*The Hindu : "Search on for Konkani transliteration tool"*
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-karnataka/article261079…
*A few Wikipedians interested in developing online content in Konkani are
grappling with the technical barriers of dealing with a language that is
written in multiple scripts.*
*
*
*At least, three Wikipedians are on the lookout for Konkani-speaking
software developers who can help them in the task of fine-tuning a
transliteration tool for Konkani. They are hoping that India Hackathon 2011,
a developers' meet to solve problems based on Wikimedia technology, to be
held in Mumbai held on November 19 and 20 will show the way.*
*
*
*Their aim is to refine the Konkani transliteration tool which, once
perfected, will enable reading of online Konkani content in Devanagari,
Roman, Malayalam, Kannada, and Perso-Arabic scripts.*
*
*
*The event aims at improving access, online, offline, and via mobile phone
to Wikipedia and other projects of Wikimedia across all Indian languages.
The transliteration tool is part of improved language support and is being
written first for Konkani. A similar request has been made for Kashmiri,
according to Santhosh Thottingal, a Palghat-based engineer, who works for
the Wikimedia Foundation.*
*
*
*He said the automatic transliteration in Konkani was online and to
complete the transliteration system, Konkani-speaking programmers were
needed. Hackathon would be a good opportunity for volunteer developers to
help with the tool and to discuss issues with developers from the Wikimedia
Foundation. If the tool was perfected, it would have a “big impact” as
other languages could use it as well.*
*
*
*However, Mr Thottingal, who is part of a team working on improving
multilingual support for the foundation's projects and focusing on
improving Indian language Wiki projects, said that it had been difficult
getting developers interested in Konkani with programming skills and an
interest in Wikimedia. Though he could help with the technology, he needed
help with the language, Mr. Thottingal said.*
*
*
*Gurudath Bantwalkar, Mangalorean Wikipedian and Assistant Director of
World Konkani Centre in Mangalore, said though it had been tough, attempts
were on to get Konkani-speaking software engineers for the project.*
*
*
*Amir Elisha Ahroni, an Israel-based software developer, linguist and
participant at the Mumbai hackathon, said that Konkani was “particularly an
interesting case” because it was written in many scripts, with no scripts
dominant and all useful to a significant number of people.*
*
*
*He finds it curious that the scripts include Arabic, which is written from
right-to-left, especially as his job at the Wikimedia Foundation is to
provide full software support for all scripts that are written from
right-to-left, which also includes languages of India such as Kashmiri and
Urdu.*
*
*
*“Since I can read a little bit of Malayalam, I am curious about the ways
that the Malayalam script is used in other languages,” he said.*
*
*
*Mr. Ahroni said: “It's not just Konkani that interests me. Software for
supporting all languages of the world interests me...I am curious about all
languages, and I believe strongly that all languages are equal and all
languages must be supported equally well in all software. English is the
most frequently used language in software, but there's no reason that it
should have any exclusive privilege.”*
*
*
*He said: “I understood that there are Konkani speakers who want to promote
the use of their language. That is something that I always find interesting
and I can identify with it, since Hebrew, the language that I speak, also
has a history of activists that worked hard to advance it.”*
Regards
Tinu Cherian
press(a)wikimedia.in
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/In_the_news
*Important Note *: The publisher ( The Hindu ) of the above news article
owns the copyrights of the article / content. Request to not kindly
reproduce or circulate the content further. The information is only shared
only with an internal community who have been featured on this article.
All copyrights are duly acknowledged.
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/11/st_essay_wikipediawonders/
Essentially a critique of standards being adopted (mainly by UNESCO) to
classify human endeavour as worthy of being noted as 'heritage', the
article points to Wikipedia as the logical embodiment of a heritage worth
revering: "Wikipedia protects the past without impeding the future."
Whether we consider recognition by UNESCO as worth anything or not, this
description itself stands out, pointing the way forward for intelligent
humans to value our futures without trashing the past. More than any other
method of capsuling human endeavour, Wikipedia enables us to gain from
knowledge, and to contribute to the growing store of knowledge, without in
any way detracting from the notable achievements of those who did so
earlier, without which our present accomplishments would not be possible.
--
Vickram
Fool On The Hill <http://communicall.wordpress.com>
As request by Asaf in Internal (sorry for the cross-posting)
_____
*Béria Lima*
<http://wikimedia.pt/>(351) 925 171 484
*Imagine um mundo onde é dada a qualquer pessoa a possibilidade de ter
livre acesso ao somatório de todo o conhecimento humano. É isso o que
estamos a fazer <http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Nossos_projetos>.*
On 7 November 2011 23:10, Asaf Bartov <abartov(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
> Hello, everyone.
>
> I am pleased to announce a new grants program available to Wikimedia
> community members worldwide: the Wikimedia Participation Grants program.
> Read all about it in our blog post:
> https://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/11/05/enabling-worldwide-participation/
>
> Cheers,
>
> Asaf Bartov
> Wikimedia Foundation
> _______________________________________________
> foundation-l mailing list
> foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
>
Heya guys, with the India conference and hackathon barely two weeks
away from now, I just wanted to wish you All the very best for the
event. Hopefully we shall, at the other end of the event. know better
methods me sharing knowledge.
As a non attendee, I put forth a request. Please keep us updated on
the events as they progress, both in real time, and post. Tweet about
it, blog about it, post on Facebook. Please don't tweet about what you
eat though, that is for our meetups. Use the conference twitter ha
http://www.google.com/gwt/x?wsc=hg&wsi=b27749e54f1fa0ec&source=m&u=http%3A%…
--
Regards,
Srikanth Ramakrishnan,
Sathyamangalam-Gobichettipalayam Star Gazers Gang, Ukkadam, Coimbatore.
My Commons uploads, now exceeding 75.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:ListFiles/Rsrikanth05
Hoi Manuel,
It is Wikimedia India wiki (wiki.wikimedia.in)
Thanks,
naveenpf
On 7 November 2011 20:08, Manuel Schneider <manuel.schneider(a)wikimedia.ch>wrote:
> Hoi,
>
> I read from your mail that you need
> * http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Narayam
> and
> * http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Translate
>
> on one of the WMIN wikis, right?
>
> As both extensions are in the Wikimedia SVN they just need to be
> activated in LocalSettings.php.
> I can do that if needed but then I need to know in which wiki the
> extensions are needed.
> Otherwise feel free to do it by yourself.
>
>
> /Manuel
>
> On 07.11.2011 15:03, Naveen Francis wrote:
> > Hi Gerard,
> >
> > Copying Manuel,Junaid, Jayantha,Srikant Vivek who are helping in this
> > regard.
> > Wikimedia India wiki is hosted in Switzerland by Wikimedia CH
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Naveen Francis
> >
> >
> > On 7 November 2011 13:07, Gerard Meijssen <gerard.meijssen(a)gmail.com
> > <mailto:gerard.meijssen@gmail.com>> wrote:
> >
> > Hoi,
> > Translate is installed on Meta.. or are you planning on translating
> on
> > the India server ? Is it part of the WMF clusters if so, we can
> easily
> > install the software and ensure that it remains up to date both for
> > localisation and the weekly software updates.
> > Thanks,
> > Gerard
> >
> > On 7 November 2011 06:37, Naveen Francis <naveenpf(a)gmail.com
> > <mailto:naveenpf@gmail.com>> wrote:
> > > First we need to install
> > > http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Narayam
> > >
> > > If it helps ... definitely we needs to install translate extension.
> > >
> > > On 6 November 2011 21:20, Gerard Meijssen
> > <gerard.meijssen(a)gmail.com <mailto:gerard.meijssen@gmail.com>>
> wrote:
> > >>
> > >> Hoi,
> > >> Do you want to translate it using the translate extension ... eg
> > on Meta ?
> > >> Thanks,
> > >> Gerard
> > >>
> > >> On 3 November 2011 17:18, Naveen Francis <naveenpf(a)gmail.com
> > <mailto:naveenpf@gmail.com>> wrote:
> > >> > Hi all,
> > >> >
> > >> > Can anyone help me to translate the Wiki Academy Brochure to
> Indic
> > >> > languages
> > >> > ?
> > >> >
> > >> > Thanks,
> > >> > Naveen Francis
> > >> >
> > >> > _______________________________________________
> > >> > Wikimediaindia-l mailing list
> > >> > Wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> > <mailto:Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org>
> > >> > To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit
> > >> > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
> > >> >
> > >> >
> > >>
> > >> _______________________________________________
> > >> Wikimediaindia-l mailing list
> > >> Wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> > <mailto:Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org>
> > >> To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit
> > >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
> > >
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Wikimediaindia-l mailing list
> > > Wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> > <mailto:Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org>
> > > To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit
> > > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
> > >
> > >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Wikimediaindia-l mailing list
> > Wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> > <mailto:Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org>
> > To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit
> > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
> >
> >
>
> --
> Regards
> Manuel Schneider
>
> Wikimedia CH - Verein zur Förderung Freien Wissens
> Wikimedia CH - Association for the advancement of free knowledge
> www.wikimedia.ch
>
*PTI / Reuters / The Economic Times / DNA : "Wikipedia focusing on India
this year"*
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/wikipedia-focusing-on-ind…http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_wikipedia-turns-its-focus-on-india-thi…
*DOHA: One of the world's most popular websites Wikipedia has turned its
focus on India this year, and is working to reach out to people in the
country as part of its expansion plans. *
*
*
*Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales said that the free Internet encyclopedia has
a bunch of people on the ground in India conducting studies and outreach
exercises. *
*
*
*"This year our focus has been India. We have a few people on the ground in
India; they're there helping to solve technical questions, helping with
outreach to universities, helping with PR -letting the public know that
Wikipedia exists in all those Indian languages," he said here. *
*
*
*Wales, the brain behind world's fifth most popular Website, was in Qatar
to attend the World Innovation Summit for Education. *
*
*
*He said his organisation was carrying out pilot studies in India and
intends to use the learning experience gathered from there in other regions
as well. *
*
*
*"So those are just some pilot projects in India that, as we learn from
those, we'll know what we're going to do in other geographies," Wales said
on the sidelines of the summit. *
*
*
*"And in our five-year strategic plan we did identify the Middle East and
North Africa as a key area that we wanted to move forward in," he said. *
*
*
*Asked about the role played by social media in the Arab Spring, Wales said
he believed that it did make a lot of contribution to the uprisings that
began early this year and have already toppled three entrenched regimes. *
*
*
*"It definitely did. Wikipedia is social media in the sense that we're open
to broad participation by the public, we invite people to get involved from
the community, and that sort of thing," he said.*
Regards
Tinu Cherian
press(a)wikimedia.in
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/In_the_news
*Important Note : *The publisher ( PTI/Reuters/ The Economic Times / DNA
) of the above news article owns the copyrights of the article / content.
Request to not kindly reproduce or circulate the content further. The
information is only shared only with an internal community who have been
featured on this article. All copyrights are duly acknowledged.
For those interested in attending WikiConference India 2011 in Mumbai (18-20 November 2011) - the delegate passes are almost sold out, so please do register for one asap if you have not already done so (Register @ bit.ly/wci11). If you have, we look forward to seeing you!
Follow WCI 2011 on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/wci11
Thanks!
Some mentions on WMF India office, active editors and donors in India,
Hindi and Indic language Wikipedias, Wikipedia India Edu Program etc.
*The Economist : " Wikipedia’s fund-raising : Free but not easy "*
http://www.economist.com/node/21536580
*The online encyclopedia needs its users’ money and volunteers’ time.
Gaining the first is the easier task*
*
*
*MANY mocked, but the money rolled in. For the last few weeks of 2010 Jimmy
Wales fixed his piercing gaze on Wikipedia users, imploring them from
banner ads to help “the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit” pay its
bills for this year. The founder’s plea worked. Wikipedia reached its
target of $16m in just 50 days (compared with $8.7m in 67 days at the end
of 2009).*
*
*
*This month those pleading banners will return—but with many sets of eyes.
Backing up the earnest Mr Wales in the attempt to raise $25m by the
year-end will be Brandon Harris, a long-haired programmer wearing a
full-sleeved T-shirt and a surly expression, who says he quit his job
building “some crappy thing that’s designed to steal money from some kid
who doesn’t know it” to work with Wikipedia. 400m unique users every month
make it the world’s fifth-biggest website, according to Alexa, an internet
research company. It also has a good claim to be the world’s most important
provider of non-entertainment content.*
*
*
*Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit company that runs the online
encyclopedia, has devoted much effort towards finding a way around its
reliance on its founder. The banner featuring Mr Harris was the first to
outperform the one with Mr Wales, and more successes have followed. Though
Wikimedia received $3.6m from a charity, the Stanton Foundation, it wants
to raise money from large numbers of happy users rather than big donors who
might want some clout for their cash.*
*
*
*Wikipedia has just 78 full-time staff (due to reach 117 in 2012) and 370
servers, against some 60,000 for Facebook and over 1m for Google. Unlike
other internet giants, its content comes from unpaid editors. It spends 44%
of its income on technology (including programmers); other administration
costs make up just under a quarter. Fund-raising takes up 8% of the budget.
It accepts no advertising.*
*
*
*Raising time*
*
*
*But raising cash to keep Wikipedia running is an easier task than getting
people to donate time. Month-on-month article growth in the English
Wikipedia was as high as 5% in 2006 but has stayed stubbornly at 1% for the
past two years. Worse, Wikipedia fears that without remedial steps, the
number of active editors will decline to below 80,000 by the middle of next
year (in March, the figure was 90,000).*
*
*
*Editors are a scarce and hardy breed. They must understand the site’s
policies, gain authority among other Wikipedians so that their decisions
stick, and be able to write in the cumbersome code required by Wikipedia’s
software. Moreover, says Barry Newstead, Wikimedia’s chief global
development officer, 90% of users outside Wikipedia’s “core community”
aren’t even aware that they can edit the encyclopedia. Users seem to ignore
the plentiful invitations to get involved: “We’re furniture in the living
room,” he says plaintively.*
*
*
*Sue Gardner, executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation, says she
wants to break down the “psychological barrier” between reading and
editing, so that improving an article feels like a natural extension of
reading it. Attracting people dedicated (and thick-skinned) enough to fend
off special interests and trolls (internet hooligans) is tough. So
Wikipedia is trying to make its editors’ lives simpler and more attractive.
One move is to try to cut the number of discouraging automated messages
warning editors of style breaches and other peccadillos.*
*
*
*Another change, due by the end of 2012, will make editing a lot easier,
and more like using popular blogging software. But the Wikinauts are
steering clear of the bandwidth-hungry features favoured by other
content-rich websites. The aim is that a humble user visiting the site from
a cheap mobile phone in Africa will find loading a page just as quick and
simple as a rich-world user with a powerful computer and a broadband
connection.*
*
*
*By the end of this year, Wikimedia will have opened an office in India,
its first outside the United States. Branching out to the far side of the
world (rather than opening an office in somewhere comfortable like Europe)
is meant to signal the foundation’s global ambitions. India is a sensible
choice for an outfit with limited resources: a large, English-speaking
Wikipedia community already exists there. Indians are the fifth-largest
donors and rank sixth among most-active editors. The encyclopedia has two
dozen versions in Indian languages. But even the largest of these, Hindi,
has only 100,000 articles (against over 3.8m for English). 300m Hindi
speakers mean plenty of scope for growth. India alone is expected to triple
the number of its internet users to nearly 300m by 2014. The push should
provide useful know-how for expansion under way in two other big growth
areas: Brazil and the Arab-speaking world.*
*
*
*Despite rosy forecasts for emerging-market growth, Wikipedia still faces
two big obstacles. It is good that so many people in the developing world
now access the encyclopedia from mobile phones, but such devices are
ill-suited to editing. In deferential cultures and those with little
experience of public participation, Wikipedia has also had particular
trouble explaining that every single user has the right (and indeed the
duty) to edit an article if he thinks he can improve it.*
*
*
*One solution is partnerships with universities. Wikipedia works with three
institutions in the western Indian town of Pune, an education hub. Students
are assigned a theme—corporate social responsibility, for example—and must
write articles for course credit. They are happy to gain a wider readership
than just their professors, while Wikipedia gets an enthusiastic batch of
new recruits. Articles created through these partnerships range from topics
as broad as “output (economics)” to an arcane entry on a 1985 committee on
Indian monetary policy.*
*
*
*The aim is to encourage the indigenous creation of information and to
lessen reliance on imports from outside. The university focus also helps
Wikipedia inch closer to meeting one of its diversity targets—increasing
the share of women editors from 9% in 2011 to 25% by 2015.*
*
*
*Wikipedia has suffered in the past from ill-informed criticism from
outside, and complacency on the inside. Signs now are that both are
diminishing. The idea that an online encyclopedia that anyone can edit can
provide high-quality content is increasingly established. Wikipedia entries
are rarely perfect, but their flaws are always open to instant remedy; that
is a big plus. The outfit also seems to be moving away from its dependence
on the charismatic Mr Wales, and from its over-reliance on a narrow caste
of Anglophone enthusiasts. Wikipedia’s survival and expansion are also
encouraging signs for those that worry the internet is in danger of
becoming too commercial and closed off. Wikipedia is not just collating
knowledge: it is making news too.*
Regards
Tinu Cherian
press(a)wikimedia.in
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/In_the_news
Important Note : The publisher ( The Economist ) of the above news article
owns the copyrights of the article / content. Request to not kindly
reproduce or circulate the content further. The information is only shared
only with an internal community who have been featured on this article.
All copyrights are duly acknowledged.