The Indic MediaWiki Developers UG has been organizing various workshops (online and in-person) and hackathons to support the growth of technical contributors from India and also address various technical challenges related to Indic Wikimedia projects. During the past events, the issues taken up during the hackathon were proposed ad-hoc by attending developers or editors (unconference style). While the model has its own advantages, it can often be confusing and intimidating for newcomers. In addition, we don’t have a good understanding of the range of technical challenges faced by the Indic communities, which can make it hard to start specific initiatives to address them. To address both these challenges, we are planning to try out community technical consultations as a part of the 2024 annual plan.

The goal of these consultations is to primarily gain a good understanding of the range of technical challenges faced by the four to five pilot communities, surface their challenges and needs, and use those

1. as tasks to be taken up during workshops and hackathons
2. to plan specific initiatives (such as major tool building) for larger challenges.

By the end of the process we would like to:

1. have an understanding of the major technical challenges on Indic language Wikimedia projects and have them documented.
2. understand the technical needs of content contributors, such that they can be address through technical outreach and development activities.