Hi AS-Wikipedians,
A few recent incidents have shaken our fledgling community like never
before. Most of these involved questions on adminship, and the role admins
play in a Wikipedia. Therefore, I take this opportunity to point out a few
things.
First, an admin is not an award or a position of power but a position of
responsibility. But all it comes down to is this: an admin is a sweeper.
Look at the English Wikipedia article (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators) and the first
graphic. As an admin on Assamese Wikipedia I spend most of my time:
making sure the Bengali ro has been replaced by the Assamese one and the
pipes are replaced by a dari; checking links to articles marked for
deletion (and deleting them); correcting mistakes in protected pages when
Wikipedians points them out; listening to irate Wikipedians when things
don't get fixed fast enough, etc. One might be forgiven if one thought
being an admin was glamorous, but really it is more like a sweeper, a
plumber, a firefighter etc rolled into one. Admins are at the community's
beck and call to render service. And I must admit there is great pleasure
in being able to do this.
Second, we need to move forward on this. The community has to figure out
how best to put the rancour behind and get back to blissful Wikipedia-ing
(admins have the power to verbalise nouns in emails---with the permission
of the community). We should discuss among ourselves what the powers of an
admin should be by setting down a set of policies and procedures. We
should also work towards implementing the necessary templates and
categories to facilitate these. The place to do this is this:
https://as.wikipedia.org/wiki/ৱিকিপিডিয়া:ৰাইজৰ_চ'ৰা
https://as.wikipedia.org/wiki/ৱিকিপিডিয়া:ৰাইজৰ_চ'ৰা_(নীতি)
While formulating policies we should follow the English Wikipedia examples
as much as possible. We should strive for consensus rather than votes
which are devisive. Please go through the section on expectations of
adminship (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators#Expectations_of_admin…<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators>)
which governs the behaviour of admins both within Wikipedia as well as
outside. Please read the section on how to engage an admin and how to
resolve conflicts. It is better to resolve conflicts quickly than to avoid
them and letting them fester.
What has happened is painful, yes. But I suspect they are nothing but
growing pains. We have done great stuff in recent months, and we should
continue doing it.
--
Chaipau
Wikipedia
Prabhakar, please do not use the Requests for adminship to message me---use
my talk page instead. On your talk page I have asked you to change the
language of your proposal.
--
Chaipau
Wikipedia
Dear all Wikipedians,
Here is the Minutes of the First Assamese Wikipedia Meetup Guwahati on 29/01/12
Venue: Conference hall, Computer Science Department, Guwahati University
1. Started at 2:30 Pm, welcome the Wikipedians by organizer Jyoti Prakash Nath
2. Facilitation to Mr. Shiju Alex and the HOD of the Computer Science Department Dr. (Mrs) Anjana Kakati Mahanta with the Assamese Gamosha by Mr. Buljit Borgohain and Mr. Gitartha Bordoloi respectively.
3. On request of Jyoti Prakash Nath Dr. (Mrs) Anjana Kakati Mahanta inaugurated the meeting. She said how she glad to know when she was asked by Mr. Shiju Alex for a place to a meeting of Assamese Wikipedia. She agreed to provide a Projector, a room, furnishers and Internet connection for the meeting.
4. Mr. Prabhakar Sharama Neog, a senior Wikipedian explains his feelings about the Assamese Wikipedia and shares some experience.
5. All the present peoples introduced themselves one by one.
6. Jyoti Prakash Nath explains how to open a new account on the Assamese Wikipedia to the new people that present on that day. One new member Mr. Amrit opens a new account on request for demonstration.
7. A slide show prepared by Mr. Bishnu Saikia was presented by another senior Wikipedian Mr. Gitartha Bordoloi where basically these points are described-----
I. What is Wikipedia?
II. What is Wiki?
III. History of Wikipedia.
IV. Indic Wikipedia.
V. Present status of Assamese Wikipedia.
VI. Sister Projects of Assamese Wikipedia.
VII. Assamese Wikisource.
VIII. Assamese Wiktionary.
IX. Assamese Wikibooks.
8. Shiju Alex speaks about Wikimedia foundation and the Indic Wikipedia.
9. Mr. Amlan Basumatary explains the viewers how to create a page and how to write an article on Assamese Wikipedia. He also explains the Narayam keyboard that available on the website and how to activate it and how one can write Assamese script using the keyboard.
10. A question answer section was held where many new users and present reporters ask questions about Wikipedia. All the queries are answered by Mr. Gitarth Bordoloi, Mr. Prabhakar Sharma Neog, Mr.Shiju Alex and Mr. Amlan Basumatary. Meanwhile all the guests were served with tea and Assamese breakfast Tillpitha, Narikolor Ladu, Tilor Ladu, Sirar Ladu etc.
11. End of the meeting declared by Jyoti Prakash Nath.
Regards
JyotiPrakash Nath
SSL-Guwahati
+919864917706
Hi Wikipedians,
I think in the past there was an effort to change the Latin numerals to
Assamese one, and the effort kind of stalled. We are trying once more to
change the Latin numerals to Assamese ones. Look here for the bug report:
https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=34174
If you go down the list of comments you will see links to the Bengali
Wikipedia, where this number change has been implemented. If there is a
change in AS Wikipedia, templates and other special pages might get
affected. So please do keep a look out. Also, I would encourage all to
follow the bug report.
--
Chaipau
Wikipedia
2nd Assamese Wikipedia Meet Up [1]
(1st Tezpur Wikipedia Meet Up)
Venue: Seminar Hall, Computer Science Dept.
Tezpur University, Tezpur,
Assam
1st February, 2011, 11 am
-------------------------
* The
Meet Up begun from 11.30 a.m., all the attendants (Wikipedians and Non
Wikipedians) were welcomed by co-convenor Dipankar Chetia.
* Wikimedia
Consultant for Indic Initiatives Shiju Alex and CS Departmental Head of
Tezpur University Utpal Sarma were felicitated by Phulam Gamosha,
Xorudoya Japi and Xorai.
* This was followed by the introduction
session of all the attendants; it was observed that most of them are new
to Wikipedia or to Assamese Unicode writing. There were almost 12 active
and semi active (and non-active) were present in the Meet up. Total
attendant were 78.
* After that the Assamese Wikipedia FAQ booklets
were distributed among the participants.
* Then CS Departmental Head
of Tezpur University Utpal Sarma gave a short lecture on Importance of
Assamese writing over internet and expanding Assamese Wikipedia.
*
Then Dipankar Chetia presented a presentation on different Wikimedia
projects and present scenario of Assamese Wikipedia. The presentation
also provided a basic introduction of Assamese Wikipedia to the new
people. The presentation was prepared by another co-convenor of the Meet
up Bishnu Saikia.
* This was followed by Shiju Alex's talk on
different Indic language Wikipedias. He also presented a small
Statistical ppt on Indic wikis.
* In the small workshop session (for
the new users) Bishnu Saikia helps the new users to find out how to add
new topics to As. Wikipedia, how to modify an existing article and hot
to use basic tools for formatting and article.
* "Unicode Assamese
writing and tool's for this purpose" such topics were then described by
Pallab Pran Goswami (Editor of Assamese online Magazine Nila Chorai) to
the participants.
10. Then from the other participants Dwijen Mahanta
and editor of online magazine Pankaj Jyoti Mahanta also shares their
thoughts regarding different aspects of Assamese Wikipedia. In the Meet
Up it was decided that the active Wikipedians of this region will soon
form a Wikipedia (voluntary) group and Shiju Alex also suggested that.
They also decided to organise this type of Meet ups outside the
University and College Campuses so that more and more common people can
join such events.
11. Main session ended here with Tea and Snacks.
12. After the main session some interested participants learned about
wiki templates and some other tools from Bishnu Saikia. Then it was
finally concluded.
--
Dipankar Chetia
http://www.dipankarchetia.in
[2]
Links:
------
[1]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Assam/Tezpur
[2]
http://www.dipankarchetia.in
Cross-posting to other lists.
Hi all,
Wikimania is the annual international conference of Wikimedians
, jointly hosted by the local team ( usually local chapter) and the
Wikimedia Foundation.
The previous conferences were held in Frankfurt, Germany (2005), Boston,
USA (2006), Taipei, Taiwan (2007), Alexandria, Egypt (2008), Buenos
Aires, Argentina (2009), Gdan'sk, Poland (2010), and Haifa, Israel (2011).
This year, it is to be held in Washington DC, United States of America,
on July 12-14 , 2012. http://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
<http://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page>
I have attended the Wikimanias in Gdansk and Haifa, along with several
other Wikipedians from India.
http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Wikimania2011
<http://wiki.wikimedia.in/Wikimania2011>
I highly recommend everyone to apply and attend Wikimania !
Like every year, The Wikimedia Foundation is offering a limited number
of scholarships to offset the cost of select individuals' attendance at
Wikimania.
Both full and partial scholarships are available for Wikimania 2012:
Full scholarships will award round trip travel, dorms
accommodations and registration.
Partial scholarships will subsidize up to 300EUR of travel expenses.
Scholarship recipients have to bear themselves the additional costs of
taxis, visa & travel agent charges etc.
More Information : http://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Scholarships
<http://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Scholarships>
Apply here : https://secure.wikidc.org/wm/schols/
<https://secure.wikidc.org/wm/schols/>
Deadline : *16 Feb 2012*
Around 30 % of the scholarship are allocated to Asia & Pacific, so there
are more chances of scholarship applications from India to be selected. :)
Please note that the selection is mostly based on the merit of the
applications.
One of the common mistakes that Wikimedians in India make is that we
aren't enough vocal of what we do. So please do write in detail about
your Wikimedia activities.
Please feel free to forward this to various language and city mailing
lists and encourage other Wikimedians to apply.
All the best wishes!
Regards
Tinu Cherian