Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Molecular Biology/Computational Biology/ISMB-ECCB 2017 Editathon

First steps in organising

I've created a page with a very early draft grant proposal here: Wikipedia:WikiProject_Computational_Biology/ISMB_2017_Editathon/Draft_proposal -Kieran (talk) 07:24, 7 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Recruit more members to the org team @Daniel Mietchen: @Vivek Rai: @Amkilpatrick: @Alexbateman: @Alexmar983:
Apply for WMF funding via a project grant (>$2K, due 14 March), or rapid grant (<$2K, two week turnaround)
Talk to ISMB conference organisers about space
Contact conference hotel for budget on food if wanting catering
Contact computer rental companies in Prague if wanting to rent computers for the hackathon

Ideas from 2016

Run the session throughout the day in drop-in format (potentially over several days); this lets people drop in between talks
Always have at least one experienced volunteer on hand to help the newbies (have a sign-up sheet)
Gameify the process -- keep a leaderboard of most bytes of text contributed, most citations added, most wikidata contributions, etc

This could feasibly be set up in a similar manner to the WP:Stub Contest, perhaps with reward(s)? --Amkilpatrick (talk) 02:25, 9 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Hold a competition with prizes (possibly in conjunction with the main ISCB competition)
Provide some basic snacks and water
Hold a reception with free snacks/beer; give away drinks tickets (or reception tickets) to contributors at the editathon.
Run tutorials at pre-specified time slots (eg the Wikidata/intro to editing talk Alex gave at this year's editathon)
Get funding from WMF.

Budget / Grant Application

Laptop rental: available here, ~$32 USD each, or $70 with drop-off, pickup, setup. I'd suggest getting 10 laptops, so either $320 or $700; could also potentially be provided by the convention centre
Catering: it would be good to have snacks (although these could be purchased from a supermarket), and also pretty great if we could hold a reception; Zatis are officially endorsed by the convention centre. GOLEM catering is affiliated with Prague Congresses, but we may need to check with the convention centre first.
- https://www.cateringshop.cz/eshop-slane-a-syrove-pecivo-1000-gramu.html -- cheesy pastries 250 CZK x 2
- https://www.cateringshop.cz/eshop-minidezerty-velka-misa.html -- mini dessert platter 250 CZK x 2
- Croissants, pastries, etc; total for all < 2,300 CZK ($100)

Venue (editathon): this meeting room or one of various other meeting rooms; should contact ISMB org team first to determine whether we'd need to pay for that; get quote if we do.
Venue (reception): Terrace with a view of Prague (one of two). Need to check whether this would be available, and what it would cost.

Access to non-conference attendees

Will the space be accessible for those not attending the conference? I will be in Prague around that time and would like to drop by, but I am not signed up for ISMB. Quantum 7 14:42, 11 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Spencer, I'm not sure on this, let me check and I'll get back to you. Amkilpatrick (talk) 09:10, 12 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Update: unfortunately we are limited to ISMB attendees, mainly for security reasons. The ISCB have said they may be able to offer you a day pass at a reduced price (possibly around $75+VAT) - if you're still keen to attend I can send you the details. If not, we'd be happy for you take part remotely - we had a number of participants do this last year and it worked fairly well. Let me know what you think. Thanks, Amkilpatrick (talk) 15:38, 12 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Supplementary snacks

So it looks like we'll be getting basic tea/coffee/water/cookies delivered to the room, but this will pretty much exhaust the food budget. However, there is a pretty nice looking supermarket two metro stops away. I'm willing to pop out to that and pick up some pastries/crisps/etc at my own expense at some point during the day. (Just putting the link here so I remember) -Kieran (talk) 19:40, 18 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Handouts

I have printed 30x A5 copies of File:Wiki markup cheatsheet EN.pdf, this should be enough to get started, maybe some extra help on 'cite journal' would be useful, but we can go over that on the day as required Amkilpatrick (talk) 08:47, 19 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Perfect! -Kieran (talk) 07:23, 23 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Metrics

We should probably keep a record of how many people come into the session, and also remember to take a few photos for the grant report. The scoreboard page should give us most of what we need, but number of feet through the door is a good metric too. -Kieran (talk) 07:24, 23 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Possible things to work on

Participant feedback

This section of the talk page is for feedback from editathon participants: we welcome any comments on what you found helpful and especially what could be improved. Thanks! Amkilpatrick (talk) 09:17, 4 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I thought the event was great - loved the cheat sheet we could take home with us, and the coffee was a huge highlight! I hadn't been active on Wikipedia for ages, so it was a good opportunity to sit down and get some work done. Maonao (talk) 17:20, 13 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]