Mittwoch, 30. Dezember 2015

My experience with WikiToLearn


My experience with WikiToLearn

When I first started with Google Code In, I thought that it would be about work that is done fast and easy. With that attitude I had to abandon my first task at a random company (I don't remember). Seeing that this contest is pretty advanced, I looked for a task that fit to my programming skills which brought me to WikiToLearn: My first task was to run W2L locally so I can edit a part of the website.
I had to face many errors and even bugs which resulted that it took me quite a long time to figure out how to complete it. I asked in the comments and got surprisingly fast help. I got involved in the community:
Seriously one of the best communities I've ever had (and I can say that as an “independent“ student).

The WikiToLearn Google Code In Telegram group

I got much help, so then, I was able to do the task without big issues.
My next task was an explanation video on how to write a course in W2L, which I completed successfully. My third task though was to write a WikiBot. I wanted to display text at the talk page of a user – using python (pywikibot). The documentation wasn't really helpful, especially not for my operating system OS X, so I wasn't able to even test the library yet.
Together with my mentor Cristian we were still able to get through the configuration of the library. I was really happy when the first script worked. Finishing it into what I wanted to be I was really proud that I completed this complex task.

So overall they helped me a lot. Whenever someone has a problem, they take their time for you and even test your code.
Anyway I would definitely not say that the work is “easy“. The tasks aren't just “work that must be done” - they require to think yourself, to search for a solution to a problem that isn't even mentioned in the task. Those exercises and this great community motivated me to work with them.

WikiToLearn itself isn't that big yet. When you work at something together with the community, you get the feeling that you are part of them – when you succeed
you see how W2L grows.

I'm pretty sure that W2L will “explode” with it's open source principle. At one point, when it is kind of “ready” for users, it will definitely grow very very fast.

Until then, there is still a lot of work to get done and I'm happy to be part of WikiToLearn while watching it expand :).