Program Purpose

Fifty-six contributors gathered at IIIT Hyderabad for three days to improve Wikimedia’s technical ecosystem. Unlike traditional hackathons that focus primarily on rapid prototyping, the Indic Wikimedia Hackathon 2026 introduced dedicated refinement sessions that encouraged participants to improve code quality, documentation, usability, and long-term maintainability.

The Indic Wikimedia Hackathon Hyderabad 2026 was organized by Indic MediaWiki Developers User Group (aka Indic-TechCom). The hackathon took place in Hyderabad from 26 – 28 June 2026 (with 25 June as Day 0), in collaboration with the Open Knowledge Initiatives team and OSDG club at International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad.

Wikimedia hackathons are spaces for developers, designers, content editors, and other community stakeholders to collaborate on building technical solutions that help improve tools, workflows, and overall user experience across Wikimedia projects.

This hackathon is designed for:

• Technical contributors active in the Wikimedia technical ecosystem, which includes developers, maintainers (admins/interface admins), translators, designers, researchers, documentation writers, etc.
• Content contributors having an in-depth understanding of technical issues in their Wikimedia projects, like Wikipedia, Wikisource, Wiktionary, etc.
• Contributors to any other open-source community or those who have participated in Wikimedia events in the past, and would like to get started with contributing to Wikimedia technical spaces.

Participants worked on a curated set of technical tasks prepared by mentors and organizers. They were also encouraged to propose their own project ideas, provided they included a clear problem statement, implementation approach, and were reviewed by mentors before the event. 

Building on the experience and learnings from previous hackathons, this event was more efficient, inclusive, and collaborative. 

The event aimed to involve more developers who have experience with the Wikimedia ecosystem and had prior experience already contributing to tools, extensions, gadgets, or other technical projects. Editors were paired up with developers to provide domain knowledge, helping them better understand editing workflows, user needs, and the intended behaviour of the applications/ extensions/ gadgets being developed. 

Unlike other hackathons where rapid development is the primary focus, this event was not completely hacking but also incorporated dedicated  refinement sessions.These sessions encouraged participants to improve the quality of the works by refining  design, UI, data privacy, code optimization, documentation and overall maintainability. Additionally, the program also included brainstorming sessions, group discussions, workshops  to help participants  understand a broader perspective of this ecosystem beyond their individual projects.

Scope and Timeline

The hackathon was conducted as a three day in-person event  at the International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad (IIIT-H), a long-standing partner that provides space for technical and community events. The venue supported collaborative work through dedicated hacking spaces, mentor interactions, and discussion areas. 

The scope of the event was flexible enough to encourage participants to work on a curated set of Wikimedia-related technical projects and tasks suitable for a hackathon which prepared by mentors or a custom project proposed by their own and reviewed by experienced developers and organizers, along with Team Challenges from Wikimania Hackathon 2026.

The program was structured into distinct phases. The first half of the event (approximately one and a half days) focused entirely on development where the first part of the first day was catered to some introductions and welcome notes, ground rules, ice breaker activities, followed by continuous hacking. On the second day, the event had a social activity and the morning session was mostly catered to workshops, brainstorming sessions, and getting to know about OKI work. The second half started with refinement phases. The third day focused completely on refinement, wrap-up and showcase. 

Attendance

Total Attendees: 56

• Organisers:   11
• Mentors:   15
• Participants:  25
• Editors:  5

The majority of participants were developers with prior experience in the Wikimedia technical ecosystem. A smaller group consisted of experienced Wikimedia editors with technical knowledge, who collaborated with developers by providing domain expertise and user perspectives during the hackathon. 

Activities Conducted

Prior to the hackathon, an orientation call was conducted for participants to give an overview of the program, the Wikimedia technical ecosystem, team formation details, and some logistical and operational arrangements. The session also introduced participants to Wikimedia, its technical ecosystem, guided them through basic account setup, and explained the overall hackathon format. 

Following the orientation,  participants were encouraged to have a call with their specific teams and mentors. These discussions helped participants better understand their assigned projects, including the scope, objectives, expected outcomes, and technical requirements. Mentors introduced project-specific workflows, outlining the scope, objectives, and tasks for each participant to help them engage effectively during the hackathon.

During the event, participants worked on pre-curated tasks across multiple Wikimedia-related projects and collaborated closely with mentors to understand issue tracking, patch submission, and debugging workflows. Mentors supported participants across different projects, helping them navigate both technical challenges and Wikimedia-specific contribution processes.

To complement the technical program, the hackathon also included community-building activities. An icebreaker session at the beginning of the event helped participants interact and build connections. On the second day, interested participants joined a social walk around Hyderabad, providing an informal opportunity for networking. A dedicated women’s dinner was also organized to foster stronger connections among women participants, encourage inclusion, and support long-term retention within the Wikimedia technical community. 

Towards the conclusion of the event, a project showcase and presentations session was conducted, during which participants demonstrated their work and shared learnings with fellow participants, mentors, and organizers.  

Outputs and Outcomes

The hackathon enabled participants to work on pre-identified tasks across multiple Wikimedia-related repositories, resulting in code contributions, feature enhancements, bug fixes, and documentation improvements. Throughout the event, participants gained practical experience with Wikimedia development workflows, including issue tracking, patch submission, code review, and collaborative problem-solving, with guidance from experienced mentors. Several participants continued engaging with their assigned projects after the event, indicating effective onboarding into Wikimedia technical workflows.

During the hackathon, participants submitted a total of 56 Phabricator tickets across multiple Wikimedia-related projects. The distribution of contributions is summarised below:

• Clip2Commons:  9
• Deployr: 7
• Language Selector Rewrite: 1
• Lingua Libre: 5
• Montage:  4
• NPOV Drift Detector: 1
• Observability Tool: 7
• Onboarding of New Wikipedia Editors  : 2
• OpenSpeaks Subtitler: 5 
• OpenSpeaks Tome: 3
• Pywikibot  : 3
• Scribe: 6
• Translate Tagger: 8
• ULS Extension :8
• Wanda Extension: 4
• WikiEval Tool : 3
• Wikievol Tool  : 3
• WikiLinkua  : 2
• Wikimedia Commons Android: 4 
• Wikisource Reader App: 2

Total: 87 Repo/Phabricator tickets linked

As part of the Indic Wikimedia Hackathon Hyderabad 2026, several teams worked on projects that directly align with the official Team Challenges announced for Wikimania 2026. 

• OpenSpeaks (Subtitler/Tome/Bento) – Boost multimedia experience, Connect multilingual knowledge
• Lingua Libre – Boost multimedia experience, Connect multilingual knowledge
• WikiLinkua – Gamify knowledge, Stream data with Wikidata
• Wiki Translate Tagger – Connect multilingual knowledge
• Wanda / WandaScore / WandaScribe – Welcoming newcomers, Fix the sources / Update the obsolete, The editor of the future
• Scribe – Stream data with Wikidata, Connect multilingual knowledge
• WikiEvolution – Explore knowledge
• WikiNPOV Drift Detector – Deciphering biases
• Language selector rewrite – Connect multilingual knowledge

These contributions included code changes, improvements, and related updates submitted under mentor guidance.

What went well:

Program design:

• The overall event design enabled participants to collaborate with peers from diverse backgrounds and work effectively on technical projects.
• The combination of structured onboarding, continuous hacking, and dedicated refinement sessions supported steady progress throughout the event.
• Refinement sessions encouraged participants to improve code quality, documentation, user interface, and maintainability rather than focusing solely on completing tasks.

Mentorship and technical contributions:

• Clear project introductions and continuous mentor support helped participants engage confidently with their assigned tasks.
• Most of the identified hackathon tasks were actively worked on during the event.
• Several participants continued contributing to their assigned projects after the hackathon, demonstrating successful onboarding into Wikimedia technical workflows.

Collaboration:

• Pairing editors with developers proved valuable, as editors helped developers better understand user workflows, expected tool behaviour, and usability considerations.
• Workshops and discussion sessions complemented the hacking sessions by providing participants with a broader understanding of the Wikimedia technical ecosystem.

Diversity and inclusion:

• The hackathon achieved approximately <>% women participation, the highest among events organized by the User Group to date.
• The women’s dinner helped foster stronger connections among women participants and contributed to a more welcoming environment.

What can be improved/Learnings?

Program schedule

• Participants requested additional time for the project showcase and presentations.
• Fifteen-minute breaks were considered too short and could be extended in future editions.
• Starting sessions at 9:00 AM posed challenges for some participants because of commuting time.

Project selection

• Hackathon tasks require more review before the event to reduce duplication of effort.
• Greater emphasis should be placed on improving existing Wikimedia tools rather than developing new ones where similar solutions already exist.

Mentorship

• Participants experienced delays when waiting for scheduled online mentor support.
• Increasing mentor availability or ensuring more mentors are physically present during the event could improve the overall experience.

What’s next:

Based on the outcomes and observations from the Indic Wikimedia Hackathon Hyderabad 2026, the following recommendations are proposed for future editions of the event:

• Prioritise improving existing Wikimedia tools and applications over developing new ones, where appropriate.
• Continue incorporating dedicated refinement sessions to improve the quality and sustainability of contributions.
• Allocate more time for project showcases, presentations, and participant discussions
• Review the event schedule by extending break durations and considering a later start time where feasible.
• Continue initiatives that promote diversity and inclusion, including activities that support participation and retention of women contributors.
• Strengthen post-event follow-up and mentorship to encourage continued contributions beyond the hackathon.
• Explore organizing additional hackathons, workshops, and technical events in college campuses to improve accessibility and encourage new technical contributors.