A great opportunity (in the forwarded email) for people who work on adding references to articles often. Please signup and enrich more of our wiki articles with supporting references.
- Sundar
"That language is an instrument of human reason, and not merely a medium for the expression of thought, is a truth generally admitted."
- George Boole, quoted in Iverson's Turing Award Lecture
----- Forwarded Message -----
>From: Sarah
>To: wikipedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>Sent: Monday, March 21, 2011 9:54 AM
>Subject: Fw: [Wikipedia-l] Free Credo Reference accounts for Wikipedians
>
>Another 400 free Credo Reference accounts have been made available for
>Wikipedians, kindly donated by the company and arranged by Erik Möller
>of the Wikimedia Foundation. We've drawn up some eligibility criteria
>to direct the accounts to content contributors, and after that it's
>first come, first served. The list will open on Wednesday, March 23 at
>22:00 UTC, and will remain open for seven days. See
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:CREDO
>
>Feel free to add your name even if you're lower on the list than the
>400th, in case people ahead of you aren't eligible.
>
>Good luck!
>
>Sarah
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:SlimVirgin
>
>_______________________________________________
>Wikipedia-l mailing list
>Wikipedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikipedia-l
>
>
>
*The Hindu : "India is No.6 in donating to Wikipedia"*
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article1551986.ece
(National story)
*Anyone who has used Wikipedia in the last few years would have noted a
banner at the top of the page appealing for donations by Wikipedia
co-founder Jimmy Wales. One wondered who responded to such requests. Now,
the Wikimedia Foundation says that in 2010, India ranked sixth in the list
of countries from where individuals have donated amounts to the Wikipedia
Foundation.*
*
*
*According to the Foundation, of which Wikipedia is a part, people in India
donated more than $193,000 (Rs. 87.33 lakh) in 2010. India is preceded only
by the United States with $10,038,417 (Rs. 45.42 crore), Canada with $
893,470 (Rs. 4.04 crore), Japan with $500,182 (Rs. 2.26 crore), Spain with $
323,285 (Rs. 1.46 crore) and the United Kingdom with $ 207,157 (Rs. 93.74
lakh). Trailing behind India is Belgium with $162 (Rs. 7,322). These amounts
do not include donations made by the country chapters of Wikipedia, which
help in local fund-raising. They are purely contributions made by
individuals directly to Wikipedia. In fact, India's Wikipedia chapter is in
the process of being formed.*
*
*
*“Imagine a website that appears within the top five websites in the world,
which runs on just 60 full time employees. Compare it with other top
websites. Isn't it great?” said Cherian Tinu Abraham, a Bangalore-based
technology professional and Wikipedia administrator. (
http://www.alexa.com/topsites shows Wikipedia as one of top 10 websites.)*
*
*
*Wikipedian [one who writes and edits the pages for Wikipedia unlike readers
who merely read the articles] Arun Ram said, “I think the increased
contributions from India this year is a welcome development. It is due to
the very visible banner campaign on the main page, which had excellent
recall amongst users.”*
*
*
*Other factors for India's response include increased awareness with
extensive media coverage this year of various (Wikipedia-related) events,
visits, and meet ups. Plus, there has been the speculation over an India
office.*
*
*
*A look at the number of donors shows that the number of donors from India
has been increasing steadily over the past few years. In 2007, India ranked
18 with $12,532 (Rs. 5.67 lakh) from 583 donors. In 2008, it ranked 15 with
$38,776 (Rs. 17.55 lakh) from 1759 donors. In 2009, India ranked 16 with
$52,156 (Rs. 23.60 lakh) from 2956 donors.*
*
*
*Sreekanth R, a Chennai-based software engineer, who has been using the
Wikipedia for six years, said he was motivated to contribute to Wikipedia
after seeing Jimmy Wales's appeal in Wikipedia. “I instantly felt like
contributing to Wikipedia as it is useful. Anyone can access it for free and
there are no advertisements. It is much better than donating to a temple. It
selflessly serves more people than anything else I know," he said.*
*
*
*Mr. Abraham, who edits Wikipedia, said that it appeared to him it was more
readers than Wikipedia editors who have donated to the Foundation*
Regards
Tinu Cherian
http://wikimedia.in/wiki/In_the_news
India's largest news agency "Press Trust of India" also wrote on this and it
was carried by other news channels
*
*
*"India ranks number six in donation to Wikipedia/ Wikimedia"*
*Hindustan Times :*
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print/675576.aspx
*Yahoo News *:
http://my.news.yahoo.com/india-ranks-number-six-donation-wikipedia-wikimedi…
*Zee News :* http://www.zeenews.com/news694431.html
*Nearly 10,488 people from India donated USD 193,657.88 to Wikimedia
Foundation/Wikimedia, during the annual fund raising making India as the
sixth large donor to the organisation. *
*
*
*United States ranked first with 328691 donors donating USD 10,038,417.59,
according to Tinu Cherian, Wikipedian. *
*
*
*In 2009/10, India ranked 16th in terms of donation with 2,956 individuals
from India donating USD 52,156.57. *
* *
*According to Arun Ramarathnam, Executive Commmittee member Wikimedia India
chapter" in my opinion most of the contributions possibly come from
readers" *
*
*
*"I think the increased contributions this year was a welcome development",
he said. *
*
*
*"I do believe it could be attributed to coverage in broadcast media, visits
to various places, proliferation of meetups across cities, increased
awareness. The Banner campaign on the Main page was very visible and had
excellent recall amongst users," he said. *
*
*
*Ramarathnam also attributed it to Progressive increase in online
transactions in India. "I think contributions would get better if one could
use Online funds transfer from Bank accounts". *
*
*
*The Wikimedia Foundation is a nonprofit charitable organisation dedicated
to encouraging the growth, development and distribution of free,
multilingual content, and for providing full content of these wiki-based
projects to the public free of charge. *
*
*
*The Wikimedia Foundation operates some of the largest collaboratively
edited reference projects in the world, including Wikipedia, a top-ten
internet property. *
Regards
Tinu Cherian
OffTopic
Just thought will share this Summary table[1], detailed TRAI report[2] which
might be of interest to many of us.
[1]
http://www.medianama.com/2011/03/223-statewise-broadband-subscribers-in-ind…
<http://www.medianama.com/2011/03/223-statewise-broadband-subscribers-in-ind…>
[2]
http://www.beknowledge.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/e4da3Broadband%20usre…
Doing a detailed comparative analysis of this data and Indian Wikistats
might give some insight on how Wikipedia access is correlated
to infrastructure.
Observation:- South India has more rural connections, so its obvious to
assume they are accessing more. North pretty much minus Punjab and
Gujarat are far behind in terms of rural connections.I feel growth of rural
users will have a direct impact on consumption of Indic content. Note i have
a prejudice that urban people dont use / consume regional content. I am
certainly not 100% correct.
Any other things you could see?
Regards
Srikanth.L
http://srik.me
Dear Wikimedians,
We have been able to secure travel funding from the organizers for
volunteers representing the Wikimedia community at OSSCamp Lucknow.
If you have some experience as a Wikimedia volunteer (and preferably
but not necessarily some Mediawiki background) and are interested in
participating at the event, please write back to me.
The event is scheduled to be on 26-27 March 2011 which is the last
weekend of this month.
Thanks for your attention.
Yours sincerely,
Anirudh Bhati
00 91 9328712208
Skype: anirudhsbh
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Abhinav Upadhyay <er.abhinav.upadhyay(a)gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Mar 9, 2011 at 10:09 PM
Subject: [Wikimedia-IN-Exec] Invitation for OSSCamp Lucknow
To: wikimedia-in-exec(a)lists.wikimedia.org, wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Hello to all,
My name is Abhinav Upadhyay, and I am a final year
engineering student from Northern India Engineering College, Lucknow.
My purpose for emailing you is to inform you about about OSSCamp
Lucknow.
We are organizing OSSCamp on 26th and 27th of March in Lucknow.
OSSCamps (http://osscamp.in) are unconferences on opensource projects
and initiatives where people meet and discuss about various open
source tools, technologies and projects. Events like these are a great
source of active learning and sharing our experience and knowledge
with others.
People form all over India are coming to join us for OSScamp, and I
would like to invite you all for it as well. It would be our great
pleasure to learn more about Wikimedia India Chapter, how does it
work, how can we also get involved with it and make it even more
awesome.
I am expecting that you people will join us in great number and share
your knowledge with us by means of some excellent sessions. I believe
that, this will be a great platform for the Wikimedia India Chapter,
as I am sure, a large number of people will be interested in joining
it after learning more about it. It would be great, if you have some
goodies to distribute amongst the participants as it will excite the
participants even more, as well as it will encourage them to attend
your session with more enthusiasm.
I hope to hear a positive reply from the Wikimedia India Chapter.
Those of you, who are willing and interested in coming, please
register on our website:
http://osscamp.in/event/osscamp-lucknow-1103
Thanks & Regards
Abhinav Upadhyay
_______________________________________________
Wikimedia-IN-Exec mailing list
Wikimedia-IN-Exec(a)lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-in-exec
This is starting in about 5 minutes.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Steven Walling <swalling(a)wikimedia.org>
Date: Mon, Mar 14, 2011 at 12:04 PM
Subject: IRC office hours this week with Sue Gardner
To: foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Hi all,
Just a quick heads up that Sue Gardner will be holding an IRC office hours
Friday the 18th at 04:00 UTC
(conversion<http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?hour=04&min=00&sec=0&d…>)
in #wikimedia-office. We set it then to make it easier for those of you in
Asian time zones, so we look forward to hearing from Wikimedians in India,
et cetera.
More info about how to join at the usual place on Meta:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours
--
Steven Walling
Fellow at Wikimedia Foundation
wikimediafoundation.org
--
Steven Walling
Fellow at Wikimedia Foundation
wikimediafoundation.org
*The Economic Times : "India joins top 10 Wiki donors club"*
*
*
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/indicators/india-joins-top…http://m.economictimes.com/PDAET/articleshow/7731981.cms
*It is not only the Indian billionaires who have realized the power of
giving, small donors also seem to have caught the "giving" fever. India has
moved up the rank of donors to the Wikimedia Foundation to become the sixth
largest donor in 2010-11 after donors from the US, Canada, Japan, Spain and
the UK. *
*
*
*Nearly 11,000 Indians donated $ 193,657 to the foundation, which raised a
total of $ 14.81 mn through donations from across the world. Donors from the
US contributed over $ 10 mn, the highest among all countries. *
*
*
*In 2007-08, India ranked 18th in the list with merely 583 donors
contributing about $ 12,532. A year later, 2008-09, India was at 15th rank
with 1759 donors contributing $ 38,776. In 2009-10, the country slipped one
place to the 16th rank with 2956 donors contributing $ 52,156. An average
Indian who donated gave $ 18.5 to the foundation this year up from the
previous average of $ 17.6 last year.*
*
*
*So why did they do it? Some say that they can't imagine a life without
Google and Wikipedia. Some say that it feels good to be doing something for
a good cause. The reasons may be many but it will be a very small price to
pay if the foundation goes on to realize its vision to create the "sum total
of all human knowledge." *
*
*
*Says T Gautham Shenoy, a creative director at an advertising agency, "It's
my way of giving something back to Wikipedia for being what it is today.
Perhaps not authoritative, and definitely not without its flaws and errors
but it surely is the first port of call for many of us on a daily basis and
the go-to site for quick references. And can you image the result if it
achieves its dream of being the storehouse of all human knowledge? This is
my contribution to help make that dream come true. As they say, Information
wants to be free. But it takes money to keep it free." *
*
*
*Coimbatore based self-employed professional, who goes by the name
Sodabottle on Wikipedia, donated $ 46 to the foundation. "I was paid for
speaking about Wikipedia at a conference at a college. I donated the amount
to the foundation instead, as I am doing the Wikipedia outreach as a
volunteer," he told ET. Contributing to Wikipedia has made him a better
writer in both Tamil and English, he said. *
*
*
*In November last, the Wikimedia Foundation had set out on its annual fund
raising exercise to keep Wikipedia, the worlds largest online encyclopedia
running for free. They had set a target of raising $ 16 mn from donations
across the world. Lately, the foundation has been active in emerging markets
and had announced its intent to improve its focus in countries such as India
and Brazil. *
*
*
*"Any partial or full commercial ownership of Wikipedia could severely
impact its neutrality with a systemic-bias. At the same time, Jimbo Wales'
focus on developing Wikipedia in Indian languages is supposed to provide a
great opportunity for consolidation of knowledge with indigenous flavors
from Indian sub-continent on this monolith global platform," said Milind
Joshi, another donor who works as a principal business technology consultant
at a top MNC in Bangalore. The rise in the number of donors is also being
attributed to an increase in disposable income. *
*
*
*"We are concentrating on professionals who own credit cards and have high
disposable incomes. There are over 18.2 million credit cards in the country
and individual fundraising on the internet is potentially a very large
source of funds for us," said Anirudh Bhati, Treasurer, Wikimedia India
Chapter.*
Regards
Tinu Cherian
http://wikimedia.in/wiki/In_the_news#March_2011
Hoi,
I am really happy to announce to you that the Narayam extension is now live
on all the Malayalam projects. Roan has implemented them today and it works
beautifully.
The plan is to implement Narayam on every Wikimedia project in a weeks time
when there are no nasty surprises.
A big thank you to Junaid PV who is the first MediaWiki volunteer developer
from India to have his software go into production.
Thanks,
GerardM
http://ultimategerardm.blogspot.com/2011/03/narayam-live-on-wikimedia-malay…