this problem and made > > sure people can concentrate on coding for the rest of the day. > > > > People started hacking, and just before lunch we made people come up > > and tell us what they were working on. We then broke for lunch and > > usual socialization happened over McDonalds burgers and Saravana > > Bhavan dosas. Hacking started soon after, and people were > > concentrating on getting their hacks done before the demo time. And we > > did have quite a few demos! > > > > Demos > > ===== > > > > Here's a short description of each of the demos, written purely in the > > order in which they were presented: > > > > > 1. Wikiquotes via SMS > > By: @MadhuVishy and @YesKarthik > > > > What it does: > > Send a person name to a particular number, and you'll keep getting > > back quotes from that person. Works in similar semi-automated fashion > > as the DYKBot. Built on AppEngine + Python. > > > > > Status: > > Deployed live! Send SMS '@wikiquote Gandhi' to 9243342000 to test it > > out! Has limited data right now, however. > > > > --- > > > > 2. API to Rotate Images (Mediawiki Core Patch) > > By: Vivek > > > > What it does: > > Adds an API method that can arbitrarily rotate images. Think of this > > as first step towards being able to rotate any image in commons with a > > single button instantly, without having to wait for a bot. Patch was > > attached to https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/33186. > > > > Status: > > It was reviewed on that day itself (Thanks Reedy!). Vivek is now > > figuring out how to modify his patch so that it would be accepted into > > Mediawiki core. Vivek is also applying to work with Mediawiki for > > GSoC, so we will hopefully get a long term contributor :) > > > > --- > > > > 3. Find list of unique Tamil words in tawiki > > By: Shrinivasan T > > > > What it does: > > It took the entire tamil wikipedia dump and extracted all unique words > > out of it. About 1.3 million unique tamil words were extracted. Has > > multiple applications, including a tamil spell checker. > > > > Status: > > Code and the dataset live on github: > > https://github.com/tshrinivasan/tamil-wikipedia-word-list > > > > --- > > > > 4. Program to help record pronunciations for words in tawikt > > > > What it does: > > Simple python program that gives you a word, asks you to pronounce it > > and then uploads it to commons for being used in Wiktionary. Makes the > > process much more streamlined and faster. > > > > Status: > > Code available at: > > https://github.com/tshrinivasan/voice-recorder-for-tawictionary. > > Preliminary testing with his friends shows that easy to record 500 > > words in half an hour. Is currently blocked on figuring out a way to > > properly upload to commons > > > > --- > > > > 5. Translation of Gadgets/UserScripts to tawiki > > By: SuryaPrakash [[:ta:பயனர்:Surya_Prakash.S.A.]] > > > > What he did: > > Surya spent the day translating two gadgets into Tamil, so they can be > > used on tawiki. First is the 'Prove It' Reference addition tool > > (http://ta.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediawiki:Gadget-ProveIt.js). The second > > one was the 'Speed Reader' extension that formats content into > > multiple columns for faster scanning > > (http://ta.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediawiki:Gadget-TwoColumn.js). Last I > > checked, these are available for anyone with only tamil knowledge to > > use, so yay! > > > > (He also tried to localize Twinkle for Tamil, couldn't because of > > issues with the laptop he was using. > > > > --- > > > > 6. Structured database search over Wikipedia > > By: Ashwanth > > > > What it does: > > Built a tool that combined DBPedia and Wikipedia to allow you to > > search in a semantic way. We almost descended into madness with people > > searching for movies with Kamal and movies with Rajni (both provided > > accurate results, btw). Amazing search tool that made it super easy to > > query information in a natural way. > > > > Status: > > The code is available at > > https://github.com/ashwanthkumar/structured-wiki-search. Definitely > > would be awesome to see this deployed somewhere, so would be great if > > the community could come up with specific ideas on how to make this a > > specific cool tool. > > > > --- > > > > 7. Photo upload to commons by Email > > By: Ganesh > > > > What it does: > > Started with building a tool that will let you email a particular > > address with pictures + metadata in the body of the page, and it will > > be uploaded to commons. This was for the benefit of people with older > > outdated phones *cough*Logic*cough* who would like to use their > > phone's camera to contribute to commons, but can not due to technical > > limitations. > > > > Status: > > He wasn't able to get that to work during the hackathon - too many > > technical issues cropped up. However, he's *very* definitely > > interested in setting it up, and has made progress towards it. I > > hope someone from the community (perhaps people doing WLM?) should be > > able to get in touch with him to see if this tool could be developed > > further with a specific goal in mind. > > > > --- > > > > 8. Lightweight offline Wiki reader > > By: Feroze > > > > What it does: > > There is a project called qvido > > (http://projects.qi-hardware.com/index.php/p/qvido/) which was a > > 'lightweight' offline Wiki reader (compared to Kiwix, which is > > heavier). It has been abandoned for a while, however. Feroze took the > > time to revive the project, figure out how to build it (and wrote > > build instructions!) and also fixed a bug so that it can be used to > > demo showing offline Wiki navigation. He was able to demo it showing > > the Odiya Wikipedia dump offline, with working link navigation. > > > > Status: > > There exists a git repo (https://github.com/feroze/qvido) with the > > code + the build instructions. I hope that people interested in > > offline projects check this out and see if it can be made useful, and > > take this forward. > > > > --- > > > > 9. Patches to AssessmentBar > > By: gsathya > > > > What it does: > > AssessmentBar is a small widget/tool I'm building to make WP India > > assessments easier (at the request of User:AshLin. Stay tuned for an > > announcement in the next few days). Sathya spent time making the > > backend for it more scalable, so the same server can support multiple > > projects and concurrent users in a better way. Before that he was > > contemplating setting up a hidden Tor node for Wikipedia (he's a Tor > > core contributor) and then playing with data visualizations with WP > > data. > > > > Status: > > There is a pull request (https://github.com/yuvipanda/MadamHut/pull/2) > > that I need to merge :) > > > > --- > > > > 10. Parsing Movie data into a database > > By: Arunmozhi (Tecoholic) and Lavanya > > > > What it does: > > It scrapes the infoboxes of all movies from whatever category you give > > it and stores this into a database. This is harder than it sounds > > because parsing wikitext is similar to beating yourself up repeatedly > > in the head with a large trout. They managed to figure out a nice way > > to extract information from all Indian movie pages, and put it in a > > database for programmatic easy access later. > > > > Status: > > I've asked them to put the code up publicly somewhere, and since I > > believe Tecoholic is in this mailing list, he'll reply with the link > > :) These kinds of data scraping can be used to build very nice tools > > that show off how much information Wikipedia has, and perhaps also > > help people contribute back by editing information for their favorite > > movies. I hope the community comes up with a nice idea to utilize > > this, and takes this project forward to its ultimate destiny: A super > > sexy IMDB type site for Indian Movies with data sourced from Wikipedia > > (I can dream :D) > > > > --- > > > > 11. Random Good WP India article tool > > By: Shakti and Sharath > > > > What it does: > > It is a simple tool that shows you one B, A, GA or FA article every > > time you go there. The idea is to provide a usable service for people > > who want to accumulate lots of knowledge by randomly reading stuff, > > but only want good stuff (so stubs, etc are filtered out (unlike > > Special:Random)). I'll also note that neither of them had worked with > > any web service before the hackathon, nor with JSON, nor with the > > mediawiki API, yet were able to build and deploy this tool within the > > day. /me gives a virtual imaginary barnstar to either of them > > > > Status: > > It is currently deployed at http://srik.me/WPIndia. Everytime you hit > > that link, you'll get an article about India that the community has > > deemed 'good'. The source code is available > > (https://github.com/saki92/category-based-search). They are eager to > > do more hacks such as these, and I'm hoping that the community will > > find enough technical cool things for these enthusiastic volunteers to > > work on > > > > --- > > > > 12. Fix bugs on tawiki ShortURL gadget > > By: Bharath > > > > What it does: > > The short url service used in tawiki (tawp.in) is shown in the wiki > > via a gadget. It is not the most user friendly gadget - you need to > > right click and select copy. Bharath looked for a solution by which > > you could click it and it would copy to the clipboard, but did not > > find any that would work without flash. Hence he abandoned that and > > started figuring out easier ways of making that happen. He also fixed > > several bugs in the implementation of the gadget, and I expect it to > > get deployed soonish. Thanks to SrikanthLogic for helping him through > > the process. > > > > Status: > > Code is available at > > > http://ta.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%AE%AA%E0%AE%AF%E0%AE%A9%E0%AE%B0%E0%AF%8D:Bharathkaush/shorturl.js > . > > He's still fixing things on the script. If the community needs people > > to come fix up their user scripts/gadgets, Bharath would be a willing > > (and awesome!) candidate! > > > > --- > > > > > 13. Add 'My Uploads' to top bar along with My Contributions, etc > > (Mediawiki Core Patch) > > By: SrikanthLogic > > > > What it does: > > Not satisfied with being the organizer of the hackathon, Srikanth > > wanted to flex his programming muscles and spent time fixing a bug in > > core mediawiki (https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=30915). > > He spent a while digging around the proper way to do this, and managed > > to make a proper patch! > > > > > Status: > > It has been committed in gerrit (currently unable to find a link). > > Should be merged in soon. Yay! > > > > Honorable Mentions > > =================== > > 1. WikiPronouncer > > By: Russel Nickson > > > > What it was supposed to do: > > Exactly like Shrini's tool to record word pronunciations and upload to > > commons, but written for Android so people could add prononciations on > > the go. > > > > Status: > > Code is available at https://github.com/russelnickson/pronouncer. He > > ran into technical issues with Android setup (it stops working > > completely if you look at it the wrong way), and was unable to > > complete this. I think this would still be a very useful tool, and > > hope someone from the community steps up to work with Russel and get > > this finished. > > > > --- > > > > 2. Wiktionary cross lingual statistics > > By: PranavRC > > > > What it was supposed to do: > > It was a statistical tool that generated statistics about how many > > words overlap between all indic languages in Wiktionary (as measured > > by interwiki links). > > > > Status: > > The code has been written (I've requested the author to put it up > > publicly, will update list when it is). It, however, requires a lot of > > time to be run. So validation by the community that such stats would > > be useful would, IMO, definitely give Pranav the impetus to finish it > > up and show us the pretty graphs :) > > > > So, in all, 13 demos were produced (+ 2 near misses). I think we can > > call this one a success, no? :) > > > > > Next Steps > > ========== > > Where do we go from here? Random thoughts: > > > > 1. Geek retention - this is reasonably easy. If we keep feeding > > hackers interesting problems that affect a lot of people, they'll keep > > helping us out. Is it possible to have some sort of a 'tools required' > > or 'hacks required' or 'gadgets required' page/queue someplace where > > we can always direct hackers looking for interesting problems to? IMO > > Wikipedia is full of interesting technical problems, so this *should* > > be feasible. > > 2. Follow ups - this time, I am able to do this personally (small > > enough group). Clearly this will not scale. Do we have ideas/methods > > for following up with these people so that they stay with us? > > 3. More of these? This was pretty much a 'zero cost' event - stickers > > > were the only 'cost'. A lot of places around the country would love to > > have their space used for a hackathon of sorts. Should we do more of > > these kind of 'Unofficial' hackathons? > > > > > > Thanks due (in random order) > > ============================ > > > > 1. Thoughtworks/BalajiDamodaran: He graciously hosted us at > > Thoughtworks. The biggest challenge for any hackathon is to find a > > nice place which understands what hackathons are, and provides what is > > considered the lifeblood of a hackathon - working WiFi. Balaji > > (@openbala) was incredibly awesome, and this entire thing would've not > > been possible at all without him and ThoughtWorks. > > 2. Dorai Thodla: He helped popularize the hackathon among the Chennai > > Geeks crowd, and acted as a sounding board at various important times. > > He also connected us with @openbala and enabled us to get the venue. > > Thanks! > > > 3. Srikanth Lakshmanan: The hackathon was his idea, and he made sure > > it was executed in a nice way. He was the official 'organizer', and > > made sure that all logistics were taken care of. Once the event > > started, he was very helpful in helping people technically and in > > picking up ideas, while also hacking on his own patch. This event was, > > in essence, organized and run by him. He took an overnight trip from > > Hyderabad straight out of office just for this. Thanks for making this > > possible! > > 4. Shrini (aka the relentless forwarder): This event wouldn't have > > been as much a success without him either. Evangelism across multiple > > lists, adding a lot of ideas that could be done, helping the people > > there out technically at all times and writing two really good hacks - > > Thank you! I'm glad we get to keep you :) > > 5. Subhashish Panighrahi: For sending us stickers :D (And who all is > > involved in that logistical process too!) > > > > > Most of all, this event was a success because of the quality and > > dedication of the people who turned up, giving up their Saturdays. > > Hope everyone who turned up had a nice time :) I am personally in > > touch with most of them, and I also have their email address, phone > > number *and* permission to contact them again. If anyone here thinks > > that they liked one of the hacks and want to take it further, please > > contact me (User:Yuvipanda on Mediawiki.org or yuvipa...@gmail.com) > > and I'll get you people in touch. If there is a more accepted, > > standard way of handling this type of private information, please let > > me know as well! > > > > Thanks! > > > > - > > Yuvi Panda T > > http://yuvi.in > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Wikimediaindia-l mailing list > > Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > > To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimediaindia-l mailing list > Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l > >
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