Hugh Lashbrooke 1:00 pm on March 20, 2020

Taking Charity Hackathons Online

For the last few years, we have included the do_action Charity Hackathon event series in the WordPress community program, and there are some handy recap posts on the WordPress Foundation site all about how these events have been going. With the current need to go virtual with all of our events, we need to look at how these charity hackathons can be moved into an online format.

do_action events have had such a positive impact on so many organisations and people that it would be a shame to stop doing them in our current situation. With that in mind, here are a few ways we can modify the event format and things that you can try as an organiser to make these events possible:

  1. Organise a country-wide do_action event. Since these events are going to be virtual, it makes sense to bring in talents from the whole country, as well as reach more non-profit organisations that would otherwise be possible.
  2. Spread the work out over a few days/weeks. In order to give people the time to work on the websites for the non-profit organisations, allow them to work over a longer time period than just one day. A format I quite like the idea of is giving each team 1 week to complete their work.
  3. Provide virtual communication channels. Use your local WordPress community SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform http://wayback.fauppsala.se:80/wayback/20200403153707/https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at http://wayback.fauppsala.se:80/wayback/20200403153707/https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. group (or create one if you don’t have one already) and set up separate channels for each team to communicate. You could also use some of the tools we suggest for meetups to expand on the communication options.

So, if you’re planning on organising a do_action event this year then please don’t let the lack of in-person meetings stop you! You can fill in the application form to organise an event and we can discuss your plans from there. The suggestions in this post have been added to the organiser’s handbook.

Do you have any questions about the above suggestions? Or any other ideas that could help do_action events grow in a virtual setting?

Naoko Takano 5:34 am on March 26, 2020

@hlashbrooke one question. If the event is running without (or with a very simple budget – let’s say a handful of invoices), is the use of OpenCollective still required?

Hugh Lashbrooke 6:43 am on March 26, 2020

Oh good question! If you can get local sponsors to pay the minimal costs directly then you can bypass the use of Open Collective, but if you need funds from the WP Foundation then you’ll need to submit that through Open Collective.

Mary Job 11:19 am on April 2, 2020

I am totally down for this, there is always a first time so why not now. This will allow remote participation which I have gotten requests for in the past.

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