Greeting everyone,
The community members interested in conducting photo walks across India
regarding the theme of Wiki Loves Uniformed services are requested to do
the same. All the expenses regarding the photo-walk shall be reimbursed.
Also I want to make it clear that military museums, war memorials etc. also
do fall under the scope. For any queries please to my mail:
kcvelaga(a)gmail.com.
Thanking You.
Regards,
Krishna Chaitanya Velaga
Lead coordinator
Wiki Loves Uniformed services
Hi,
We are beginning a unique creative project in India, and we would like your
help.
As you may know, recent research has shown that Wikipedia awareness is low
across India. How low? Just 25% of 9,200+ Indians said they had heard of
Wikipedia
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_Reach/India_survey#Awareness_of_Wiki…>
in a phone survey last year. Now, the Wikimedia Foundation is piloting ways
to change this trend.
Our goal is to measurably raise awareness for Wikipedia in India, so more
people know what it is, and more people use it. This will help further
power growth in Wikipedia’s relevance, adoption, and familiarity- all of
which help our movement grow.
So what is the Foundation doing? We are piloting the development of
entertaining web videos that explain and promote Wikipedia. These short
clips will work as videos on social media or as ads on promotional blogs,
sites, and possibly TV.
Why make videos? A consultation with Indian Wikimedians in December &
January highlighted “social media posts” and “TV advertisements” as the top
suggestions for promoting Wikipedia
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/New_Readers/Messaging_for_India#How_to_prom…>
in India, after in-school activities. Because the Foundation is already
working on education partnerships, we have decided to explore the combined
impact of a social media + TV approach, and that requires videos.
How can you help? Today, we are looking for volunteers to inform and review
these promotional web videos. What does that mean specifically:
-
Reading script ideas and providing topics that seem entertaining and
informative
-
Making sure creative choices (from characters to Wikipedia articles
shown) are on-brand for Wikipedia in India
-
Suggesting ways for making the web videos more applicable to community
needs and use
Volunteers would be on a small “promotion team” of 4-6 total people. They
will work closely with Foundation staff like me and Zack McCune who is
leading this project.
What’s the commitment? About 1-2 hours a week for six weeks.
How will we communicate? Mostly via email, with 1-2 video calls (Skype or
Google Hangouts).
What language will these promotional videos be in? Hindi! And that means
volunteers do not need to speak English to participate in this pilot
project.
While we will have to choose only a few folks for this first pilot, we hope
to expand the size of review teams as this becomes a more practiced
process. We are looking for community members who have experience working
in the media, are proficient in Hindi, and share a passion for registering
diverse voices speaking for the movement. We would prefer that interested
volunteers nominate themselves at the Hindi Wikipedia village pump
<https://hi.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%95%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%AA…>
and be endorsed by fellow community members to represent them.
Thanks,
Zack and Ravi
--
Manager, Strategic Partnerships, Asia
Wikimedia Foundation.
Mobile: +91-9986993336
Skype: ravidreams(a)gmail.com
FYI.
A.
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Kirill Lokshin <kirill.lokshin(a)gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Jun 9, 2017 at 1:51 PM
Subject: [Wikimedia-l] Affiliations Committee: Call for Candidates
To: Wikimedia Movement Affiliates discussion list <
affiliates(a)lists.wikimedia.org>, Wikimedia Mailing List <
wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Hi everyone,
The Affiliations Committee – the committee responsible for guiding
volunteers in establishing Wikimedia chapters, thematic organizations, and
user groups – is looking for new members!
The main role of the Affiliations Committee is to guide groups of
volunteers that are interested in forming Wikimedia affiliates. We review
applications from new groups, answer questions and provide advice about the
different Wikimedia affiliation models and processes, review affiliate
bylaws for compliance with requirements and best practices, and advise the
Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees on issues connected to chapters,
thematic organizations and Wikimedia user groups.
The committee consists of twelve members, six of whom are selected every
twelve months for staggered two-year terms. Those joining during the
mid-year process will serve an extended term ending in December 2019.
*Key skills*
Being a part of the Affiliations Committee requires communication with
volunteers all over the world, negotiating skills, cultural sensitivity,
and the ability to understand legal texts. We look for a healthy mix of
different skill sets in our members, including the following key skills and
experience:
- Willingness to process applications through a set, perhaps bureaucratic
process.
- Readiness to participate in political discussions on the role and future
of affiliates, models of affiliation, and similar topics.
- Availability of up to 5 hours per week, and the time to participate in a
monthly two-hour voice/video meeting.
- International orientation.
- Fluency in English.
- Ability to work and communicate with other languages and cultures.
- Strong understanding of the structure and work of affiliates and the
Wikimedia Foundation.
- Knowledge of different legal systems and experience in community building
and organising are a plus.
- Skills in other languages are a major plus.
- Experience with or in an active affiliate is a major plus.
- Strong track record of effective collaboration (such as evidenced skills
at facilitation, mediation, negotiation, and so forth) are a major plus.
- Willingness to use one's real name in committee activities (including
contacts with current and potential affiliates) when appropriate.
We are looking for people who are excited by the challenge of empowering
volunteers to get organized and form communities that further our mission
around the world. In exchange, committee members selected will gain the
experience of supporting their world-wide colleagues to develop their
communities as well as personal development in guiding organizational
development, facilitating affiliate partnerships, and professional
communications.
*Selection process*
As a reflection of our commitment to openness, transparency, and bilateral
engagement with the Wikimedia community, the 2017 member selection process
will include a public review and comment period. All applications received
by the committee will be posted on Meta at
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliations_Committee/Candidates/June_2017,
and the community will be invited to provide comments and feedback about
each candidate.
At the end of the public comment period, the applications will be voted on
by the members of the committee who are not seeking re-election, taking
into account comments put forward by the committee's members, advisors,
Wikimedia Foundation staff and board liaisons, and the community. A final
decision will be made by mid-July 2017, with new members expected to join
later that month.
*How to apply*
If you are interested in joining the committee, please post your
application on the nomination page and send an email announcing your
application to affcom(a)lists.wikimedia.org by 30 June 2017. Your application
must include the following information:
- Your full name and Wikimedia username
- A statement describing your relevant experience, skills, and motivation
for joining the committee.
- Answers to the following three questions:
(1) How do you think affiliates work best together to partner on
effective projects and initiatives?
(2) What do you see as the role of affiliates in the Wikimedia
movement in the next three years?
(3) What do you feel you will bring to the committee that makes you
a uniquely qualified candidate?
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me and/or the
committee as a whole. We are happy to chat or have a phone call with anyone
about our work if this helps them decide to apply. Please distribute this
call among your networks, and do apply if you are interested!
Regards,
Kirill Lokshin
Chair, Affiliations Committee
_______________________________________________
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
New messages to: Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
<mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
Might be helpful
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Léa Lacroix" <lea.lacroix(a)wikimedia.de>
Date: Jun 8, 2017 1:26 PM
Subject: Re: [Wikidata] Update about WikidataCon
To: "Discussion list for the Wikidata project." <
wikidata(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Cc:
Hello all,
The scholarship process for the WikidataCon has just started!
If you want to request a scholarship for covering your traveling and
accommodation expenses, please read carefully the dedicated page and fill
the form: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikidataCon_2017/
Scholarships
If you encounter any problem, feel free to reach me.
Next steps are the call for submissions for the program, and the
registration opening - stay tuned :)
Best,
On 19 May 2017 at 16:08, Léa Lacroix <lea.lacroix(a)wikimedia.de> wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> Here are some new information about the WikidataCon event
> <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikidataCon_2017>, that will take
> place in Berlin on October 28th-29th.
>
> We just nominated the members of the two committees that will have an
> important role in the organization of the event. Thank you very much to all
> the applicants!
>
> - Program committee: andrawaag
> <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/User:Andrawaag>, Spinster
> <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/User:Spinster>, Masssly
> <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/User:Masssly>
> - Scholarship committee: Micru
> <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/User:Micru>, Venuslui
> <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/User:Venuslui>
>
> For all the other topics, you can freely join *the volunteer groups
> <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikidataCon_2017/Volunteer>*,
> discuss on the talk page, suggest ideas.
>
> I'm also glad to give you an overview of the *next steps for the
> WikidataCon*:
>
> - Scholarship application process: June 8th-July 31st
> - Call for submissions for the program: June 12th-July 31st
> - Registration opening: June 19th (two other ticket releases are
> planned in August and September)
> - Selection of the scholarships recipients: August
> - Review of the submissions for the program: August
> - Announce of the program: September 1st
>
> This dates can still evolve, I'll keep you informed. For more information,
> check Wikidata:WikidataCon_2017
> <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikidataCon_2017>.
>
> Last but not least: in order to be able to provide scholarships, and help
> people who can't afford the travel and accommodation to participate, we
> requested a grant from the WMF. This grant will be reviewed soon, and you
> can help by *endorsing the project*. For this, you can add a message at
> the bottom of the grant submission
> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Conference/WMDE/WikidataCon>.
> This would be very useful for the project!
> Cheers,
>
> --
> Léa Lacroix
> Project Manager Community Communication for Wikidata
>
> Wikimedia Deutschland e.V.
> Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24
> 10963 Berlin
> www.wikimedia.de
>
> Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e. V.
>
> Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg
> unter der Nummer 23855 Nz. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt
> für Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/029/42207.
>
--
Léa Lacroix
Project Manager Community Communication for Wikidata
Wikimedia Deutschland e.V.
Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24
10963 Berlin
www.wikimedia.de
Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e. V.
Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg unter
der Nummer 23855 Nz. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für
Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/029/42207.
_______________________________________________
Wikidata mailing list
Wikidata(a)lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikidata
Hi,
T. Shrinivasan <https://ta.wikipedia.org/s/5www>, a Tamil Wikipedian, wins
2016 Sundara Ramaswamy award for Tamil Computing for his contributions to
Free Tamil Ebooks and Indian language Wikisource projects.
This is the fourth year in a row that people supporting Tamil Wikimedia
projects are winning this honor. This award includes a cash price of 1000
Canadian dollars and is being presented by the diaspora Tamils organization
called Tamil Literary Garden based in Canada.
He is a passionate advocate and an exemplary contributor to Tamil computing
related FOSS (Free and Open Source) software. He has been promoting Free
Culture movements in Tamil for over ten years. He has developed tools
related to OCR, which enabled transcribing thousands of Tamil books, adding
more than 500,000 pages to Tamil Wikisource and Noolaham Digital Library.
His tools also support the growth of other Indian languages. He is the
former coordinator for the Indian Linux Users Group Chennai and the founder
of non-profit community project FreeTamilEbooks, which publishes DRM-free
ebooks in Tamil under Creative Commons licenses. Till date, it counts more
than 4.7 million ebook downloads.
He started an online magazine run by volunteers for Free Software in Tamil,
Kaniyam. Kaniyam has published several technical Tamil books such as “எளிய
தமிழில் GNU/Linux”, “எளிய இனிய கணினி மொழி – ரூபி” and “எளிய தமிழில் MySQL”.
He has written numerous technical articles in Tamil, covering emerging
programming languages, tools, and technologies. He has trained and mentored
numerous individuals such as Thagaval Uzhavan who in turn contribute back
to community projects.
He is a technical contributor to Noolaham Foundation. His contribution
includes helping to build the multimedia platform, extracting templated
metadata from MediaWiki, and research into next-generation digital
preservation infrastructure.
Shrinivasan serves as the coordinator for INFITT’s India Chapter. He is
currently working as a Systems Architect in a private software services
firm at Chennai. You can follow him on Twitter at @tshrinivasan or contact
him at tshrinivasan(a)gmail.com.
About FreeTamilEbooks
Free Tamil Ebooks is a non-profit initiative providing hundreds of free
ebooks to readers in the Tamil language. This is a unique project in the
South Asian languages. Volunteers compile Creative Commons-licensed
writings by popular bloggers and authors into ebook format. Started in
2013, they have released 280 ebooks till date counting 3.9 million
downloads. Each book gets downloaded at least 500 times, but a few books
have crossed the 1,00,000-download threshold. True to his FOSS ethos, Free
Tamil Ebooks source code is freely availble at:
https://github.com/kishorek/Free-Tamil-Ebooks Learn more from the Interview
in Pressbooks
About OCR tool for Wikisource projects
OCR for Wikisource is a game-changing tool that converts Pdf or Djvu files
to text using Google OCR and uploads the content automatically to
Wikisource. Since December 2015, this tool is under active development with
intense collaboration from various Indian language Wikimedia communities.
By September 2016, the tool has added more than 900,000 pages to Bengali
and Tamil Wikisource projects. Addition of 2000 nationalized books to Tamil
Wikisource is a significant milestone. This also catapulted Tamil in to the
list of Top 10 Wikisources in the word by page count. The same tool is used
by Noolaham project to OCR Tamil works from Sri Lanka and make it
searchable online.
Let us join in wishing him to serve more :)
Ravi
Dear all,
*Wiki Loves Earth* (*WLE*) is an annual international photographic
competition held during the month of May, organised worldwide by theWikipedia
community members <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedians> with the help
of local Wikimedia affiliates across the globe. Participants take pictures
of local natural heritage and scenic landscape in their countries, and
upload them on Wikimedia Commons
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Commons>. The aim of the event is
to highlight the conservation areas
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation_area> of the participating
countries with the goal to encourage people to capture pictures of these
sights, and to put them under a free license which can then be re-used not
only in Wikipedia but everywhere by everyone across different domains.
India participated in such a photography contest for the first time in
2014. The winners could be found here
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Earth_2014/Winners#In…>
and in year 2016 the winners could be found here
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Earth_2016/Winners#In…>
. This year WMIN is participating again and we need your support.
Do you have pictures of protected areas of India
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protected_areas_of_India>, or from your
recent trip to any national park
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_national_parks_of_India> on your
computer? This is a great opportunity to give them a second life in this
Wiki Loves Earth contest. In addition to being seen by everyone, your
pictures could be included in Wikipedia and contribute to the
knowledge of India’s
natural beauty <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protected_area>. Freely
licensed photos collected through Wikipedia Loves Earth may also be reused
elsewhere than in Wikipedia.
You can upload photos that may have been taken by you at any time. The key
criteria to be eligible for the contest are that they are to be uploaded to
Wikimedia Commons during *June 2017*.
You can sign up as a volunteer and participate in discussion over here
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons_talk:Wiki_Loves_Earth_2017_in_In…>
.
Thanks,
Suyash Dwivedi
U:Suyash.dwivedi
--
Dear Community
It gives me great pleasure to inform that Mr Satpal Singh is the Wikimedian
of the month for June 2017. Please find an excerpt on him below.
Satpal Singh is a wikimedian who largely edits on Punjabi Wikimedia
projects with the user name Sony dandiwal. He has started editing since
July 2015 at the age of 16 and is the second youngest pubjabi wikimedian.
He has more than 8,000 edit counts on punjabi wikipedia and he also holds
the rights of administrator, patroller and autopatroller on the punjabi
wikipedia. His main areas of interest on wikipedia are cricket in sports,
history in academics and biographies as inspiration.
Satpal belongs to a village Chotian in Mansa district of Punjab and edits
on wikipedia through his mobile phone, having no access to a personal
computer. Besides that, Satpal has made significant achievements, being
ranked first on Article Improvement Edit-a-thon 2016
<https://pa.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A8%B5%E0%A8%BF%E0%A8%95%E0%A9%80%E0%A8%AA…>
in April, having started Wikiproject Women and Wikiproject Cricket on
punjabi wikipedia. He is also the Wikipedia Asian Month Ambassador.
I want to thank Abhinav Srivastava for helping us in this for this month's
edition & for the month of May too
If you know any such contributors who deserve to be the featured as
wikimedian of the month,please nominate him here - http://wiki.wikimedia.in/
Featured_Wikimedian/Nominations. You can also contact me on my email for
nominating anyone.
Regards,
Yohann Thomas
Wikimedia India