Wikimedia Hackathon 2026

[misaochan]

So, it's that time of the year again! The Wikimedia Hackathon 2026 will be held in Milan from 1-3 May 2026, and travel scholarship applications are open until 28 Nov this year.

I'm planning to apply for one to attend. Would be great if a few of us could meet up and work together. :)

If I'm approved, I think I'd like to work on creating a proof-of-concept or prototype for a multiplatform Commons app. I've been thinking of it ever since it was suggested by @nicolas-raoul here, and I feel like a potential for convergence might address some of WMF's concerns re: maintainability and consistency of a separate iOS app.

Going further down that route, here are some of my thoughts of how we'd go about this:

• Design: WMF mobile app staff often attend these events, we could collaborate with them on coming up with a UI/UX and design that suits the brand.
• Tech stack: I'm leaning towards React Native personally, partly because that appears to be the industry standard for multiplatform mobile apps at the moment, and partly because I myself am keen on upskilling in that area. Totally open to suggestions though - other options include Kotlin Multiplatform.
• Scope: Needs to be super small for a hackathon, I'm thinking just a very basic login and upload flow. If we have time, Nearby would be nice.

Anyway, all of this is completely up for discussion! Let me know what you all think, and also if you're planning to apply. :)

P.S.: If we do this, I think we need at least one person with an iPhone and a Mac to compile and test. I'm a Windows and Android person myself (heh), and AFAIK we can use Expo to develop on Windows, but to publish (even on TestFlight) I think we need a Mac.

[RitikaPahwa4444]

Unfortunately, I might not be able to attend in-person, but always up for help and discussion virtually 🙌🏻

Design: WMF mobile app staff often attend these events, we could collaborate with them on coming up with a UI/UX and design that suits the brand.

Good time for #6392 I guess :)

Tech stack: I'm leaning towards React Native personally, partly because that appears to be the industry standard for multiplatform mobile apps at the moment, and partly because I myself am keen on upskilling in that area. Totally open to suggestions though - other options include Kotlin Multiplatform.

If it's a complete re-write, react native sounds good. Just thinking: given that our codebase is in Kotlin already, it might be easy to re-use a good amount of code with ease and ship quickly using KMP. I see we had a flutter app already, so extending that might also be an option.

[misaochan]

Good time for #6392 I guess :)

Great idea! :) Definitely saves time to incorporate the Codex right from the start. I reckon we could collab with designers to create a Figma design with their components, and use that as the base for the prototype.

If it's a complete re-write, react native sounds good. Just thinking: given that our codebase is in Kotlin already, it might be easy to re-use a good amount of code with ease and ship quickly using KMP. I see we had a flutter app already, so extending that might also be an option.

I don't know if extending the Flutter app is a good idea - we made that as a demo for a pitch a long time ago (in 2019-ish?) and haven't worked on it since. It feels like we might end up spending more time refactoring legacy code. It could be handy to use as a reference though, and some of its code could potentially be reused if we go the Flutter route.

So I think our options are:

1. React Native: The biggest ecosystem currently, transferable and in-demand skill, lots of well-known apps are made in it, can use Expo to simplify builds and deployment (not sure how far the free version of Expo will take us, though).
2. Flutter: Second-biggest ecosystem, popular among devs, Google support
3. KMP: Much smaller ecosystem than the other two. But everyone here is already familiar with it and some code can be reused.

[misaochan]

Hey all, just a reminder that the travel scholarship applications close on 28 Nov (next Friday). :)

Pinging anyone who might be interested @sonalyadav1 @Kota-Jagadeesh @madhurgupta10 @kanahia1

[RitikaPahwa4444]

++ @rohit9625 @shankarpriyank

[rohit9625]

Thanks @RitikaPahwa4444 :)
I would definitely give it a try.

[rohit9625]

+1 for KMP.
React native can also be a nice option as the framework is mature, and KMP is new. But JetBrains and Google are working actively to extend existing Android libraries and make them KMP-ready. Also, it would save us much time and would be easy to migrate our codebase to KMP instead of writing everything from scratch.

My experience with React-Native is not that good. I got a chance to work on react-native apps in the past few months, and I faced a lot of issues with react-native libraries. Even on the latest versions, some libraries can easily break our app. However, the community is large, so fixes are deployed much faster. Apart from that, I saw a practice, while working with libraries, that we usually patch the library fix if the solution is yet to be found or not yet released.
And maintaining patches in our codebase is quite difficult unless they are very small fixes.

So if I have to choose between react-native and KMP, I'd choose KMP if the target platforms are Android and iOS. I'd only go with react-native if we are developing for web along with Android and iOS, because I think that React is best for web apps.

[rohit9625]

I think I should only select option 2 here. Could you please confirm, @misaochan?

Also, what would be accurate here? I've been contributing to Commons since 2024, but I don't know if that counts under Wikimedia projects because it was mentioned under the Wikipedia projects above.

Thank you :)

[misaochan]

@rohit9625 Those options are indeed confusing. I believe the distinction is that the first one is technical, and the second one is non-technical. I selected both personally, as I have contributed technically (code) and non technically (images to Commons).

Commons is a Wikimedia project and I'm not sure why it was listed as an example for Wikipedia. In your case, definitely select the first option, and additionally select the second if you have uploaded images before.

2024 is fine to use IMO.

Please bear in mind that I'm not in the scholarship committee so this is just my interpretation. :)

[shankarpriyank]

thanks for the ping @RitikaPahwa4444
i will apply for the scholarship 🤞

i have a personal liking for KMP so I would lean towards it
and I think cause we are already using a lot of kotlin it would be easier.

[misaochan]

@shankarpriyank Awesome to hear that! :)

I'm good with using KMP if the majority prefers it.

[sonalyadav1]

Thanks @misaochan !
I will apply for the scholarship today :)